Tash the Donkey Overpowers Junior Hee Haw
The weekly MNT was back in full effect, showcasing some of the best talent you’ll see in one pool hall in Tooting on a Monday night. After last week’s showing, Rod “the God” Altes seemed confident with his chances in the 8 Ball tournament, but also seemed keen to lay down the law, telling the pre-tournament press conference that he wasn’t going to tolerate any inaccuracies in reporting, and reminded everyone that libel laws will protect him. The fearsome Rod certainly sent a shockwave around the press room and the pencils sharpened as clearly he was going to war with the media.
Starting off the evening was the usual Break and Run, at £40 a ball. As is always the case, my ball is yet to be picked out of the hat, and instead it was Sunny “Boy” Garib who got lucky. Putting all of his weight behind his break, 2 balls dropped, but rather than taking on the easy bank on the 1 ball, Sunny turned it down to pocket £80.
The first round had a few significant wins. Lots of quick wins, but notably, Spencer Oliver used the power of his Afro to whitewash Cedric Huang, whilst Gauhar Khan pulled his trousers up to win 5-0 against Josh Roberts. There was one really epic match going on, which captured the attention of the arena. In the bottom half of the draw, the legendary Ramon Navarro squared up to Sunny, for a match that Sunny must have thought he’d cruise through. However, Ramon is dangerous. The big smile on the little man hides the Filipino levels of banditry. If you’re not sure, Filipino’s have banditry sewn into their DNA. First off, play pool with flair. Secondly, look good. Thirdly, sucker your opponent into a false sense of security. Finally, beat your opponent, take their money, and smile at them whilst doing so.
Sunny got suckered, let down his guard, and Ramon took full advantage and snatched the win 5-4.
Into the second round, and Ramon went hill-hill again! Dan “no nickname” Jenkins was keen to grind Ramon into the ground, but a hugely competitive match ebbed and flowed, and went to 4-4. By this time, the upper half of the draw already had already completed their matches, and yet Ramon and Dan were holding up the entire tournament as the quarters and semi-finals still needed to be played! Regardless, Ramon snatched the victory, whilst the rest of the players prayed that the next match Ramon was going to be involved in wasn’t going to be quite as tight.
Tashunka Schultz faced up to the might of Khan in what was a very close match. Khan is, without a doubt, quite the phenomenon. Like a hungry hippo with all the flair of a Brazilian footballer, he is the Bill Werbeniuk of American pool. Khan not only makes some impossible pots, but it’s the ease and speed of which he does it. As easily and quickly as he consumes a kebab roll. However, despite playing some of the best shots of the night, it was Tash who crawled over the line with a solid display. Any other opponent, and Khan would have progressed, but Tash is no ordinary opponent.
Elsewhere, Spencer Oliver had to face SMB Champion from the night before, Andy “Banks” Curzon. Pre-match, Andy was clearly buzzing and re-lived his SMB win with other players as he vividly walked through his semi-final win against Tash and final against So Shaw in epic detail. A big congrats to Andy, but MNT is another day and the question on everyone’s lips was whether he could follow-up with another big performance. However, clearly this wasn’t going to be the night, and Andy crashed out, losing 5-0.
And finally, in the second round, Rod had little to say to the media, as he quietly slipped out of the venue under a blanket, as he lost 4-2 to Ciaran Boylan, fearing that any quotes might be taken out of context! Those pencils will sharpen even more over the week, and next week’s press conference should be lively!
The quarters had a bit of a surprise contender. Kris Sookhraz has recently been tearing up tier 3 in the Wednesday League, and is known to be quite a mean potter, but hasn’t quite set MNT alight…yet. However, after tearing Hassan Aljumalili apart 5-1 in the first round, he then beat Saman Gholami, who had been virtually flawless in his victory over the Destroyer. Furthermore, Kris played really well to then quickly steamroller Ciprian Dandu, 4-1, to set himself up for a place in the semis.
Kostiantyn “Junior Hee Haw” Ivanov played out a big match against Spencer, in front of his parents who had travelled over 1500 miles to watch their son win 4-2 over the famous Afro.
Tash recovered from his earlier scare against Khan, by playing brilliantly against Ciaran, who said after the match, “I don’t remember my hand touching the table”. And finally, with the slow progress, Ramon Navarro beat Muhammed “He’s the greatest” Ali, who looked like taking Ramon to another hill-hill match, but Ramon just about had enough and emerged unscathed 4-2….at 11.40pm!
The semis saw Kris against Kostya. Kris’s previous wins were totally deserved and he was performing at a level that was starting to make bookmakers feel nervous. However, Junior Hee Haw has no fear, maybe other than fear of his parents who had been watching his earlier win over Spencer Oliver, but with their departure from the arena to get some dinner, Kostya turned up the heat, and Kris finally ran out of steam, losing 4-2 to the young Ukrainian talent.
In the other semi, Tash looked to be in a bit of a hurry, and went at Ramon as aggressively as possible. Tash won 4-2, but Ramon could be very happy with his very long night’s work.
With the final being between Tash and Kostya, these are two players who are very similar. So similar, that you might argue that these two could be father and son. Both are fast-paced, aggressive, and make shots that leave crowds open-mouthed, but also both have the capability to be total donkeys. Both wanted to go at each other hard, especially because Ramon had single-handedly held up the entire tournament with his epic matches. Tash exploded into life and won 4-2, after 1am in the morning.
After the final, Tash had this to say: “After getting my ass handed to me by Andy Banks on Sunday at SMB, I had to re-establish myself as king of the donkeys. I was happy to be playing 8 ball, as I’ve become allergic to potting 9’s!”
So, Tash’s form proves to be too much for the others, as Tash holds an 88.2% win record in 2023, whilst big shouts out Kris and Ramon for their performances. The question is whether they can find consistency and challenge again?
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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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Rod Lays Down The Law
Last night's MNT at London Snooker Tooting produced another high quality tournament, only a day after the Spring Open event, won by Imran Majid. With a few of the Tooting regulars advancing well in the Open, one person who was disappointed on Sunday was, Rod "the God" Altes.
For whatever reason, Rod wasn't quite at the races, at an event where he wanted to make a statement and get the chance to battle it out with the likes of Imran, Rico Diks, Tom Staveley, and similar big names.
In the pre-tournament press conference, Rod said to the gathering media: "Yeah, I didn't play well yesterday, but I never play badly twice, and tonight's my night."
Of course, we all know that this is typical of Rod's mind games, designed to intimidate the rest of the field, but something felt different, as if Rod meant it.
First up was the Break and Run attempt. With the pot at around £400, Birthday boy, Nick Ronase got drawn out randomly, and took home £40 for potting off the break, but gave up his chance to carry on despite the easy jump shot chance on the 1 ball.
The main tournament commenced, and this is always a chance for either a major upset, or for some of the pre-tournament favourites to warm themselves up.
No huge surprises as the big guns started warming up with relative ease. Perhaps the match between Pistol Pete Cloherty and Spencer Oliver looked to be one that could have the crowd captivated, and it proved to be one of high quality, but Spencer came through to win 6-3.
Additionally, Henri Linnainmaa faced up to unknown quantity, Sammy Liu. On a personal level, it's been around 16 years since I last saw this guy, potting his way around Clapham Riley's, and it was a genuine pleasure to see Sammy after all these years.
Making claims that he hadn't played too much in the last 15 years, Sammy fought his way through the match, but Henri proved to be just a bit more match ready and came through 6-4 winner.
The next round contained two mammoth matches. Dan Jenkins had to face up to Jim "the Greek Warrior" Siampanis. Both highly adept, but Dan's confidence had taken a bit of a battering in the Wednesday League, finishing bottom of the Premier League without a win, but his grit and determination is always in abundance, and took Big Jim to the wire. However, falling at the final hurdle, it was the long-legged Greek who progressed to the next round and Dan just needs to find a way to turn his performances into wins.
The other highlight match was Glen "THE Hitman" Hargreaves, against the very well-respected Sam Storey. Pre-match, Glen told Bet 365: "why aye, aam on fiyuh like, naw won canna beet me, I feeyah naebodee."
Regrettably we didn't have an interpreter at the time.
Not surprisingly, with Sam's last outing resulting in getting to the final, Glen was fired up and determined to take Sam down. However, under pressure, Glen just failed to sink a crucial ball, leaving him to sit in his seat, muttering all kinds of profanities to himself.
Rounding off the major results of the second round, Rod was gearing himself up nicely by quickly taking care of Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali 6-0.
So the quarters shaped up to have even and close matches. Sunny "Boy" Garib had to face up to Kostiantyn "GCE, Young Gun, Junior Donkey" Ivanov. Kostya, we all know, has the game but up against last week's MNT winner, Sunny came through to win 5-3 with a strong display showing off all his years and experience.
Jim was certainly on a bit of a roll, but Sam's steely demeanour translates onto the pool table, as he picked Jim apart 5-1.
Rod was certainly taking care of the stiff opposition that he was facing, but perhaps it might take the force of the Afro, Spencer Oliver, to overcome the local God. A high quality affair, as you would expect from these two, but Rod was looking ominous as he won 5-3.
And then to the upset of the night, as Henri had to contend with the fearsome reputation of Dan "the Destroyer" Suh, the master of disaster, who makes the unmissable...missable. Both players had started off well, making the kind of shots that mere mortals dream of playing. But the Destroyer couldn't capitalise on the chances provided and Henri wasn't going to give up his opportunity to progress to the semis.
Into the semis, and Sunny had to face Sam. Perhaps Sunny underestimated Sam, and if that was the case, that was very much to his peril. A barnstorming performance by Sam and Sunny was blown out of the water 5-1. Surprising result in many ways, as Sunny has shown he has the game to challenge at the top, but as is constantly reported, Sam's merciless and never to be underestimated.
In the other semi, Henri was riding on a massive high after his win against the infamous Destroyer, and had to face God of Tooting. A tough ask, made worse by Rod being slightly peed off with his Sunday performance, and 5-0 later, Henri looked beaten, was beaten, and had the face of a beaten man. After the match, Henri said "to be honest, Rod has a reputation that is quite intimidating", but from my point of view, it's a matter of time before Henri works it out and will prove himself to be more competitive against the elite players at Tooting.
With Rod vs Sam in the final, Sam was certainly looking to go to the next level and get his first win at MNT. Fired up, he looked confident and said all the right things: "I've reached the final in my last tournament, and I can go one better for sure. It's a great experience to be playing on Mondays and good preparation for the upcoming Solihull and T9B events. And don't forget that Rod's lost to me before!" Rod, however, looked even more confident telling fans before the final: "this is my church and I can pretty much guarantee I'll win tonight. " In record time, Rod went about his business and quickly send Sam home after winning 5-1. A strong performance from Rod and that makes it 1 loss in the last 18 games, an impressive run from the resident moaner.
Finally, just a bit of housekeeping, but the magic racks cost us around £8 per rack, and I've noticed new ones are being pinched, which renders them useless. Any pinching of racks ruins them and costs money to replace. Please take care of the racks in future...it's not much to ask for.
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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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