Rod's Got the Shiniest Balls

If you enjoy watching grown men get hypnotised by shiny balls, last night’s MNT was the place to be.  Before the tournament started, contravening every health and safety rule relating to hanging wires, a pool ball cleaning machine appeared at the rear of the club.  For an entire hour before the tournament started, grown men stared at the spinning balls, getting totally hypnotised by watching balls get cleaned and shinier by the second. Honestly speaking, there’s nothing like watching grown men look at brand new toys to play with.

Last night’s tournament was a cracker.  More drama, lots of head-shaking, and one exceptionally hungry co-organiser.  Before the tournament started, Muhammed “he’s the greatest” Ali got selected for the Break and Run competition, and much to the amazement of the onlooking crowd, actually put in a decent break and went on to pot a total of 3 balls, taking home £90.  Quite literally the first time I’ve ever seen him pot a ball off the break with a 10 ball rack. 

The first round proper saw only one match go to the wire.  Glen “Geordie” Hargreaves faced up against the imperious Martin Leonar.  Glen has been a bit hot and cold of late, but on his day, has a game to beat anyone, and it was his day this time…sending Martin home early.  Notably, a couple of whitewashes in the first round, with Tej showing off his potting skills against Ervin Demiraj.  And recent addition, Tolik Petrov, also showing off his talents with an easy victory over fans’ favourite, Marius Dandu.

The second round saw some real fireworks.  One of the top players and LFP’s main organiser, Ciprian Dandu, just couldn’t overcome Ramon Navarro.  Possibly the upset of the night, but well played Ramon, who will be very happy with his giant-killing feat.  At this stage, no-one had really noticed Andy “fast forward” Curzon, who was playing with a borrowed shaft, but had somehow transformed himself into a machine who couldn’t miss.  We know he’s got some mighty fine shots on him, but his desire to play like Benny Hill on speed can let him down at times, but he managed to scrape past Tolik in an exciting encounter.  Meanwhile, Doug “the Shark” Clark decided to flex his muscles with a 4-0 win over Geordie Glen.  And Hassan Mehedi also stepped up to thrash Tej.

So into the quarters, and Henri Linnainmaa faced the daunting task of having to beat local deity, Rod “the God” Altes.  Henri’s game has come a long way of late, and it took every ounce of Rod’s ruthlessness to sneak past Henri 4-3.  Doug flexed his muscles some more for an easy win over Ramon.  Hassan also showed that his level can match the best by beating Saman 4-2.  And finally, last week’s winner, Kostiatyn “duck power” Ivanov (please don’t ask about the requested nickname btw), came up against Andy C, who obliterated him in no time at all, 4-1.

In the pre-match interview before the semi-final between Doug and Rod, Doug remarked how well he was playing and how it was all starting to feel good again. 

In the post-match interview, Doug remarked how much he enjoyed a break from playing, sitting down, watching Rod not miss one single shot.

5-2 to Rod, and there was nothing Doug could do.

Rod did say “Doug was playing so well that I had to step up my game, and keep him in his seat”.

The other semi between Hassan and Andy C went to hill-hill.  A real case of who was going to make a key mistake, and in the end, Hassan crumbled under the pressure, and bowed out of the tournament.  Hassan was inconsolable after the game, shaking his head repeatedly over and over again in the post-match interview.  It’s rumoured that he’s still sitting in the club looking into space this morning, so we’ll send someone to check on him.

The final between Rod and Andy C saw Andy finally succumb, whilst Rod just turned the screw.  Andy switched from 16X fast forward to 8X, but that wasn’t enough to counter Rod’s high level of performance.  However, Andy did play one of the maddest banks you’ll ever see, totally called it too, which did give him one rack against Rod.  The onlooking crowd gasped in amazement, with even Rod displaying a glimmer of emotion, but Rod quickly put his game face back on and finished Andy off 4-1.

Finally, Rod’s finally broken through to over 8 points on the ranking scores.  A remarkable achievement, second only to Ram, so well done Rod.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 08 November 2022

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Rod the God Eases into Number 2 Spot

With the absence of Ramesh, Daniel Baker and Tash, from the MNT (Monday Night Tournaments), Rod Altes was looking to regain his number 2 spot.  However, one look at the field, and the likes of Ciprian, Gabriel, Kostya, Suk and Doug the Shark, were evidence that many of the top 10 players were out in force and looking at Rod's position and hoping to bring him down.  Not forgetting that as we have said many times before, there are some superb players throughout the entire field who have the game to do well in the MNT, but sometimes struggle to bring their form to the table.  And what a Monday night we had.  

A full field of 32 entered.  All the pre-tournament betting went on Rod.  Clearly the favourite whilst the usual pre-tournament favourite, Dan the Destroyer Suh tries to recover his form.  The first round was simply immense.  Some of the big hitters looking to bully their way past the early opponents to send out a strong statement.  Doug the Shark Clark breezed past Ramon 5-0.  The clearly talented Alex Lawrence had to take pain-killing injections before the tournament to get match-ready, and they clearly worked as he swept Hassan Aljumalili aside 5-0.  And the Terminator, Gabriel Vasilache, nonchalantly took Khan apart 5-0.  However, the biggest statement sent out was by Rod.  His opponent, Shadi Ed, is a previous tournament winner, but occasionally can be vulnerable in the early rounds, and Rod pounced on him, squeezed the life out of him, and ran out 5-0 winner.  A strong statement indeed.

The first round was also full of drama as three games went to hill-hill.  Geordie Glen inched over the line against Muhammed Ali, whilst the rarely spotted Greg Mostyn managed to grind GJ Oyangoren down with a hard-fought battle.  And finally, the much-improved Henri Linnainmaa continued his recent form by getting past the man with all the flair, Andrew Phan.  

Round 2 had some tasty match ups.  The shortened race to 4 was in place, meaning that there was no room for error.  This proved to be the case as 4 out of the 8 matches went to hill-hill.  Greg came up against the highly dangerous Usman, and by his own admission, got a bit lucky and managed to win.  Alex Lawrence faced the Shark but in a scrappy affair, got himself over the line.  Hamza Itum had made his move on Saman by winning 4-3, and the ever-improving Peter Hsu did his best to disrupt Gabriel, but it wasn't enough in the final frame and lost to the Romanian Assassin. 

So the quarters looked proper tasty.  Suk had been impressing, but Rod's statements of intent throughout the evening saw his best performance of the night as he capitalised on every mistake Suk made to win 4-1.  Meanwhile, Greg's luck finally ran out as he lost 4-2 to Alex "Old Man" Lawrence.  Henri and Hamza had really locked horns, and went to hill-hill, seeing Hamza snatch victory.  And in the final match of the quarters, the Battle for Romanian dominance promised to be an epic, but Cip wasn't at the races and lost 4-2 to Gabriel. 

This left two new participants in the semis.  Alex Lawrence will remind you that he's not played American pool for long, he's old, and that he had a bad back which required pain-killing injections just to get on the bus to Tooting.  I'm sure there were a heap of other excuses that he came up with, but we'd stopped listening by this time! Hahahaha.  Anyway, the (old) man from Spots and Stripes has proven himself to be a superb potter, a really good addition to the MNT with his son Ollie, and he raced into a decent 3-1 lead against Tooting's minor deity, Rod.  But Rod is made of some stern stuff, and he regained his focus at the same time Alex's pain-killing injection was wearing off, and Rod steamed through to win 4-3.  A superb comeback!  

Meanwhile, the second semi saw Hamza Itum go toe to toe with Gabriel the hard-staring Assassin.  Proving the point that almost any player who comes to MNT is of a high standard and on their day, can beat anyone.  Hamza hasn't had a huge amount of success in his previous tournaments, but this time round, a huge performance saw a 4-0 drubbing of Gabriel, and considering that Hamza had just come out of a gritty hill-hill battle against Henri, this really was some performance.  Well done Hamza, and surely we'll see him fly up the rankings over the coming tournaments.

So the big final between Rod and Hamza, and all Hamza had to do was carry on his fine form against the impressive Rod.  Easier said than done, and Rod went about his business with the kind of professionalism that we expect of him.  4-1 win, but Hamza did brilliantly to demonstrate his capabilities.  

This meant that Rod was able to regain his 2nd place ranking, and now has his all-time high of 7.915.  A fantastic rise up the rankings for Hamza (59 places to 32nd) and also for Alex Lawrence (47 places to 29th).

Make sure you're ready to register for the next MNT on our WhatsApp group, and look forward to seeing you next Monday.  Have a great week everyone!

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 18 October 2022

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Battle of Generations - Young Gun Comes Out On Top

Well, crikey.  What a night we had at MNT at London Snooker Tooting.  After a week's absence last week due to storm damage to the club, the 28 strong field were itching to get back on the tables and strut their stuff on the pool tables.  To kick off the evening's proceedings, Ciprian picked himself out of the hat to have a go at the Break and Run.  A superb effort off the break, followed by a slick thin cut on the 1 ball looked to put Cip in control of the table until he was thrown off position for the 2 ball.  Going for it, Cip missed out, and the £270 pot extends into next week.  No doubt Ramesh will return and somehow get selected, and take the pot home.....but that's for another time.

Moving into the first round of the tournament.  A few tasty battles ensued.  Notably, making his first appearance this year, Tolik Petrov took on one of the most recently improved players in MNT, the dangerous Henri Linnainmaa.  Tolik put in a sterling performance, and took Henri all the way, but at 5-5, Henri held his nerve to advance to the next round.  Likewise, the most gruelling match of the evening (pretty much night time by the time it finished) was Mariusz Wiszowaty against Peter "Lightning" Hsu.  A gritty affair where the pressure took its toll on both players, who fought and ground their way through every rack.  Truly an epic, one that took forever to complete, but Mariusz reaped the rewards at hill hill, and won his second game in two tournaments.  A true potential giant-killing match was taking place between Gauhar Khan and Kostiantyn Ivanov.  Betfair were so certain of a Ukrainian victory, that they were paying out after Kostia raced into 2-0 lead.  "Easy peasy" grinned our junior Ukrainian magician, but no player is a mug at Tooting, and Khan (finally) pulled up his trousers, to the relief of anyone standing behind him, knuckled down and played some excellent pool to take Kostia to hill hill.  The tension was immense, but Kostia switched his concentration back on and Khan buckled under the pressure.  6-5 to our Ukrainian young gun.

Other notable results saw Martinho Correia take on Dan the Destroyer Suh.  6-0 victory for Martinho....and no, that's not a typo.  It really was 6-0.  Tooting's favourite Destroyer just couldn't cope with the conditions, the new chalk, the table, the opponent, himself, etc, etc.......

Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali whitewashed newcomer, Mark Rodericks; and the biggest match-up of the first round, between the two no-nonsense giants of Tooting, Gabriel Vasilache and Rod "the God" Altes, ended up with Rod having to pull out some real aces from the pack to win 6-3.

The second round saw one hill hill battle, which was between Rod the God, and Ahmad Jomaa.  Ahmad wasn't to be intimidated by Rod's reputation as a local god, and a really closely fought match saw him take Rod to hill hill, but Rod's experience and clinical finishing saw him through to the quarters.  Big wins for Henri Linnainmaa against Mariusz Wiszowaty.  Tomasz Jedlecki whitewashed Joseph Cowley, whilst Sean Avery has asked me not to mention his game in today's match report.  So anyway, Ciprian eased his way into the quarters by thrashing his opponent 6-0.  

The quarters were somewhat a bit of a mystery.  Some superb talent on show, but 3 out of the 4 games ended up in whitewashes!  Martinho showed off his experience by breezing past Henri, who looked a bit shell-shocked after his defeat.  Henri said in his post-match interview: "I think I only made 3 mistakes, yet I lost 5-0.  Incredible."  Meanwhile, despite Tomasz's fine form in the previous round, Spencer Oliver had been quietly disposing of his previous opponents, and showed off his talents with a 5-0 win over Tomasz.  And Andy "the Snail" Curzon just couldn't get into his rhythm against Rod the God, and his night ended without getting a rack on the board.  The final match in the quarters was an interesting one for the spectators.  Young Gun Kostia against a man who, on his day, has more talent in his little finger than many can dream to have.  However, Kostia is simply a kid on a mission, and his improvements throughout this year have been noticeable.  Cip used all of his experience to keep Kostia at arm's length, but at hill hill, Kostia won the decisive rack and can be very pleased with himself for showing much improved consistency.

The semis were a genuine dream line-up.  Martinho against Spencer, and Rod against Kostia.  Martinho came into the MNT with a fearsome reputation.  Make no bones about it, behind all the friendliness, there's one hell of a competitor in there and a shed load of experience.  Spencer is a regular performer too.  Big reputation around the UK, as big as his hair, and it was absolutely no surprise to see these two go toe to toe and end up at hill hill.  Literally a flip of a coin was going to decide it, and Martinho edged it to advance through to the final.  

Like many of you regulars will know, once Rod's in the semis, he doesn't let up and there's a very high probability that he ends up in the final.  Kostia had other plans though.  He's got a lot to prove as an emerging talent.  Someone who could genuinely make a real name for himself on the circuit across this country, and his 5-2 win was certainly well-deserved.  Rod will, no doubt, have his revenge, but last night just wasn't to be.

On to the final, and we had the oldest entrant, vs the youngest participant.  A battle of generations.  The youthful exuberance of Kostia vs the wise owl-like Martinho.  Well, my money was on Martinho.  He'd destroyed the Destroyer 6-0 and finished Henri off 5-0, whilst Kostia had to go hill hill in of the previous rounds against Khan and Cip.  But Kostia is made of sterner stuff these days, and he eventually came through 5-3 to win his first MNT!  Congrats and no doubt, there'll be many more wins in the future from Kostia.

Ranking-wise, Rod needed to win the tournament to gain ground on Ram.  Kostia has now moved into the top 5, whilst Martinho finds himself at 12th after only having played two tournaments.  At the other side of the table, Mariusz deservedly lifted himself off the foot of the table.

As always, a thoroughly enjoyable evening and let's hope the club doesn't come up against storm damage again.  Don't forget to keep an eye out on your WhatsApp to register for next Monday, and have a superb week everyone.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 02 November 2022

Hits: 379

Daniel Baker Returns to Form

Whilst the eyes of the world are on the current US Open, there’s no disputing that the eyes of Tooting were on the regular MNT (Monday Night Tournaments) at London Snooker Tooting.  The line-up looked as strong as ever, but there was much anticipation as, after an absence of a few weeks, Tooting’s strongest player returned after a few weeks off on holidays. 

Yes, the Destroyer was back!  In the meantime, some other fella called Ramesh was back from his holidays too.  Also, a big shout out to an old crowd favourite, Doug “the Shark” Clark, who was making his first appearance since June

A strong field of 29 showed up, absolutely revved up for what was to be a big night of action.

First up, the anti-climactic Break and Run competition.  Cip pulled Paz out of the hat and poor Paz went dry.  At least that meant we could start the main competition a bit quicker! 

The early rounds demonstrated just where the MNT is right now.  Only one whitewash occurred, where newbie, Sorin Stancu came up against Cip who gently eased him out of the competition 6-0.  In the meantime, the first round saw no less than 3 match-ups go right to the wire.  Sean huffed and puffed, but a mistake at the death saw Hamza Itum take advantage.  Hassan Aljumaili brought Marius Dandu to hill-hill, but the little magician is never to be underestimated, and showed off his quality to progress to the second round.  Finally, the legendary Andy “Fast Forward” Curzon looked to be easing past Dan “the Destroyer” Suh, but somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The second round saw some a couple of tight matches where Marius was pushed all the way by Andrew Phan, but after sinking his 6^th pint, Marius tipped the balance in his favour.  After the match, Marius commented “I have to face either Ramesh or Cip in the next round, so I need another pint” as he marched to the bar to top himself up with another performance-enhancing beer.

In the meantime, Henri Linnainmaa and Suk Gohil played out a gruelling tactical battle that looked like it might never end, but the experience of Suk saw him through to the quarters.  Meanwhile, Tash has been in impressive form of late, and Kostiantyn Ivanov had few answers and lost out 5-1.

The quarters proved to be the round where the top seeds really flexed their muscles.  Gabriel shot Tej down 5-2, Marius’s 7^th pint proved to be his undoing as Ram won 5-1, whilst Suk ran out of steam against an impressive Daniel Baker.  The most eagerly anticipated battle was Rod “the God” Altes against Tash, but Rod had already gained confidence from beating the Destroyer in the previous round, and continued his fine form against Tash to win 5-2.

It's of no surprise that the semis consisted of 3 of the top 4 players in the rankings.  Interestingly, out of the players who can be considered regulars, Ram, Daniel, Rod and Gabriel make up 4 of the top 5 players in terms of win ratios.  Certainly a semi-final line-up that wouldn’t look out of place in any top amateur tournament in the UK.  Ram proved his worth by beating Gabriel 5-2, whilst Daniel had to dig in to get to the final by beating Rod 5-3.

With Ram and Daniel being the only two (regular) players with a win ratio above 80%, this was going to be a close one to call.  Ram and Daniel had faced each other twice before since the beginning of September, with Ram winning both encounters.  But Daniel was in the mood for a return to form, as he was the early frontrunner in the rankings until his enforced absence in March.  Despite a competitive match, Daniel overcame Ram 5-3 to win his first tournament since his return from injury.

Congrats to Daniel and as Ram is away for 5 weeks, the question is: who is going to close the gap on Ram during his absence?  

Finally, thanks to Andy Curzon for writing up the match reports in my absence.  Much appreciated buddy.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 11 October 2022

Hits: 367