Rod Makes It Two In A Row
With a large number of the London’s Finest Pool contingent in Glasgow for the Jacboy Open during the previous weekend, a few of the biggest names were missing from this week’s MNT. Namely Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul was missing, and those who were able to attend were clearly hungover from the rigours of playing top class pool in Scotland, but a hardy 24 players still formed a dangerous field, with Rod “the God” Altes leading the charge, as he went in search of his 2nd tournament win in a row. This week saw the classic 8 Ball being played. A favourite amongst many.
Before everything kicked off, Nick Ronase was selected for the Break and Run. Nick has a mean break and smashed up the balls to sink 4 balls! A huge break….but the cue ball was still moving, almost like it was magnetised, and finally jumped in the pocket to deny Nick a healthy £200 for his efforts. As is always the case, huge groans reverberated around the pool hall, followed by laughter, cackling, and an immense amount of sarcasm. Unlucky Nick, even though no-one was rooting for you.
First round kicked off, and notable results came in the form of Nick Ronase getting smashed up by Mariusz Wisowaty, who was bottom of the rankings before the tournament started, but played nothing like it as he battled past Nick. Well done Mariusz! Ramon “Monster” Navarro managed to avoid yet another hill-hill match against Andy “Banks” Curzon, who was suffering serious after-effects from Glasgow, and won 5-2. Recent regular, Carl Jones, also took advantage of the Glasgow hangover that Dan “Seoul Destroyer” Suh was suffering from, although Carl played almost flawlessly to win 5-0. There might have been an element of revenge, as Dan fluked his way to victory against Carl in a recent T9B tournament too, but 5-0 was a fair result. The only Glasgow returnee to not have this hangover was Saman Gholami, who has been playing extremely well recently, and he continued to show that he is one of the most feared opponents by edging out Ciprian Dandu 5-4.
The second round saw some superb performances again. The most notable was that of Mariusz, who, after winning in the first round, continued his momentum to utterly tear apart Krishen “Kris” Sookhraz 5-1. Mariusz was over the moon at this point, and playing very well, and also had one eye on the final as his confidence grew. Elsewhere, Ali Haidery had also notched up a big win against the big man, Carl. Ali has also been struggling to get results, but is working hard on his game to improve and he showed it by showing huge grit and resolve to take the match to hill-hill. Carl, perhaps, had expended too much energy against the Seoul Destroyer in the first round, and just couldn’t reach the heights he had previously shown, and it was Ali who sunk the 8 ball to send him into the quarter-finals.
The quarters had this unfamiliar look of having Ali H and Mariusz in the mix, but there were some fearsome opponents to topple. First off, Mariusz had to face up to Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, a man who has turned his form around in the past few months after having a very poor 2023 until May. Mariusz just couldn’t quite compete against the classy Ali, and lost out 5-1, but will have taken a lot of confidence from his earlier wins.
Ali H had an even more daunting task on his hands, as Rod stepped up to face off against Ali, who was looking quite wide-eyed and nervous at this point. Rod will be the first to admit that he wasn’t at his best, but he was playing with a lot of confidence and wasn’t going to give much for Ali to feed off. 5-1 win for Rod, but Ali demonstrated that he can compete, with his earlier win over Carl.
Henri “the Finnisher” Linnainmaa continues to baffle his fans, as his style and poise is one of the most admirable, but seems to fall at the final hurdle. In the quarters, he totally switched on and easily won against Dhari Alduraibi to set himself up against the Greatest Ever, Ali.
Saman had been progressing nicely at this point, but came up against the king of the hill-hills, Ramon “Monster” Navarro, one of the more experienced players on the scene and one of the slowest Filipino’s you’ll ever see. Ramon is very handy, though, and Saman was feeling the effects of the weekend. Ramon took full advantage and whilst it was extremely close, Ramon held his nerve better than Saman to win 5-4.
So into the semis, and Ali faced Henri, which turned out to be a classic match. 4-1 lead to Henri, who had played well to capitalise on any of Ali’s mistakes, but Ali kept plugging away, chipping away, and caught up with Henri, who was starting to feel the heat. At 4-4, it looked like Henri might take his chance to win, but couldn’t handle the pressure and handed the rack to Ali. A real shame for Henri, who really is so close to breaking through.
In the other semi, Rod had imbibed quite a healthy amount of alcohol by this point, but was feeling good even though he was making one or two mistakes. Ramon summoned up all of his powers to keep the game close, but Rod tends to squeeze the life out of you like a boa constrictor, and Ramon just couldn’t keep up with Rod. 5-3 to the resurgent god, to set up a tasty final against Ali.
The final, though, went the way the bookies had expected. Ali is such a fine player on his day, but holds a poor head to head record against Rod, and the shortened final ended 4-1 to Rod. With plenty of action to come, and a strong likelihood that Tooting’s number 1 will be back in action next week, next Monday promises to be one of the most exciting Monday’s ever seen in Tooting.
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Gabriel Spreads His Wings
Thanks to Andy “Banksy” Curzon for covering whilst I was on my travels in Korea, but this week, I returned back to the action and witnessed a fine night of pool, which saw some classic matches played out.
It’s always great to be back in Tooting and see the familiar (and new) faces who make up such a great community of pool players in London. The big guns were out in force, with Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul, Gabriel “Fake Taxi” Vasilache, Tash “Witko” Schultz, and Rod “the God” Altes all in attendance. These guys make up the current top 4 players in Tooting, and all hold fearsome reputations across the UK too. This surely was going to be an epic night where the 4 biggest Titans of Tooting battle out for supremacy.
The first round threw up some really interesting matches. Gabriel managed to ease himself into the next round with a solid victory over Banksy, whilst Rod seemed to have demoralised Dan “DJ Grindr” Jenkins before the match had started, with Dan already telling fans that he was going home early once he had seen the draw. And indeed that was the case as Rod breezed past Dan 5-2. Meanwhile, Tash had to struggle past Jim “Greecey Nandos Slim Penis” Siampanis, with the match going to hill-hill. And finally, Ram was up against Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, who had a poor record against Ram this year. Surely this was going to be a breeze for Ram? But on closer inspection of Ali’s results of late, and you’ll see that he had won 9 from 11 in recent weeks, which makes him very dangerous. We all know, in fact, that Ali possesses super powers in his little snooker cue, and against Ram, he upped his game to what we know he can play, and eased past Ram 5-2. Fantastic result.
Other special mentions in the first round for Danny “Tsunami” Navidi for his narrow win over Ervin “Vini” Demiraj. Martinho Correia for his battling performance against Hassan Mehedi to win 5-4, a notable debut for big Carl Jones who made his mark by winning 5-0 against Marc Harris.
So, with Ram out, the field was thrown wide open in the second round. Tash managed to overcome Saman, who has been in really good form of late, winning 10 from the last 13. A 5-4 win for Tash, but Saman is ready to charge up the rankings in the upcoming weeks.
Despite pretty poor form from Rod lately, he had to face Martinho who is ranked 7 in Tooting. This was going to be another test for Rod, but in actual fact, Rod’s been turning a corner. Getting to the final twice in the last two MNT’s have spurred Rod on a bit, and a when Rod’s in the mood, utter destruction can occur. A 5-0 win for Rod, against one of the strongest players in Tooting was simply devastating. The whole arena was buzzing as word got round. Had Rod rediscovered the fear factor that he had previously instilled into players before a ball had been potted?
To the quarter-finals, and what a draw we had. The mighty Ciprian Dandu up against Tash. Both of these guys have shots in them that make people look on in awe, and a high quality match between the two ensued. However, Tash made fewer mistakes, and squeezed over the line, 5-4. With the way Ali and Rod were playing, you might think that this was going to be a close one. And it was. Rod charged into the lead, and 4-1 up, was hot favourite to win. But Ali was on a roll. 4 straight racks and 5-4 it ended to the snooker cue-wielding beast. In the lower half, Gabriel was quietly getting on with his business. 5-1 against Dhari Alduraibi, and a highly efficient performance, where Gab was looking menacing indeed.
And finally, a huge performance from Ranj “Lucky” Sarraj, who had to go toe to toe with Hassan “the Sniper” Aljumaili. Ranj hasn’t been winning too many games lately, but he had already beaten Pistol Pete Cloherty and Alan Llorente to get this far, and his momentum carried him over the line into the semis, with a 5-4 win. Well done to Ranj, and that will do his confidence the world of good.
The semis looked a really tasty, as Tash played Ali. Everyone’s prediction was that this was going to be a tight one, but Ali just went into overdrive whilst Tash wilted, and ended up an easy 5-0 win to Ali. Meanwhile, our favourite Fake Taxi driver/actor/performer, Gabriel quietly went about his business as normal. With Ranj making his first semi-final, the occasion just got to him, and to be fair, there’s not many chances that Gabriel gives you. 5-1 to Gab. His efficiency, at times, really is quite monstrous. And into the final that proved. Perhaps Ali was running out of steam, but when Gabriel’s in the mood, there isn’t much you can do about it. 5-1 to Gab, and he had only dropped 6 racks in 5 games. That’s really terrific stuff, and starts to demonstrate why he is currently ranked no 2 in Tooting. Hopefully much more to come from him, as the season hots up.
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Ram Back To Winning Ways
If there's one place to be on a Monday night, it's the home of cue sports in Tooting. MNT at London Snooker Tooting has already built quite the reputation, with the largest community of pool players under one roof in the entirety of London and beyond, that you can find on a Monday evening. It's great to see a lot of new faces entering the tournaments, and always great to see these new faces return back to MNT, trying to make an impression on the London pool scene. What's great about our community, is that it spreads, players help each other, and that starts to create a vibe around London. If only the community can be rewarded with more clubs, better tables, and then London could really thrive as a proper hotbed of pool.
Anyway, back to MNT and Andy Adams was selected for the Break and Run. Yet again, after over 18 months, I am still yet to be selected out of the "random" draw. Truly one of the worst runs of luck I've ever encountered. Andy smashed up the pack like Shane Van Boening, and sunk 2 balls down, leaving the arena heckling him to take on the half ball pot into the middle pocket. If Andy sunk the first pot, then with three other balls over the pocket, surely he had the dish on? With all the positive energy that the fellow players could suppress, the sarcastic groans rang around Tooting as Andy failed to pot the ball. Zero sympathy.
First round of MNT was quite the event with plenty of matches being close calls. Arjon "the Beard" Hasi and Andrew Phan played out a classic encounter, with both players already knowing that they had the might of Dan "Seoul Destroyer" Suh in the next round, both were desperate to win to gain the prestige of facing one of the pre-tournament favourites. This one was a tight affair, but it was Andrew who prevailed, with a 5-4 win.
Carl Jones came for his second week in a row, and has competed well so far. He had to face up (or down if you want to look at it like that) to Hassan Mehedi, a player you have to beat to have any real intention of making your mark. Before the match, the media had it down as a tight affair, with the likelihood of it going to hill hill being very high, and so that was the case. Carl couldn't quite finish Hassan off, making a key mistake towards the end, leaving Hassan an easy runout to win.
Two training partners from the same stable at King's Cross, Ranj "Lucky" Sarraj and Hassan "the Sniper" Aljumaili, did battle. Both know each other's game so well, and it showed as both players reached the hill, and had a one rack shootout. Hassan seems to have an edge over Ranj at the moment, and took it 5-4.
Jim "Greecey Nandos Slim Penis" Siampanis had a really close match against Andy "Banks" Curzon, who both had to contend with the rather interesting cloth on the Brunswick table. With both struggling a little, it was anyone's game, but Jim edged through to win.
Ervin "Vini" Demiraj pulled off a tremendous result against Ramon "Twitch" Navarro. Another that went to the wire, but Ervin has been putting in some good practice and showing lots of improvements, whilst Ramon just loves a hill-hill battle. Ramon twitched his way through to hill hill, but Vini held his nerve in the end to win 5-4.
And in the final close call of the first round, Ian Feather played out a gritty affair against Rosen Delchev. Both players really had to dig deep, but in the end, Ian just managed to sneak it to set up a second round tur against Vini.
Notably, Joe Prince managed the only whitewash of the first round, quickly easing past Greg Mostyn 5-0.
Due to the shorter races in the second round, the action was really going to accelerate. Andrew's soul was destroyed by Dan Suh, the Sniper quickly took Andy Adams down, Dan "DJ Grindr" Jenkins tried his best to grind Saman down, but Saman's been in great form of late and took the win. Rod "the God" Altes brushed Paz aside 5-0 as fast as he could, and Jim put in an impressive performance to beat Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali. Newcomer, Lenny Baker showed plenty of potting prowess and skill, but taking down Tooting's number 1 ain't no easy feat, and Ramesh "Ramma Jamma" Gokhul secured the narrow win. And finally, Vini did his best, competed really well, but Ian booked himself a place in the quarters, to face the biggest name, yet smallest person....Ram.
The quarter-final line-up was looking lively. Seoul Destroyer just couldn't get into his rhythm against Joe Prince, who played impressively throughout to win 4-0. Saman kept up his fine form, winning 4-1 against Hassan the Sniper. Rod, after having his soul destroyed earlier this year and has only just started getting over it, starting to show glimpses of returning to form, but was run close by the Greecey Slim Penis. 4-3 to Rod though, and finally, Ian spent much of the 4-0 defeat to Ram looking around with a look of shock on his face, as Ram literally demolished poor Ian, who was having his virgin experience of getting rammed by Ram.
The semis, you might expect would be a close contest. Saman against Joe should have been a really good match, but Joe stepped up another level to quickly take Saman down 4-0. And in the other semi, Ram and Rod have had many really good matches, but Ram was getting really dialled in whilst Rod's still trying to get back to his best. 4-0 to Ram but it won't be long before Rod is running Ram much closer. With both players on fire, one of Joe or Ram needed to get off to a good start to win this quick fire final, and Ram got off to a flyer. With no room for error, Joe had to play perfect pool to win, but instead Ram was at his best and managed a perfect win 4-0. Impressive stuff.
I'll re-start up some of the weekly stats when I can. Been a bit busy recently, so apologies for not putting up the weekly stats. Have a great week and hope to see you next Monday.
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Rising Tides
Not 24 hours after the pandemonium of Sunday’s scorching 10 ball Summer Open (won by Anthony Ginn 9-8 over Ramesh Gokhul in an intense final) a full field of 32 graced the baize of our Tooting honey hole for this week’s MNT 8 ball.
After a long day yesterday, it was short races to 4 throughout the evening, and we had fivenewcomers to welcome: Waqas Sikander, Rosen Delchev, Vratislav Mali, Raza Sikander, and Alexander Plunkett.
Kicking things off on the Brunswick were Josh Roberts and the ever-improving Mariusz Wiszowaty, who put on a show all the way to the tip of the hill, where Marius’ grit proved slightly too much as he sliced the final black into the heart of the pocket.
Next door on table 4, Sunny Boy G took on Hassan ‘Angles’ Mehedi in a surprisingly sharp six racks, over in a jiffy, seeing the South African outfox the Bangladeshi Professor 4 to 2.
Continuing in the top half, Joe G spanked Ranj 4-0, rushing to meet Cip in the second round as he toasted Scotch Double Champ, Vini, by the same scoreline.
Rod Altes, always happy to earn an invitation to the whitewasher’s circle, took Dhari for a longwalk with a short leash, his skills and consistency further lending credence to Hassan Alijumaili’s comments in his interview after yesterday’s 10 ball Open that “The Chilean Dinamo seems back to near his best”, and leaving Dhari to scuttlehome alone with his tail between his legs.
A rising tide lifts all boats, they say, and as Ali HK noticed a few weeks ago the average club level here at our MNT has been sky-rocketing (something obviously easier noticed when you’ve been away a while, maybe a little like watching your kids grow up).
Dandu the Younger was uncharacteristically careful with the relatively unknown Waqas Sikander – showing off some defensive nous alongside his usual fluid potting, standing more than equal to the task after six racks and coming through 4-2.
Cue-Action Boylan, clearly inspired by beating Spencer yesterday in a high-octane slugfest, sailed past Hassan A without taking a second breath, as Master Martinho (despite missing a howler 1 ball in the pre-tourney break and run)roasted Rosen over his coals, 4-1.
The bottom half of the draw saw Raza whitewash Alexander Plunkett, an in-form Gabriel Vasilache tip-toe past the shark that is Doug ‘anything-but-8-ball’ Clark, 4-2, Spencer school Tomasz 4-2, and Vratislav Mali dig deep to inch past Tobes Anyouku.
Banks went 3-2 up against Ali the Greatest but couldn’t muster himself to hammer the last nail in Ali’s coffin. As his opponent’s penultimate slice into the side-bag overcut by a whisker at hill hill, Ali was heard tenaciously muttering “Finish Him” – and that he did, as Jenkins eagerly awaited him in the last 16 having bruised Sorin 4 racks to 2.
Danny “Tsumani” Navidi couldn’t stop the Mighty Saman from his electric rise to the top, only snagging himself a consolation rack before packing his bags for an oily bath – leaving us a mouth-watering clash with Yoda in the last 16, who dusted off Alan Llorente 4-0.
Alongside Spencer cracking Vratislav 4 racks to 1, 6 of the 8 last 16 matches were whitewashes (big circle this week), with special note to the steam-train that is Cue-Action, decimating Master Martinho to set up a quarters with his favourite deity.
Tidying us up to a last 8, Ramesh took his foot off the gas at the wrong time, paling under the might of Saman’s wand, who remains (alongside Steve Norris and Marius Wiszowaty) among the most improved players at the Club over the past year – real inspirations to all of us – it’s more important the direction you’re going than where you are now’n’all.
So as the sun set late on another summer Monday, we were left with 8 Tootski regulars in 4 tightly-set matches:
Sunny v Ciprian
Rod v Ciaran
Spencer v Gabriel, and
Ali v Saman
Memories of beating Ram and Rod in the same night only to be milked on the hill by Cip in the final only a few months back [see ‘Cip Stops Sunny from Shining’ MNT report from Feb 7th2023] reared their ugly heads for Sunny Boy, as Cip did the dirty yet again at the final hurdle to secure his spot in the last 4.
It was Chile 4, Northern Ireland 1 as God showed his mettle against an off-the-Boylan Cue-Action – setting up a semi-final clash with a tired Cip.
Running late a little because of the mammoth first round clash between Tobes and Vratislav, Spencer ramped up his efforts to lightly throttle the Gabriel 4 to 2, and in pool’s “Fight of the Century”, as on March 8th, 1971 against Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali couldn’t execute the fatality against the mighty right arm of Saman,and the judges decided unanimously Ali was second on the night.
With the World Cup of Pool looming, Rod waved the Chilean flag high over the Romanians, announcing his return-to-the-top once again with a nifty 4-2 victory over Ciprian, and another seat at his usual final table.
The second semi was anyone’s guess. Despite Spencer being by far the more seasoned cueist(and a tasty American 8 ball player), taking a peek at Saman’s last few months’ scalps you’d be a fool to go in confident betting short against him.
Midnight approached, and passed - the twojousters still locking horns - and as an expectant Chilean sat whistling tunes over the lip of his bottled apple juice in anticipation of leapfrogging above Gabriel in 3rd in the long-term MNT rankings, a bead of sweat glid down Saman’s forehead as Spencer sailed off victorious into the distance.
At this stage it’s probably fair to highlightSpencer’s 9th place (before tonight’s MNT) in the rankings not reflecting his big-boy status within London’s pool scene, and It’d be remiss to exclude him from the current “Big 8” of Tootingregulars:
Ram, Tash, Rod, Spencer, Gabriel, Sunny, Martinho, and Ciprian.
Despite Ram being a clear cut above the rest long-term, you wouldn’t give anyone much over a 55-60% chance of beating anyone else from the above 8 on ‘any given Monday’.
But as with every craft, so much is how much time we cordon off for useful dedicated practice,and two of the most watchable players at the Club, Tash and Martinho, hardly make time to practice at all, despite being monsters on their day.
Interviewed before the final, Spence had a glint in his eye offering only
“Feeling good since the lessons of the UK Open and I’ve even set the phone to do not disturb – no distractions coz I’m taking Jen home the trophy tonight.”
And that he did, 4 to 2, as Rod’s last unfinished apple juice sat, mirroring him from the tableside,softly fizzing out in the corner.
Remember, the better you get at *anything* the more scope you have to enjoy it – don’t shoot the messenger – that’s just the way it is!
Keep practicing, kids.
Be part of that rising tide.
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