Werbeniuk would have outclassed any amateur drinker, however. "I'd down six to eight pints of lager before I started," he said. "Then I'd have one pint a frame. Obviously, over the longer matches I'd get through quite a lot of lager but I managed to burn off alcohol very quickly." In one match, against the British player Nigel Bond, in January 1990, Werbeniuk downed 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames. (Bond won 10-1.) After the match, Werbeniuk went home and drank a bottle of Scotch to drown his sorrows. "I have got to think seriously if I'm going to bother playing any more," he said a day or two later. "I drank 28 pints of lager and eight double scotches during the day and was only starting to feel comfortable at the table in the final couple of frames. Now I know that I can only play if I'm totally drunk, and that's not fair on me."