Ram Returns To Claim Another Win
London’s Finest Pool welcomed 27 of the best London has to offer on a Monday night, in Tooting. We welcomed new faces, familiar faces, and notably, had the return of Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul, the Top Dawg in Tooting, after his world travels.
First off was the break and run, and after a few weeks of dry breaks and missed chances, the pot was ever-growing. Lucky number 1 ball came out of the hat and Hassan Mehedi was the lucky participant. The man known for his measured breaks, stepped up and….never mind. Dry break again, and the pot rolls into next week, when it will surely be someone new who’s put more money into the pot than anyone else that gets their chance (finally).
Into the first round proper, and two terrific matches that went right to the wire. Andrew Phan faced up to Viktor Rabin, who was a virgin to MNT. Viktor is built, frankly, like a brick shithouse, and if it was me, I’d have let him win 5-0. In any case, Andrew went about his business, but Viktor showed he wasn’t just brawn, but displayed some fine potting skills that left Andrew up against it. However, Andrew is an experienced player and Viktor may well have buckled under the pressure as Andrew scraped through 5-4.
In the other big match, Ervin “Vini” Demiraj had the daunting task of having to face up to another of Tooting’s Titans, Rod “the God” Altes. Pre-match, Rod told the media: “it all started with the shock loss to the Seoul Destroyer. Wiped me out and it’s been a mental struggle to rediscover my form ever since. But I’m only off very slightly, and it won’t take much to trigger me back into a good run again.”
Vini is certainly one of those who is determined to improve his game, and he fought hard against Rod, to punish Rod’s misses on pressure shots to take the match to hill-hill. With the final rack in the balance, Vini had the chance on the 9 ball to potentially put himself in the running for the race for the Goliath trophy, but twitched and Rod finished the match off with a huge sigh of relief. Shame, as Vini was promising to buy everyone in the club a drink if he had won!
It was also interesting to witness Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, crumble on a crucial pot against Ciaran "Boylan Point” after being told that the winner of his match had to face Dan “Seoul Destroyer” Suh. After being told of the news, Ali’s face looked like he’d seen a ghost, went for a pressure pot to get the match to hill-hill, but just couldn’t cope with the prospect of having to face Dan in the next round. Psychology is 90% of this game!!!
The second round saw an equal amount of excitement, as Andrew Phan squared up to Hassan Mehedi in what was destined to be an awesome match. Two contrasting styles as Hassan is a measured player whilst Andrew’s speed and flow is “almost” unrivalled in Tooting. Both players with huge ability and it was no surprise to see this match go to hill-hill too. Andrew, though, seemed to really be on his game and eventually took the win.
In the other tight match in Round 2, newbie David Luna faced up to the might of Sean “Scarf” Avery. The King of the jump shots, Sean was settling into the tournament nicely, after winning against Danny Navidi in the previous round. However, David Luna demonstrated that he’s got skills and played really well to push Sean all the way to hill-hill, scraping over the line and getting through to the quarters.
Finally in the second round, Ciprian Dandu blasted his way past Kostiantyn Ivanov with an easy win, 5-0, which was great to see from Cip’s point of view after his recent patchy form.
The quarter-final line-up was full of Andy’s. Andy “Banks” Curzon is a bit of an enigma, and who knows which Andy would turn up, but last night saw the top quality Banksy turn up, and he played out a really high quality 5-2 win over Ciaran.
Andy Adams, who beat Rod 5-2 in the previous round, had to face up to Cip. With Andy feeling on cloud nine after his win over Rod, Cip had to really dig in deep as Andy played some fine pool to get Cip to hill-hill. However, perhaps Andy was getting a nosebleed, having not reached the quarters before, but Cip came through to win but Andy was still happy with his form.
David Luna had to face up to Andrew, who was gathering some momentum and confidence. And with confidence, Andrew was able to demonstrate to the rest of the field that his game is right up there with the best of them, and managed to win 5-3.
Guest entrant, Klaus Zobrekis who is a former European Champion and owner of Z9 cloth, was welcomed to Tooting and he had to face up to Ram. Ram told Klaus that every guest he brings, tends to win the tournament, so no pressure on Klaus! Getting in his excuses in early, Klaus told the crowd that he’d been out of practice, so was unlikely to win, and this proved to be the case as Ram showed no mercy or hospitality, and won 5-2.
With what was the fastest line-up of players I’ve seen in a semi-final, all four players were destined to ensure that this particular MNT was going to finish early! You might be forgiven for thinking that a shot clock was in action, but all four players are speedy and so it proved.
Andy “Banks” had to contend with Ram, and before the match, Andy told Ram “every minute and every second of practice in recent months have led to this moment”, such is the regard Andy holds for our local diminutive Yoda-like presence who we call Ram. Perhaps Andy had psyched himself up a bit too much as his game couldn’t withstand the pressure pots and his missed opportunities were never not going to be taken advantage of by Ram, and in the end, Ram won 5-0.
In the other semi-final, the two organisers at London’s Finest Pool faced each other for the first time since February 2022. Two top players who, I have to say, have made sacrifices to their game in order for tournaments to run smoothly. Not only do they have to run around after people, collect and record the money, record the scores, allocate tables, look after the equipment, answer all the questions and requests from players, take photos and run the social media, have to stay until the last ball is potted at every tournament, keep in constant contact with Asif and the owner, arrange the open tournaments, and many many more….and they don’t make a single penny from doing this.
So it was a genuine pleasure to see the both of them in the advanced stages, and of course there’s going to be a bit of rivalry between them, as neither of them want to lose! The match was fast and frantic, with both players playing pretty well. And of course, it had to go to the wire, and it was Andrew who snatched it at the death to reach his first final since records began.
And so to the final. Ram had already been in form of late, playing in multiple countries and winning the Solihull event only the day before. And Andrew Phan, the man who can…but not on this occasion. In an unsurprisingly quick final, Ram came through as an easy winner with a 5-1 victory, cementing his place as the Top Dawg of Tooting.
- Details
- Written by Dan Suh
- Category: Home
- Hits: 443
Greecey Jim Conquers Tooting
An Easter MNT this week, with plenty of pool hustling dawgs making their way to London Snooker Tooting, to show off their skills and maintain their competitive bug. Always good to welcome in new players, players who we haven’t seen for a while, and the regulars who help create the scene. Lots of talent on show, and therefore lots of potential for some immense matches.
The first round was especially notable. First up was Hasan Khan against Paul Choong. Hasan is a rarely spotted pool player, having last been spotted in Tooting last July. A wily old fox with a good stroke, he was up against Paul Choong, who you might feel has been under-performing, but has the ability to pull off results against anyone. Both went at each other with hammer and tongs, but Hasan snatched the win, 7-6. The other hill-hill battle in the first round saw Sean Avery up against Marc Harris. Both will have felt that they stood a good chance of progressing, and both battled hard but in the end, Sean came through to win.
The first round, though, was especially notable for the upset of the round. Dan Jenkins, as I have said in the past, is a gritty player who has plenty of potting ability, and therefore has potential to become a decent player. He faced up to Rod “the God” Altes, who gave nothing away as he pointed fingers at Dan “the Destroyer” Suh before the tournament started, shouting “I hope I draw you Destroyer, cuz you’re the one getting destroyed. Ain’t going to be a repeat of last week’s result, that’s fo sho”.
Rod was positively rabid with joy as the announcer called for Rod and Dan to play on Table 4, only for Rod to realise that it wasn’t Dan Suh, but Dan Jenkins. Some might were expecting a week’s worth of frustration to come pouring out of Rod, but instead, after some good punishing play from Dan and more uncharacteristic mistakes from Rod, the match ended 6-0. Yes…6-0. As the scores were reported in, plenty of double-takes, open mouths, and “yeah, right” comments echoed around the arena, but indeed it was. Dan Jenkins was his usual calm self though, and took the win in his stride. Credit to Rod, though, who was his usual sporting self and took the defeat on the chin, but the pressure is building and next week will be a true test of one of Tooting’s Titans.
The second round certainly was no less eventful. Jim Siampanis had the unenviable task of taking on the God Killer, Dan Jenkins, and had to pull out all the stops to eventually win 6-5. Dan wasn’t too bothered though as he had already put in the performance of the evening in any case. Henri Linnainmaa pulled off a superb win over the Destroyer, after a slow start, and finished up winning at hill-hill with a Break and Run, despite the Destroyer’s best efforts to distract him. And Kris Sookhraz took out the highly rated Arjon Hasi, with a top performance to win 5-4.
This left a quarter-final line-up that lacked a few usual suspects, but no less weaker. Tomasz Jedlecki couldn’t stop the momentum of Big Jim, despite beating one of Tooting’s best players of 2023, Sunny “Boy” Garib in the previous round. 5-1 win to Big Jim and in impressive style too. Hasan Khan put Henri on the ropes and made few errors on his way to a 5-2 victory. And Hassan Mehedi put in a ruthless display of potting, as he put Afro Power Spencer Oliver on the tube home, beating him 5-2 in a very efficient display. Meanwhile, the last quarter-final to finish was between Joe Granville and Kris. Joe had decided today was going to be the day where he showed up, and anyone knows that Joe is a master potter on his day, and he had been cruising through previous rounds. However, Kris was on fire. His form in 2022 was somewhat patchy, to say the least, but Kris has somehow undergone some kind of transformation in 2023 and become one of the hottest players in Tooting. Gritting his teeth and clenching his bum, he got down to business and eventually Joe gave in and Kris advanced to the semis, for the second time in three weeks.
The semis, therefore, had Big Jim up against Hasan and Kris vs Hassan. Hasan, by this point, seemed to have run out of steam, whilst Jim was looking stronger and stronger. Jim had finally kicked into gear at the same time Hasan was making mistakes, and a relatively easy 5-1 win for Jim ensued. Meanwhile, Kris and Hassan seemed determined to take this into the small hours of the morning as they went at each other with everything they had. Kris really showed why he’s the hottest player in Tooting of late and punished Hassan’s mistakes at all the key moments, which left Kris the winner with a superb 6-5 win.
This left Jim and Kris in the final. Even Kris admitted that this was a lofty position for him to be in, whilst Jim was wondering how he’d not won an MNT before, and perhaps the different mindsets played out in the final. Jim had pretty much cruised his way into the final, whilst Kris had to go through three hill-hill wins in the previous three rounds, and maybe it was just because there were some tiredness in his play, but a combination of factors saw Jim save his best till last, and fully deserved his 5-2 win.
Overall, it’s great to see unfamiliar faces raise their games and progress further than people might have predicted in previous months. It shows that the standards are rising, and those who might normally be favourites for the latter rounds, face stiffer competition than before. After all, this is very much what the community is about, and demonstrates what playing regular scratch tournaments can do for your game. It forces players to improve to compete. Well done Kris, but of course, well done to Jim for putting in a performance that befits the “talk”!
- Details
- Written by Dan Suh
- Category: Home
- Hits: 453
Sunny Back In Form?
This week saw 8 Ball return to MNT at London Snooker Tooting. A quieter week meant only 22 runners (reasons not to be late!) but no less quality than normal. A lot of players who have been performing well recently, were out in force to see if they could continue their decent form.
Bookies still had Rod “the God” Altes as favourite, but with less money being taken for Rod after his recent defeats, all eyes were on Sunny “Boy” Garib, Kostiantyn Ivanov, and Ciaran “Boiling Point” Boylan to progress to the latter stages.
First off, as usual, Break and Run was set at £50 a ball, and Ciaran managed to be the lucky one out of the hat. Feeling the love and support from his fellow competitors in the arena, Ciaran sunk the 2 ball and set himself up for an easy peasy 1 ball, even if it was slightly hampered cueing, and failed to deliver, much to the derision of the pack of hyenas who surrounded the table.
Into the first round, and a couple of easy wins occurred. Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali was still buzzing from winning the overnight special tournament in the early hours of Sunday morning, whilst his opponent, Andy “Banks” Curzon, who had also been playing in the same overnight tournament, also played the SMB Tournament in Acton on the Sunday, and therefore had virtually no sleep whatsoever. This was highly evident as Andy turned up to Tooting incorrectly dressed as Paz Brennan, looking more like a Trucker Hill Billy than Paz! Andy was not really at the races, and Ali shone through 5-0.
In the other first round whitewash, Ciprian Dandu started warming up against relative newcomer, Alan Llorente, with a 5-0 win.
The second round proved to be where the magic happened. Ali continued his good form with a 5-3 win over Pistol Pete Cloherty, although in controversial circumstances where Pete had threatened to jump on the pool table and throw orange paint around in protest at being called for a clothes foul (for the second week in a row), which meant his clothing touched a ball. However, he found solace in a kebab and Ali progressed to the quarters.
Also, the very dangerous Hamza Itum demonstrated why he’s a feared opponent, by methodically picking Andrew Phan apart, 5-1. Dan Jenkins has also been showing signs of improvement of late, and came up against Kostya. Dan’s careful and methodical approach is in complete contrast to the explosive abilities of Kostya and it was an intriguing match up between the pair. Kostya found himself getting punished, and Dan took it to hill-hill, before Kostya finally creeped over the line to set himself up against Cip in the quarters, after Cip found himself a bit of form to beat Tomasz Jedlecki 5-1.
In the bottom half, Saman Gholami was feeling under the weather and lost 5-1 to Ciaran, the unexpected conqueror of Dan “the Seoul Destroyer” Suh (yes, there's been a rebranding of the Destroyer) in the first round. Hassan “the Sniper” Aljumaili had the 8 ball firmly in his sights as he overcame Danny Navidi 5-3. Sunny was also gearing up nicely by winning 5-1 against Glen “the Hitman” Hargreaves, and finally Henri Linnainmaa compounded Rod’s recent (relative) slump by winning 5-2.
The quarters had Sunny facing up to Henri. Sunny’s shown that if he’s motivated, he can compete to win, but has a habit of looking a bit disinterested or distracted with things to moan about. But on this particular occasion, Sunny had made an effort to dress up, get out of his daddy casuals, and it made him feel good. His motivation was evident as he sauntered around the pool table and he was just too good for Henri.
Ciaran, who had earlier told the media that he was starting to “simmer”, was sending out signals to the rest of the field by beating the Sniper 5-1.
Meetings between Kostya and Cip, who both have a real flair about their game, are always really interesting to watch. Whilst experience often counts for much, with Cip not playing to his real abilities (yet), Kostya took advantage of Cip’s mistakes to ensure that he progressed to the semis.
And finally, Ali, determined to reach the semi-finals, just couldn’t match Hamza’s superb potting, and after a high quality game, Hamza’s focus gave him the edge and won 5-3.
The semi-final line-up, with Hamza taking on Kostya, looked like a really interesting battle. Again, a contrast of styles, but Hamza was in really fine form, and whilst Kostya can be explosive, can play some shots that many cannot, can suffer from maintaining his good play to the end, and on this occasion, Kostya crashed and burned with a 5-3 loss. Kostya sat on the sofa after the game, and it was evident that the young Ukrainian talent was fuming with himself and no-one dared to go near him!
In the other semi, Ciaran and Sunny are already known to be big players. Big in talent and yes, physically big too. These two powerhouses take up a lot of space (especially when Ciaran takes a step back to sight his shots), and this match proved to be the one to keep an eye on. Ciaran is renowned for his straight cueing action, which gets him out of trouble and makes him one of the best potters in Tooting. Meanwhile, Sunny’s knowledge and experience, when he’s focused, makes him one of the most ruthless finishers in South London. No surprise that this match went to hill-hill, and in the end, Sunny snatched the win leaving Ciaran gutted but nonetheless all smiles too.
So, Hamza Itum in the final, facing up to Sunny Garib. Absolutely a cracking final where Hamza just could not be underestimated or there was going to be an upset on the cards. Both players were playing well but if you have the experience and you’re playing well, that’s going to nearly always count in your favour, and Sunny’s experience came through to win 5-3.
In the post-match press conference, Sunny said “if you look good, you feel good, and therefore you play good”. Something for all the poorly dressed opponents (trucker hill-billy’s excluded) to think about.
Well done to Hamza for reaching his first final, but well done to Sunny too. The question is whether Sunny can back himself up by winning again next week, or will his motivation decrease after winning, as he showed after he last won a tournament? Tune in next week to find out to see if Sunny can do it again……
- Details
- Written by Dan Suh
- Category: Home
- Hits: 474
First Win For Del Sim
A sense of anticipation last night at MNT as Del "the Highlander" rocked up at London Snooker Tooting. Somewhat a bit of a legend both here and in the US, the big bearded dude who looks like he should be caber tossing rather than playing pool, makes the game look easy and his presence was warmly welcomed at Tooting.
In the meantime, a strong lineup was in attendance, as many of the regulars faced up to each other, preparing to take each other down and destroy each other's reputations.
First up was the Break and Run. Switching tactics, I decided to take Rod's number 3, despite being first to enter...and then the number 1 ball got pulled out. FFS. Should have been me, but instead Kostiantyn "GCE" Ivanov stepped up to break off and smashed 3 balls down...but scratched off the break, missing out on £105. As is always the case, the arena sighed in relief and maybe next week, it'll be my turn!
So, into the first round and some close games that grabbed the crowd's attention. Dan Jenkins pulled off a great result against the highly-fancied Tomasz Jedlecki, whilst Sam Storey really was pushed all the way by Saman Gholami, and needed to finish with a break and run at hill hill to stumble over the line.
Hassan Aljumaili pulled off the shock of the first round, by pushing Tashunka "Hee Haw" Schultz all the way, and then some, bringing home the win after going hill hill too. And finally, the last hill hill match was between Andy "Banks" Curzon and Paz "the Punisher" Brennan. Both turned up to the tournament in fancy dress, although Andy forgot to bring his labrador as he turned up as a blind man and Paz turned up as a hill billy trucker. Certainly looked like a scene out of a movie as they went at it to the death, with Paz showing his emotions as he sunk the 10 Ball and embraced Andy who was magnanimous in defeat.
Only one drubbing in this round as Andrew Phan quickly disposed of Tibor Szatmari in record time, showing off his flair during the process.
The second round didn't see any close matches, but it did produce the biggest shock of the season, which will be regaled in tales for many years to come. Dan "the Destroyer" had the task of having to face up to one of Tooting's Titans, Rod "the God" Altes. Even the most generous of bookies weren't even bothering to take any bets such was the expectation of a Rod win. Before the match, Dan said "hopefully I'll get a rack off Rod and not completely embarrass myself tonight".
Into the match and Rod started off with a break and run, leaving the Destroyer fearing the worst. But, as the match progressed, with Dan using every tactic in the book to gain an advantage, Rod started to make uncharacteristic errors, all of which were punished by an in-form Dan. A murmur started going round the arena as fellow players kept one eye on the match, in complete disbelief as Dan kept edging ahead, to the point where Dan reached the hill first and continued to exert pressure on Rod with some superb flukey shots, finishing off in style to win 5-3.
Such was the surprise, news reached fans who were at London Bridge who had to turn up to Tooting to check whether there was a mistake in the entering of results, or whether Dan had actually beaten God!
Only one whitewash in the second round, as Sunny "Boy" Garib set about Paz, annihilating him 4-0.
The quarters, although without Rod and Tash, still looked very strong. In the top half, Marius "Ladies Favourite" Dandu took on Del, and took him right to the wire. Marius can certainly be a very dangerous opponent, but even after losing 4-3 to Del, Marius said "Del's different, he plays shots that normal players don't play".
The other top half quarter-final saw the Destroyer continue his momentum with a big battle against the mighty Ciprian Dandu. Cip, however, wasn't at his best and Dan got lucky on a number of occasions, raising his hands at least once every rack to apologise for the flukes. 4-3 to Dan, and the arena was stunned into silence again as he'd been playing way above his normal levels.
The bottom half of the quarters had Sunny up against Kostya. Both players have been in fine form of late, with Kostya reaching the semi-finals of T9Ball last Saturday before falling asleep as it was past his bedtime, and Sunny reaching the heady heights of 5th in the rankings in 2023. Was to be expected to be a close call, but Kostya is in form and swept Sunny aside 4-2.
In the final quarter, Hassan (conqueror of donkeys) had to face up to Pistol Pete Cloherty, who had been easing his way through the tournament. Pete does have a tendency to tear through opponents and he blitzed past Hassan 4-1.
So to the semis. And Del totally outplayed the Destroyer, thrashing him 4-0, whilst Kostya showed off his fine skills by taking down Pete 4-2, setting up an intriguing final between one of the most experienced and best players seen at Tooting, vs the up and coming rising star, Kostya, who shows such potential.
But my experience of this game knows that experience often makes the difference and the final was no exception. Unable to make the most of any chances, Kostya couldn't quite get into the match whilst Del just went about his business and came through to win 4-0.
A real pleasure to see guests coming down and displaying their talents, but from a personal point of view, as one of the lower ranked players, to receive such support from everyone after my Goliath win over Rod, proves just how much of a community we are.
Anyway, have a superb week. I certainly will. Next Monday will be multiball and I bloody hope I don't face Rod again, as he might be slightly more motivated to wipe the smile off my face!
- Details
- Written by Dan Suh
- Category: Home
- Hits: 434
