Willie Thorne

[Cloverjo]

https://news.sky.com/story/willie-thorne-snooker-star-dies-after-being-placed-in-induced-coma-in-spain-12008484

Just read that he has died. Only 66. He seemed such a lovely man.

[tiggerblue10]

So sad.

I used to enjoy watching snooker as a kid and remember him well. I haven't watched snooker in a very long time but I don't think you get the same colourful characters as you did back in the 80s like Hurricane Higgins and Whirlwind White etc. Similar with tennis.

RIP Willie

[maggiebee]

Was sad to read this, as was my son. Haven't watched snooker in a long time but remember the old names - The Grinder was one of my son's favourites.

[piggynose]

09.53 ich, i totally agree.

[piggynose]

Same topic: anybody remember Bill Werbeniuk? Was that a slight exaggeration about him having to drink 15pints to steady his nerves?

[jennyjoan]

Anne - think he fell on hard times and the main culprit was gambling.

[Lie-in King]

Sad news indeed - RIP Willie.

[bhg481]

piggy - I don't remember the quantity but Bill certainly used to drink lager to steady his nerves.

[nescio]

piggy
much, much more than that.

From his Wikipedia entry:

Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – at least six pints before a match and then one pint for each frame. In total, he drank between 40 and 50 pints of lager per day.[1][3] Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor.[4] Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker, to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.[5]

Bill was also famously reported in the UK tabloid press as successfully claiming the cost of 6 pints of lager before every match as a tax deductible expense.[2]

Some of Werbeniuk's most famous feats of drinking include: 76 cans of lager during a game with John Spencer in Australia in the 1970s;[1] 43 pints of lager in a snooker match/drinking contest against Scotsman Eddie Sinclair in which, after Sinclair had passed out following his 42nd pint, Werbeniuk was reported to say "I'm away to the bar now for a proper drink";[6] 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames during a match against Nigel Bond, in January 1990 – after which Werbeniuk then consumed an entire bottle of Scotch to "drown his sorrows" after losing the match.[1]

[Pete65]

Rest easy, Willie !

[Mamyalynne]

RIP Willie.

[Groupie]

R.i.P Willie you deserved a bigger break than 66.

[Jordyboy9]

i have never liked john virgo ,
i have said so many times on here,
so am i being a hypocrite when i say i am sad to see the state he is in now?i would not wish that on anybody.

[Mamyalynne]

John Virgo had a gambling problem, he is currently planning to open a Vegan Cafe in Salford.

Please do not take the above link as a genuine News source - it's a spoof.

[bednobs]

PMSL

[douglas9401]

I can't be the only person who knows that the Evening Harold is a spoof newspaper.

[piggynose]

So if BW allegedly drank that much during a competion. What was he like when he went on a bender?

[dannyk13]

Piggynose, If my memory is correct Bill Werbeniuk drank bottles of lager, not pints.

[Ken4155]

Google it Danny and you'll see quite a few images of Bill drinking his lager from a barrel glass.

[piggynose]

Oh so dannyk13 drinking bottles instead of pints makes all the difference.