September Round-Up
As has been the case recently, I'm sorry for lack of updates, but workload is extremely high. This report will be a brief rundown of events at London's Finest since 28th August to 5th October:
28th August: The Bank Holidays often bring out a few big names, and it was a big field as we saw the likes of Tash back in action after a long absence. Robert Nightengale was also making his debut, and is much heralded as a tasty opponent from East London. And we also welcomed two other East Londoners, who are well-known in other tournaments: Jonathan Hughes and Jaz Bamotra. Great to see faces who are familiar on the scene, but making their debuts in Tooting. But Tooting is a bear pit and it's not always the easiest place to play if you're making your debut Robert put up a fight against one of the Tooting resident players, Saman Gholami, but lost 5-4. Jonathan Hughes also had to face up to Muhammed "He's the greatest" Ali, another of Tooting's stalwarts, and also lost out 5-4.
Deeper into the tournament, and Ram had an extremely tough run to the final, where he had to overcome Martinho, Tash, and Ollie Lawrence to get to the final, where he faced Ali. Ali's route was equally tough, as he had to beat Kris, Ollie's Dad, Alex; and then really went at Rod the God in the semis, to win 4-0 and give him the opportunity to beat Ram. However, as is often the case, get to the final against Ram, and the little Guyanan is still playing hot. And indeed, Ali found Ram too hot to handle, and lost 4-2.
4th September: Blind Scotch Doubles was back, and created its usual complete unpredictability. Favourites were Robert and Saman, who looked to be a formidable partnership, but almost all pairings looked strong and the competition proved to be fierce. However, one pairing went completely unbeaten throughout the tournament, and it was a hugely popular win as Mariusz and Spencer took all the glory. Everyone was delighted for Mariusz especially, as he doesn't win too often, but played some really solid stuff, covering at times for one of the leading players in the UK, Spencer Oliver. Mariusz and Spencer had to beat Robert Nightengale and Saman (twice). Once in the quarters (4-0 win) which created the psychological damage, and again in the final (4-2). Well done Mariusz and Spencer, and richly deserved.
11th September: Before the tournament began, quite possibly the moment of the year happened...in fact, the moment of the last two years. One person in our community has put money into the Break and Run almost every single week. An estimated £400 at the every least has gone into the pot by one single player and has never ever been selected. It's incomprehensible! But Monday 11th September will go down in history as the sheer disbelief went round the club as Dan's name was called out for the first time. Luck would have it, Dan didn't have his break cue, so had to borrow one. And of course, despite potting off the break, scratched the cue ball into the middle and it just wasn't his night. Such an anti-climax, but at least he can say that he had his chance.
Into the tournament, and with the importance of the Autumn Open coming up, it was 8 Ball for everyone to contend with. And the big guns came out blazing. Ram's the Tooting Top Gun for a reason, and despite the best efforts of Rod the God, Ram went through the tournament unbeaten again, winning 4-3 against Rod in the final. Ali continued his pretty consistent form, as he reached the semis and pushed Ram to hill hill. Gabriel does his usual trick, when he attends, of getting really deep into the tournament, but Rod had the better of him in the semis.
17th September: Autumn Open time, and out come some pretty big names in the pool scene. A full field of 32 battled it out in the group stages, with Daniel Baker, Gareth Esprit, Imran Majid, Chris Seville, Marius Dandu, Ollie Lawrence, Rod, and Gabriel topping their respective groups.
Into the knockout stages, and up stepped Muhammed Ali to put in two incredible performances, taking Ramon “Monster” Navarro to hill hill, and winning, and then repeating the feat in the quarter-finals, against none other than Imran Majid! However, in the semis, Ali faced up to Spencer “Afrotastic” Oliver, one of the most feared opponents in the UK, and it was Spencer who easily won 7-2. In the other half of the draw, Gabriel showed that when it matters, he’s always competitive and it was no real surprise to see him reach the semis, but Ollie Lawrence was absolutely on fire and powered into the final to face Spencer. The final was a tight affair, but Ollie was showing too much resilience against a flagging Spencer and came through to win 7-4. Well done Ollie!
18th September: The very next day after the Autumn Open, and we were back in action for the MNT. This time, we had a debut appearance from the infamous So “Gamble Gamble” Shaw, who possesses great skill and considered one of the most talented players in the UK when he’s on form. So was, therefore, favourite to win and ended up in the final against one of the stalwarts of the UK pool scene, Martinho Correia. Martinho had put in really strong performances to get to the final, notable against Saman, Rod and Glen “The Hitman” Hargreaves, but in an entertaining final, couldn’t fend off So, who won 7-4 at his first MNT.
25th September: For the second week in a row, So Shaw was back in town, but with Ram back from his USA trip, bookies stopped taking bets on for who would make the final, seeing as So and Ram were on opposite sides of the draw. So ploughed his way through the field, making relatively light work of Tooting’s best, and reached the final. Ram, though, almost was stopped in the quarter-final stage as he had to face a resurgent Seoul Destroyer, who was leading 4-2 with a chance to win 5-2, but somehow contrived to lose 5-4 in the end. Ram knew he had been let off the hook and a determined performance saw off Rod in the semis, leaving the inevitable So vs Ram final.
Tension ran high, as game faces were switched on and they went at each other like two gladiators fighting for their lives. So struck first, running into an early lead, as Ram was making uncharacteristic mistakes that he might not have made against any other. Perhaps So was in his head, perhaps Ram knew that Dan Suh should have been in the final instead of him, but Ram found it difficult to keep pace and in the end, lost 5-3, as So retained his 100% record at MNT.
We also said a permanent farewell to Dhari Alduraibi, who has now been deported and never to be seen at MNT ever again. He brought to us a new level of slow play, an unbelievable knack for dogging important shots, but we’ll miss him loads and hope he might be allowed back in the country again. In all honesty, it’s sad when people leave our community and we all wish him the very best for the future.
Finally, some of you greedy gits munched on so much of Dhari’s farewell cake whilst everyone else was busy playing, that I didn’t get to eat cake. Mind you it was bloody good…available at Korea Foods in New Malden! 😉
2nd October: With So out of town, and Ram having to pull out, Rod the God eyed up the rest of the field and felt very confident indeed. That’s not to say the rest of the field didn’t stand a chance, but Rod doesn’t tend to lose too often, and if he does, it’s usually to Ram or Ali. Ali fell victim to Arjon in the early stages, so all eyes turned to Cip (in the other side of the draw), to see if he could prevent Rod from winning. Likelihood was that Hassan Mehedi and Saman might be the ones to force Rod out early on, but instead, Andy “Banks” Curzon charged through the field to challenge Rod. However, as well as Andy was playing, by the semis, he just couldn’t come up with the answers, and Rod progressed to the final. In the other semi, Cip had unsurprisingly made it through to face Danny “Tsunami” Navidi, who had progressed to the semis for the first time. Well done Danny, but regrettably, facing the newly bespectacled Ciprian “Dennis Taylor” Dandu, Danny couldn’t challenge Cip and lost 5-0. Cip, though, couldn’t get his A game going for the final, and Rod ran out 5-0 winner, but it’s always good to see Cip progress far, as he pretty much as the largest repertoire of shots in Tooting.
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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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Monthly Round-Up
Massive apologies, but due to work and other commitments abroad, it's been a tough month to get match results and reports updated. As a result, the format may change to a monthly round-up, but still no less taking the mick out of players, general immaturity, and so on.
Big news in the Break and Dish over the last month. No-one has won it, still. Such a bunch of lame-o's. Closest was Joe Prince, when he sunk 6 balls off the break. Yup, you heard that right. 6 balls, each worth £50. However, having a massive break is worthless if you can't keep the cue ball on the table. Sadly for Joe, the cue ball flew off the table, and then he spent the next 10 seconds watching 6 balls drop, knowing that he wasn't going to get a penny from it. Lots of people watching on, trying not to pee themselves, but it was hard not to, and it was just sad that it wasn't caught on video along with Joe's reaction.
31st July: 9 Ball
Notably, Andy "Banks" Curzon managed a run to the semis, after overcoming Henri Linnainmaa, Ciprian Dandu, and Ramon "Monster" Navarro to get there. We all know that somehow, Andy can go balls deep into tournaments, but hasn't shown it nearly enough, but occasionally, he somehow manages to push himself and go far. Well done Andy, but he couldn't overcome the main man, Ramesh "Ramma Jamma" Gokhul, losing 5-0. In this particular Monday, Andrew "Don't call me Andy" Phan also pushed really deep into the comp too. Andrew pushes himself to play almost as fast as Andy "Banks", and when he gets into his flow, is devastating. Andrew reached the semis too, but like Andy, lost 5-0. This left a proper tear up of a final, between Ram and Rod "the God" Altes, the top dawgs in Tooting. With Rod coming back into form, it was expected to be a close contest, but it ended 5-1 to Rod, who was delighted with his form.
7th August: 10 Ball
This particular MNT welcomed the first appearance of the notorious Gareth "Darkside" Esprit, who captured worldwide attention at the Spanish Open with his entrance against Shane Van Boening. Not so much of this at Tooting's MNT, but a big welcome to the big character from all at Tooting. Notably, Gareth and Hassan Mehedi were setting themselves up for a quarter-final showdown, and with Hassan having to go hill-hill in the first and second rounds against Krishen "Kris" Sookhraz and Dhari Alduraibi, the schedule was already falling behind. Whilst I was personally in Germany, following the scores online, I really thought that Cip and Andrew had given up, such was the time taken to finally get a result, but eventually Hassan came through to win his third hill-hill of the night. Elsewhere, Andy "Banks" was continuing his good form and reached the semis, but fell 5-4 to Saman Gholami, who has recently been showing that he has all the attributes to rise to the top, such is his improvement this year. Cip managed to win 5-3 against Hassan in the semi, and then had to dig deep to claim a long awaited MNT win, by beating Saman 5-4 in the final.
14th August: 8 Ball
It was really good to see the resident incomprehensible Geordie, Glen Hargreaves, return to action after a few months out recovering from back surgery. Whilst it did take an inordinate amount of concentration to understand what he is saying, I think he told the local press conference that he was pain-free and ready to go again. Something like that anyway. Joe Prince (whose favourite discipline is 8 Ball, as he struggles to count numbers beyond 8 had performed well and was probably one of the pre-tournament favourites to win. However, Ali Hirji Kheraj, who was back in London for summer, was determined to show that his game continues to improve over in the US, and pulled off a series of great results to beat big Carl Jones, Ranj Sarraj, Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali, and then smashed up the Prince 4-0 in the semis to face up to Spencer "Afrotastic" Oliver. Spencer was really getting into some form, after being pushed early on be Kris and Dhari, and then came two massive wins over Cip (4-1) and Rod the God (4-1). Ali HK just couldn't stop the big Afro man, and Spencer took home this week's title with a easy 4-1 win.
21st August : 9 Ball
This MNT saw a guest appearance from JJ Faul, owner of Savannah's in Manchester, who holds a fearsome reputation in the UK scene. JJ managed to reach the final, and took a tough route as he had to overcome Hassan Mehedi (6-2), Danny "Tsunami" Naviid (5-2), Doug "the Shark" Clark (5-1, and the original gangster of Tooting himself, Martinho Correia (5-4) to set up a final against Ram. Elsewhere, it was good to see a revitalised Sean "Scarf" Avery get a couple of decisive victories under his belt to get to the quarters, but eventually fell to Muhammed Ali. Ali had already had to beat Rod (6-5), and was feeling confident about getting to the final, but with Ram stood in his way, Ali just couldn't find a way past him. This left JJ against Ram, but there was no way Ram was going to allow a newcomer to Tooting to get the better of him, and Ram eventually came through to win his first after an enforced break.
In other news, there is the 8 Ball Autumn Open taking place in Tooting on September 17th, which requires entry fees to Andrew Phan. Details of which were on the WhatsApp group, so please check it out as LFP members get priority entry. No pay, no play.
Finally, whoever paid their entry fee the other week with a fake £20, please note that it had to come out of Cip and Andrew's pocket. Bit out of order, so please don't do that again as checks will be more stringent from now on, or we may be forced to go cashless.
Have a great Bank Holiday weekend and hope to see you all on Monday at the MNT at London Snooker Tooting.
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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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