The Sunny Always Shines in Tooting
MNT is always a night to look forward to and this Monday was no different as 28 of the finest London has to offer, chalked their cue tips and stroked their shafts, to halt the progress of Rod “the God” Altes’ unbeaten streak since Ram “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul’s round the world trip, courtesy of the prize money he has amassed from winning so many MNT’s.
Pre-tournament, all eyes were on the different halves of the draw. Clearly Ciprian Dandu and Martinho Correia were clear favourites in the top half, but in the bottom half, Kostiantyn Ivanov, Rod the God, Sunny “Boy” Garib, Tomasz Jedlecki, and “Dan the Destroyer” Suh were looking like favourites to get all the way to the final. A strong half of the draw indeed.
Rod roamed around the arena as the draw was made, mapping out his route to the final, such was his confidence, and he predicted that he would definitely face up to Sunny in the semis, but wasn’t quite sure about the final. “3 in a row” was the battle-cry from the local Tooting God, and the rest of the MNT entrants started to rev up their engines in anticipation of bringing the minor deity down.
First round was a fiery affair. Paul Choong, who had shown much promise in the first half of 2022, was in Tooting for the first time in 2023. He had to face up to the stern faced Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, who is well-known for his ability to match up to any of the Titans of Tooting. Bookies had Ali as the clear favourite though, but there are no mugs in Tooting, and Paul pulled out all the stops and pounced on Ali like the predator he is.
Likewise, Andrew Phan, super-quick man, a competitor who has every right to feel that he can compete with the best, could feel unfortunate to have drawn out the talk of 2023, Sunny “Boy” Garib. However, with zero reason to doubt himself, Andrew competed hard and showed that there’s every reason to be feared. No real surprise that this match went to hill-hill, but with Sunny being in superb form this year, Andrew fell at the final hurdle, sending Sunny through to the next round.
Into the second round, and whilst there were no close match-ups, all the winners started to flex their muscles as they warmed up nicely. Notably, Marius “Ladies’ Favourite” Dandu turned up. The diminutive Marius has been on a terrible run, winning only twice in the last 14 at MNT. But, given time to warm up, as demonstrated by his showing in the Wednesday League, he’s one of the most fearsome little tiger cubs you’ve ever seen. Almost flawless on a Wednesday, utterly flawed on Mondays, Marius must have forgotten which day it was, as Wednesday Marius turned up and took Dhari Alduraibi apart and was utterly merciless.
Meanwhile, Dan Jenkins faced up to “Young Gun” Kostiantyn Ivanov, who has been over at Spots and Stripes, getting some invaluable practice in. Kostya has all the potential as we know, and despite Dan’s best efforts, the Young Gun was ruthless and kissed Dan goodbye, 5-0. Meanwhile, Tom Jedlecki had already put his foot on the accelerator by sending Saman Gholami home early, and continued his momentum with a 5-0 demolition job on Ervin Demiraj.
Sadly, what was supposed to be the match of the night, between the Destroyer and God, was a non-event as God ran out easy winner, 5-1, despite the best attempts of bribery as the Destroyer tried to get God drunk before the match.
So to the quarters, and all eyes were on the Dandu brothers. Surprisingly, the two brothers last faced each other in MNT exactly a year ago today, and Cip has a 2-0 record over Marius. However, with Marius getting back towards his best, Cip has been up and down, demonstrating a distinct lack of consistency and is really not at his best right now. Bookies had Marius down as favourite, and unsurprisingly, everyone in the arena had one eye on this particular fixture. Marius and Cip traded blows, but Cip kept on making uncharacteristic mistakes that allowed Marius to grab his opportunities and ran out 5-3 winner. Marius was on a roll, and Cip avoided all contact with the press after the match as he went to get himself a kebab roll to console himself.
Elsewhere, Martinho showed off a lot of skill as always, and whilst Jim tried to wrestle control of the match away, just couldn’t do enough and Martinho ended up winning 5-3.
God, with all the confidence flowing through his veins after having ripped the Destroyer apart in the previous round, continued his efforts against Kostya. The juggernaut style of Rod just kept punishing Kostya, and squeezed him till he could squeeze no more. 5-2 to Rod and finally, Sunny faced a tough match against Tom, but Sunny really is the talk of Tooting, and a 5-2 win really set up the semi-finals very nicely indeed.
The smart money in the semis, was on Martinho to beat Marius, whilst Rod was favourite to win against Sunny. Marius hadn’t been this far for some time, and Martinho’s back was holding up, but Marius was gaining confidence and his A game is as good as anyone’s. He demonstrated much of this as he played some excellent pool against Martinho, and flew into the final, winning 5-3. A tough game for Marius, but yet again, showing that only winning 2 in the previous 14 means nothing.
The question was who was going to be the other finalist. God had already predicted that he would face Sunny, and was under no illusions of the skill that Sunny possesses. God had beaten Sunny 4-2 last week, and had pipped Sunny to the post, 7-6, in an epic battle the week before. Sunny raced into a 4-0 lead, though, and inexplicably took his foot off the pedal whilst Rod pulled himself together to claw back 3 racks. But, at 4-3, Sunny got his act together and stormed into the final, leaving Rod looking disappointed that he wasn’t able to make it 3 tournaments on the spin. Make no mistake, this isn’t the last time that these two face off against each other, and there’s much more drama to come.
So with Marius on the rise, and Sunny making his 2nd final in 3 weeks, everyone had expected this to be a close match. Perhaps even an upset was on the cards, but for some reason, Marius remembered what day it was, and suddenly reverted back to Monday Marius. In the meantime, Sunny was desperate for silverware to take home to show to his kids, and was feeling in the mood to win. 5-0 to Sunny and the final was over almost as quick as it had started.
Regardless, a much improved effort from Marius on a Monday, but in truth, it was also only a matter of time before Sunny grabbed his first MNT win, and there will surely be many more to come.
Finally, just a reminder that the UK Open is running 30th May to 4th June, and we have a few of our own who have entered and ready to beat up the likes of SVB, FSR, and other top ranked players. A few of us are already going to attend the first day, possibly the second day, to support our guys. If you want to go, please get your tickets at https://www.seetickets.com/tour/uk-open-pool-championship and we’ll all arrange to meet up on the day. Would be great to have as many of us in attendance and make some noise for the boys.
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God and the Boy
A cozy 20 man MNT last night saw races to 7 all the way,three newcomers hit the baize - Cedric Huang, Gabriel Welham, and Freddie Young – a couple of hill hill battles drawn out longer than this winter, and some veritable thrashings.
With Jedi Jamma away in Rio and Tash still counting his recent winnings, this week had the flair of Rod Altes (massive early tournament favourite at 6/5) at the helm, the new-school OG, Sunny Boy Garib (9/4) nipping on his heels, and Gabriel (3/1) and Ciprian (10/3) hanging onto their coat tails bidding for their second title of 2023.
Henri the Hammer Linnainmaa started us off against Freddie Young on the not-so-bucket Brunswick, and after a screaming clearance by Young and a rock solid reply from the Fin to level it up, there was a feeling it'd be a doozie. Toe to toe they battled, with patches of well executed safety and the odd rail shot rattle, neither would yield as other matches started, finished, and restarted around them.
Meanwhile, on table 1, Ciprian warmed up his cue arm against Peter Hsu in double quick time, as did God did on table 6 vs Arul, both sacrificing their opponents on the poolfurnace, 7 racks to 1.
Meanwhile, on table 6, Ali took a storming lead against Gabriel and missed position for a 3-0 and was made to pay(painful reminders, on the same table, of Andy C fluffing a bank for 3-0 up against Ram in a race to 4, 10 ball – history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes).
At 5-6 down Ali had another 6, 7, 8, 9 to rock to hill hill but as so often happens in American 9 ball, losing a fraction of position on the 7 led to a 50-50 pot which he made, and was left slightly out of place on the 8 ball but left a tough 9, where the jaws were waiting and that was all she wrote, Gabriel advancing 7-5.
Back to the Henri Freddie saga and we re-join them for a tense 9th frame, locked in at 4-4, both refusing to take risks to leave t’other on. Freddie, a mainstay on the GB9 tour, was itching for the win to start his MNT career and eventually eyed a long 7 ball to go for. But the Brunswick is a cruel mistress, rejecting his advances. Henri had no problem hammering the last the three and taking the lead. The next three frames were tentative and defensive but Freddy the Great slid on in to take them all, winning as he did, 7-5.
In the last of the first rounds, table 1 was graced with the flow of Mr. Andrew Phan himself, taking on Genghis Khan. A classic battle of styles, Khan sliding around in slow motion in his new belt and Andrew gliding balls in like he’s on a practice table. Phan took the lead and held it all the way to the bank, but stopped just outside to smell the roses. At 6-4 up he dogged a couple and let in The Khan, who snagged three in a row for the win.
Second rounds saw Freddie Young face off against the mighty Saman – a battle destined to reach another tense final frame, Cedric Huang take on Ali Haidery, Ciprian play Gabriel Welham, Sunny v The Destroyer, Banks v Khan, Dan Jenkins v Gabriel Vasilache, and the King of Tier 2, Marius Dandu vs Ranj Sarraj.
Saman, the most improved player of 2022, had been struggling with form of late and this bout tested his mettle all the way, finally fingering Freddie 7 racks to 6 for a place in the quarters.
Table 4 saw Cedric and Ali H face off and another marathon 12 frames saw them locked at 6-6, and the newcomer edged it with a creamy finish.
Ciprian won his match without dropping a rack before any of the crowds had gathered, leaving Gabriel Welman left to rue his few chances. Cip was seen smiling after the match but offered no words. He’s a ‘pool does the talking’ kind of man. That’s 14 frames to 1 entering the quarters for the man in form.
Banks crushed a tired Khan 7-2 and obviously didn’t read his 2022 end of term report as Khan, with no hint of bitterness,rightly complained to the authorities of Curzon’s rampant running in the corridors.
Dan entered his match with Gabriel already resigned to losing. Head held low he didn’t look confident as Gabriel slaughtered him, also 7-2.
Ranj was facing the lady’s favourite, Marius Dandu, and wasn’t about to let young Dandu’s reputation put him off, screaming ahead 6-3, before finishing him off in style.
So the quarters:
Saman v Cedric; Cip v Sunny; Andy C v Rod; Gabriel v Ranj.
Unfortunately Andy and Ranj couldn’t take the heat and keep up their first round form as God smited Banks 7-2 and Gabriel announced Ranj dead after 8 frames, winning 7-1.
Cedric vs the might of Saman saw the newcomer fall to his knees at 5-7 rueing his white ball position nearing the end of the match.
The game of the quarters was definitely Cip v Sunny. Sunny has beaten Ram and Rod on the way to a final, and has been putting in some impressive performances along the way, and Cip’s been tightening his game up so it was all to play for. Sunny Boy snuck an early lead, and went up by a couple as Cip fought back, but the Boy took the bull by the horns and prevailed 7-5.
Sunny continued this into the semis, mutilating the mighty Saman 7-4, as Rod came through a tough one 7-5 vs last week’s champ, Gabriel.
And so we had a final: Sunny Boy G vs Rod Altes. Hill hillwas the only option with two men of such calibre and bottle. Rod found it in the end and took the tourney 7-6, leaving Sunny Boy having lost two finals this year hill hill, joining Martinho Correia in the many-finals-but-without-a-win club.
When will Sunny Boy G become the man? Is he just toying with us all to keep a low profile?
Tune in next week – that’s all folks!
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Never Corner A Wolf
Due to our regular reporter, Dan Suh, covering the Brentford vs Fulham match in West London, this week saw junior reporter, Andy Curzon, pick up the slack for the 2nd week in a row with this week's MNT match report. Big thanks to our favourite Banker, but the Destroyer will return next week.
‘twas a cold and stormy night, March 6th 2023, where the clouds parted for 24 buddy cueists to try Tooting’s tables in a Multiball feast (where the winner of the lag chooses between 8, 9, and 10 ball), leaving 8 prelim rounds and 8 with a bye to the last 16.
Andrew Phan smoked Oscar Li right off the bat, 5-2, and Saman re-met Cedric Huang (who he toppled 7-5 last Monday), this time summoning his might to crack through Cedric’s shell, 5-4. On the Brunswick, Henri Linnainmaa was up for another marathon, scuttling ahead 2-0 against Andy Banks after two toughly fought first frames. They shared the next 4 and Andy whistled past the grave, reverse dishing to take it to 3-4 and break and running for 4 a piece. But Henri was left unphased, hammered home a nifty clearance after receiving ball in hand on the last rack, taking no prisoners.
Jim took the lead against a previously forlorn Jenkins, but waking up 3-1 down, Dan took advantage of Jim’s consistently lazy white ball position to seal the deal, 5-3. Marc Harris, or Marcus Aurelius to his friends, battled through a slow-starting Mr. Altes, to go 3-1 up as Rod’s brow began to dampen. But as we’ve seen before, when his back is against the wall Rod’s a sick puppy, and he cleaned the plate in the 5th to take himself one behind. What was that advice about not cornering wolves? The 6th frame was a tense to-and-fro, ending with Aurelius facing a reverse cut double black into the middle and a 9 in the middle of the table to go 4-2 up. He lined up the shot…got down…got up again…and down…peppered, and sweetly stroked the 8 ball off the cushion into the heart of the middle pocket. The white was left in the jaws of the corner pocket leaving a hampered just-off-straight 9 ball to go on the hill.
But he dogged it, he did! Short side.
Don’t we all.
And Rod steamrollered his way through to the finish line, winning as he did, 5 racks to 3. Martinho Correia took on Joe Granville in quite a defensive tussle. Both had their chances, and Joe did a couple of good finishes, but ultimately experience won out and Martinho progressed 5-3. Sunny Boy milked Ranj 5-1 in a match Ranj’d probably want to put well behind him, but that’s what the top players are doing to anyone not in the zone these days. No holds barred.
And the final first round saw Gabriel snipe Cip 5-3, cementing another win in their close rivalry. The last 16 saw Phan squeeze the juice out of Freddie Yang, 5-3, Gabriel bludgeon Glen Hargreaves 5-1, Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali ran riot with the mighty Saman, 5-0, and the Hammer continued his winning ways by beating Khan 5-2.
Dan the Jenkins pulled his socks all the way up this week and secured his place in the last 8 with a win over newcomer, Bond Bui, 5 racks to 3.
Rod decided he wasn’t sluggish enough out of the blocks against Marc and gave away three of the first four racks against Ali Haidery, once again tunnelling on back to take the final four and win 5-3. Konstantin found himself up the creek without a paddle against The Master Correia, losing 5-2, as Martinho continues to climb towards his old best level. And finally Sunny Boy KO’d Tomasz Jedlicki 5 racks to 2.
The last 8 saw Gabriel continued his winning ways, slaughtering Andrew P 5-1, As Rod crushed Jenkins by the same scoreline, and Martinho was frozen out by Sunny 4-2, leaving Henri and Ali to battle an intense one for the 4 th semis spot. Ali had his chances, but Henri once again showed his mettle under hill hill pressure, prevailing 5-4.
But he couldn’t continue this grit into the semis as Gabriel, arguably the most consistent player of the past few months, melted him into the walls, 5-1. Ever since losing second round hill hill on January 16 th 10 ball MNT to Andy Banks from 3-2 up (in a race to 4), Gabriel has pretty routinely found himself in almost every semi or final, and tonight was no exception.
But this wasn’t a bother to Rod Altes! He put his No more Mr. Nice Guy face on, nestling down into his semi against Sunny, winning 4-2, and then made light work of a stunned Gabriel in the final, 4-0.
Well Rod’s certainly taking advantage of this time off from Ram and Tash, rocketing back into 2 nd in the long-term MNT rankings. The question is, will Ram be able to take this Altes heat when he returns from Rio? Find out in time every Monday evening at 7pm, sharp!
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Gabriel Ends the Storey
The usual MNT was in full swing over at London Snooker Tooting, with all of the top 5 ranked players in attendance, which will be the last time for about 2 months, that it will be possible to get all top 5 together, as Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul goes off on his tour of Brazil, the Caribbean, and the US of A, playing his way through various competitions and pool halls. Everyone at London’s Finest Pool wishes him safe travels and hopes he performs to the best of his abilities as he ducks and dives, representing London.
But that’s the end of the well wishes. There’s a heap of players ready to tear him down and take advantage of his absence, and last night was evidence of the high standards that keep rising at MNT.
To kick the evening off, Break and Run took place, with….Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali selected again, for the second week in a row. Yet again, despite this running for over a year, I have not been selected out of the hat, despite entering it around 40 times or more. I know that, one day, I might get selected (maybe in 2034), and that if that time ever happens, I’ll either dry break or the pot will be £1 per ball or something stupid like that.
In any case, imagine my disappointment as Ali broke dry…boohoo.
So, into the early rounds. Unusually, not one match went to hill-hill. And only one match was a whitewash. Notable results, therefore, came from Dan “the Destroyer” Suh, who blasted his way past Saman Gholami 5-1, with an almost flawless display of pool destruction, reinforcing the view that 2023 will see the Destroyer climb up the rankings. Elsewhere, Henri Linnainmaa battled hard against Ranj “Lucky” Sarraj in a gruelling tactical affair, but Ranj displayed some excellent play to run away 5-2 winner. Tomasz Jedlecki and Dan Jenkins also had a tough match together, but Tom’s experience shone through to win 5-3. And Ciprian Dandu, who has shown improvements in 2023 without reaching the levels he expects of himself, blitzed his way past Ali Haidery 5-1.
Into the next round, and the tournament really came alive, with the “big guns” able to flex their muscles. Sunny “Boy” Garib has been in great form, showing week on week improvements, and faced up to Ramma Jamma. Despite being small in stature, Ram’s reputation is feared by most…but not by Sunny. As has been mentioned in previous reports, Sunny’s an old hat at this game and coming out of retirement has sparked a bit of a fire in him. He has a game that rivals anyone’s, and he fears no-one, least of all the notorious Ram. With a 5-3 win under his belt, that’s twice he’s beaten Ram in February, leaving Ram to rue his missed chances. After the match, a smiling Sunny told the gathering reporters that he’s a man on a mission, and there’s more to come.
Also, it was good to see Gabriel “Hitman” Vasilache start to really motor again. Gabriel has continually threatened to push for the top, but has failed to win a tournament this year. A lack of practice, a bit lacking in match fitness perhaps, but he has a steely determination (and glare) that, last night, even the imperious Tashunka “Witko” Schultz couldn’t overcome, despite Tash’s great showing at SMB on Sunday. 5-2 win to Gabriel and questions in the arena were being asked of the current top 2 players.
So to Rod “the God” Altes. Up against one of the stories of 2022. Kostiantyn Ivanov, the young pup from Ukraine, has consistently been in the top 10 for some time and showed signs of threatening to rise further up the rankings. With Rod being (by his high standards) a little off-form, Kostya might well have challenged God, but regrettably lost his form and ended up losing 5-0.
Meanwhile, Sam Storey entered the tournament and played solidly to beat Ranj 5-3, whilst Ali took advantage of Tom’s mistakes to also win 5-3. And finally, Cip eased past his fellow compatriot, Alexandru Fechete, 5-2.
With no Ram or Tash in the quarters, Rod must have been feeling confident about his chances. However, with Sam being fairly new to the community, little was known about him. Sam has been playing well in other tournaments, and is known to be a great solid potter. And in the quarters, he really rose to the occasion by beating Rod 5-3. Rod was left devastated, but pointed out in his post-match interview that the standards are really increasing and getting beat only makes him more determined to find a way to get back to winning ways.
Sunny continued his good form by disposing of Glen “THE Hitman” Hargreaves 5-2, and Gabriel easily won against Hassan Mehedi 5-1. And finally, Cip might have been winning without playing well, but up against Ali, came apart and lost 5-1.
This left a semi-final line-up that looked a little unfamiliar, without Ram or Rod, and not even Tash. Sunny was hoping to show that the OG is the new Top Cat in town, but Gabriel was determined to blow him out of the water and played excellently to put Sunny back in his place, to win 5-2. No doubt Sunny will be back, but Gabriel was looking pretty focused by this point, and waited for the winner between Sam and Ali. Ali is a bit of an enigma. His refusal to use a pool cue (which would really help his game improve if he gets used to it) means that he has to be stroking the ball perfectly, in order to get results. Also, with no chance of playing power shots, it’s a wonder that the talented Ali even threatens the top 10. However, he keeps insisting to play with his one-piece snooker cue, and when he plays well, he plays really well.
Sam is a relative newcomer to Tooting, and has been itching to prove himself, but been a touch unlucky as he’s had to face the likes of Ram and Rod in his previous opening round attempts, which isn’t exactly an easy introduction into the community. However, he is a very solid player and he was proving himself and was getting better and better. Despite Ali reaching the hill first, Sam dug deep and knew that there were only going to be few chances left, and somehow Ali let Sam get back into the match. With both players on the hill, either a moment of magic or disaster was going to win or lose this match, and regrettably for Ali, it was disaster. A relatively easy missed pot on the 9 ball meant that Sam could crawl over the line, despite the heckling from the crowd, leaving Ali to roll his eyes to the back of his head in disappointment.
So to the final. And Gabriel continued his charge. Sam ran out of steam, but gave Gabriel a good match and Gabriel ran out 5-3 winner, finally getting back to winning ways, but Sam will take great heart from his fine performances. In the post-match press conference, Gabriel explained that lack of practice has made him suffer, coupled with strong competition at MNT. It’s great to see the rise of certain players, stepping up to the mark, and no doubt that the coming weeks will see yet more people challenging.
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