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

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Ronase runs riot as Peter Hsu edges closer

Sit back, crack a beer, and nestle into another dream with us at the home of American pool.
This week: 9 ball; race to 6 (next week Scotch doubles).
Let’s get stuck in.

Top half first rounds had crackerjack Nick Ronase face off against Jamie “Rapid Fire” in a tense table two tussle, Nick showing heaps of mettle, a three-nine plant, and lashings of white-ball wizardry to charge through 6-4. Jamie cracked some bangers in, but the table was faster than he’s used to and the white ran away from him, letting the best breaker at the club in two too many times.

Table 4 saw a monster showdown between Andy Adams and newcomer, Ken Ofili. Ken getting used to the Tooting baize, allowed Andy to muster a hard fought 4-0 lead and Ken dragged himself back to 5-4 deficit, but was eventually harpooned 6-4.

Table six saw Gabriel “how does he not win way more” [Ram quote] Vasilache take on a steaming Pistol Pete “The Clinic” Cloherty, building on their rivalry at the top of the second tier at the club in a strange encounter of the third kind (first time they played Gabriel won 5-4 from 2-4 down on table 2: 9 ball; second time they played Pistol toasted Gabriel 6-1, missing one open pot all match: 8 ball).
Pistol had been playing all afternoon, break dishing - or reverse dishing – almost every game, definitely a man on a mission since Ali came back from 0-4 to cream him 5-4 a few months back.

With his newly bedded in soft Kamui tip on 314-3 shaft, The Clinic continued his lessons as Gabriel slowly fell apart, missing two mid-range balls by almost a foot to hand Pistol a 5-2 lead, before Gabriel salvaged a scrappy one, and then scratched in the 9 th to give away the final frame, losing 6-3.
Gifts welcome!

Arul did himself proud winning a frame against Daniel Son. It’s good to see him becoming a regular fixture at the club.
Marius Dandu. What can a man say? Such a fluid player. The Mark Williams of American 9 ball. He can not only pot from anywhere, but command the white to glide neatly into a nun’s corner pocket. But facing him last night was The Gladiator, Hamza Itum. Unshakeable, well-oiled, and grinning at the thought of the challenge, Hamza grilled Marius and eventually bumped him off 6-4.
Approached for his post match interview, Marius was only seen walking outside for a fag, muttering to himself “lucky lucky lucky…”.

Next, Martinho Correia took on Shadi Ed in the most eagerly awaited first rounder since Joshua Filler v GJ Oyangoren earlier in the year. Martinho used to grace the tables of Riley’s Victoria ::boo hiss:: back in the early 2000s and give starts to Rico Diks, Imran Majid, So Shaw, and all the rest. Out of practice, he prepared to face, in my view one of the most respectable cue actions in the London’s Finest cadre, Mr. Ed himself.
Martin galloped ahead, only to find Shadi resiliently sneak back. Martin dribbled some more in with precision, as he does, and found himself 5-4 up. Shadi looked down at the table, determined, composed, and struck a lovely clearance to draw it to hill-hill. But the MC burrowed in for the last sprint and took Shadi at the line in a photo finish.

Ranj snatched victory from the jaws of defeat swindling Ali the Greatest (6-5), and GJ trounced Paz 6-2 without breaking a sweat.

In the bottom half, last week’s bandit, Tash, edged past George Parkinson 6-4. The teenage mutant pool robot, otherwise known as Kostiantyn, decimated Joe Granville by the same scoreline, as Tomasz excavated Henri out of the digging of his own grave, 6-2.
Rod capsized Sean 6-0, leaving him up the creak without a paddle. Peter “The Pirate” Hsu ship-wrecked Richard Vinluan 6-2, and Khan gate-crashed Ervin’s parade, 6 racks to 2. The last two first round games saw Paul Choong sink Glen Hargreaves 6-4, and Hassan Aljumaili rip Andy C a new side-bag, 6-2.

Second rounds and GJ had a rematch with Joshua Filler in mind while milking Ranj 6-0, and then Martinho Correia mutilated Daniel Son 6-2 in a wonderful display, really showing the man how to push out!

Hamza The Gladiator continued his barbaric onslaught against Andy Adams, slaying him with his final blow, 6-5, leaving him awaiting the winner of Pistol Pete or Nick Ronase.
And it was to be an epic, Nick humbly remarking after he’d “just capitilised on the mistakes”, eventually splintering Pete, 6-5. On being asked what it was like being taken to The Ronase Clinic, Pistol Pete mumbled “hot and busy”. How long will this hill-hill loss keep him away?

Bottom half saw artful revenge for the Ukrainian Ninja as he flashed past no. 2 Tash. Kostiantyn poured 6 bucket loads of liquid silliness all over Tash’s head and Tash could only manage 4 back, handing Ukraine a spot in the quarters for a second week in a row.
Peter Hsu continued his swashbuckling run, cantering past Khan 6-4, General Zod (see Superman 2 from 1980) showed Tomasz who’s the daddy, offering him only a single rack in consolation, and Hassan A obliterated Paul Choong’s dream of a deep run, 6-2.

So the quarters: Nick v Hamza; Martinho v GJ; Kostiantyn v Rod; Peter Hsu v Hassan A.
Nick wasn’t in the mood to give an inch to The Gladiator, continuing his electric run as he soldered Hamza 6-2, and Martinho showed his class against GJ by coagulating him 6-1.
In the bottom two quarters, Rod medicated the hyper Ukrainian 6-2, injecting his usual viper grip over his opponents, and then The Pirate played to a new level nudging past Hassan Aljumaili 6-3 to reach his first semi-final at the club.

Here was where the dream was to end for the two hopefuls, Nick Ronase and Peter Hsu – both doing themselves proud by reaching the semis in a strong field. Martin Correia had to deal with a vibrant fight from Nick but eventually cast him aside 6-3, as Rod cruised past Peter, 6-1.

The blockbuster night ended in ruin for all but God. Martin Correia hadn’t even finished his pre-match routine before Rod Altes vapourized him 5-0, once again crowning himself temporary king of Ram Palace.

Pandemonium set in at the club and beyond as Mr. Altes counted his evening’s rack losses on one hand and lifted the trophy in the other, his fan clamouring for autographs as he whipped them further into a frenzied winner’s chant that was heard deep into the night along the streets of Tooting.
Tash and Rod have both basked in a paddle of a Ramless sea, but not for long. Time to wake up now.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 28 September 2022

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You Never Know With Scotchy

This week’s Scotch doubles saw 9 half-random pairs pile into the club:

Ali and Khan
Tash and Henri (2)
Hassan and Peter
Konstantin and Ciaran
Cip and Andy C
Spencer and Sean
Martin and Saman
Andrew P and Erwin
Martinho and Glen (1)

Hassan Mehedi impersonated So Shaw in arriving over 90 minutes late so Andrew Phan stepped in for him.

The only pre-round saw second seeds (9/4 to win) Tash and Henri smash up Ali and Khan, 5-2, banishing them to the loser’s bracket.

Quarter final of the winner’s side and pre-tournament second seeds, Tash and Henri storm to another drubbing (5-1), this time over Andrew and Peter.

Bookies favourites, coming in at 2/1 for the title, Martinho Correia and Glen Hargreaves, grilled Andrew and Erwin, 5-3, whilst Spencer and Sean feasted on the scraps left by Cip and Andy C,
toppling them 5-3.

On table 2, Martin “three foul rule” Leonar and the mighty Saman struggled against Konstantin and Ciaran, who swept past them quietly, 5-2.

In the loser’s side, Ali and Khan overcame Martin and Saman, and then Andrew P was to thwart himself (I think?) in a 5-4 tug-of-war, leaving his pairing with Ervin ready for the next round but the Pirate, Peter Hsu, dead in the water.

Ali and Khan tussled on the Brunswick to outsmart a tired and restless Cip and Andy, both unable to hit more than a good shot in three – Andy Banks dogging the last 9 ball at hill-hill. Twerp.

In the winner’s side semis, we saw the clash of the top seeds – a battle of the ages. The key game, 4-3 down, Martinho and Glen couldn’t manage to hold it together to stop Tash and Henri from sinking the final 9, winning 5-3.

Another close one saw Spencer and Sean succumb to Ciaran and Konstantin, 5-3, who were clearly communicating well by this stage - you could see it as a jolly pairing, Konstantin’s jokes keeping things light - leaving the winner’s final (actually the semi final because it’s double elimination) between Tash and Henri, and pre-tournament mid-runners (5/2), Konstantin and Ciaran.

The loser’s side continued with Martinho and Glen taking down Ali and Khan 5-2, Glen playing especially well, as Spencer and Sean zinged past Andrew and Erwin, 5-1.

Table 4 was set for the loser’s semi between the favourites, and Spencer and Sean, and it wasn’t going to disappoint…Martinho and Glen anyway. The two of them worked well together, expecting perfection of themselves - as Martinho always does - and delivering, hopscotching over Spencer and Sean 5-0, setting up the clash of the titans.

Martinho and Glen dug in and marred Tash and Henri’s hopes of a final against the sneaky Konstantin and crafty Ciaran, in their re-match, nailing Tash and Henri by the scoreline of the day: 5-3.

Revenge by double-elim sword. Cutting.

War-torn and bedraggled from the marathon against their top rivals, Martinho and Glen stumbled confidently into the iron curtain of Konstantin and Ciaran, who summoned their inner demons to cast aside Correia the Jordie’s best strikes and take the title, by, yes, 5 frames to 3.

That’s two consecutive finals in a row for Martinho Correia, who we could expect to see up with ‘the big four’ (Ram; Tash; Rod; Daniel) in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

Well done Konstantin you ninja duck! Nicely sliced, Ciaran - wouldn’t want to be in your group on Wednesdays.

Until next time.

Additional notes: Please be aware that ranking points do not count for "special" weeks like the Scotch Doubles events.  Therefore, there are no changes to ranking points and positions. 

And finally, any mistakes made over the past few weeks are entirely of Andy Curzon's doing.  Please direct all social media abuse at him.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 05 October 2022

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Tash keeps Ram's throne warm as Kostiantyn knocks at the door

On the day of the Liz 2 nd ’s funeral, and with Ramesh on holiday, the newly capped 32 budding hopefuls took to the Tooting baize for another clash of cues at Asif’s.
Arriving later than usual - just after 6pm, I saw Richard V playing on table 2 (the old ‘bucket Brunswick’ as Tash coined it) and decided to have a knock, only to find Richard’s cue action much
improved and the pockets skinnier than before, now measuring at almost exactly 4.1 inches (and re-clothed recently). Management and staff are always looking to improve things at our club, which we all very much appreciate.

The pre-tourney 10 ball break’n’run saw Khan break dry on table 4, and the surprisingly tough cannon skill shot of white onto 1 ball onto 2 ball into a chosen corner (all from a line down the
middle of the table) had Ben V and Khan both miss by a distance on the Brunswick. An initial gander at the draw saw the new top dogs Tash, Rod, Cip, and Daniel Son Baker all drawn in
a brutal top half, also alongside Gabriel and G to the J.

Top half first rounds saw last week’s champion Ali motor ahead 3-0 against Tash - who won GJ’s SMB tournament last night - allowing a nice 5-in-a-row comeback for Tash who snagged it 5-3. On the 4.1-inch-pocket Brunswick, Daniel Son nipped past Rod 5-4, brutalising much of the hard work God’s put into getting to 2 nd /3rd in the club’s rankings.  GJ numbed Ranj 5-3 to set up another classic 2 nd round vs Tash. Andy C went 1-4 down vs Erwin on table 4 before turning the tables to actually win a tournament game for the first time in well over a month. Krishen dusted off an out-of-form Joe G 5-2, and Gabriel shredded the mighty Saman without dropping a rack. The last match of the first rounders in the top half saw Ahmad ‘breadstick’ (a tennis term for winning a set 6-1…the winning only one frame being the breadstick) Ben V to send him for an early bath.

Arguably the clash of the first rounders saw Daniel Son turbo past Rod Altes 5-4 on the 4.1-inch-pocket Brunswick (from 3-4 down, no less). If neither felt fortunate to have drawn each other in the first round, they’d be fuming to see Gabriel waiting for them next! In the bottom half, Dmitrius brought Khan to a rolling boil 5-3 and Andrew P edged past Craig L 5-4 (wish I’d seen this – both play with noticeable verve). Glen slayed Ciaran 5-3, Jaz breadsticked Hassan Mehedi, and Konstantin nailed Usman 5-2.  Every time I looked over to table 2 Tomasz Jedlicki was silking another ball in with pinpoint white ball control, but it wasn’t enough to topple newcomer Jamie “rapid fire” O’Brian, who came out ahead 5-3. More breadsticks for the out-of-practice Venables brothers as Shadi overcame Dan V 5-1, and finally Hassan A sailed past Marius by the same 5-1 scoreline.

2 nd rounds in the top half had Ahmad surprise Ciprian 5-2, Andy C dispose of Krishen 5-2, Tash again go 0-3 down against an in-form GJ (who was out for revenge after losing to Tash at SMB yesterday) and again simmer through, this time 5-4, as well as Gabriel fire on all cylinders to bypass Daniel Son Baker on table 6, 5-4.  In the bottom half, Dmitrius Tariajevas blitzed Andrew Phan 5-2, Konstantin bulldozered Glen 5-2, Shadi neatly bounced over Hassan Aljumaili 5-4, and Jaz broke in Jamie 5-2.

This week’s quarter finals saw Tash politely refuse his usual first three frame gifts v Andy C and mashed him up 5-0 with the same killer instinct that inspired Andy to pick up an American cue in the first place. Jaz’s rampage was sharply halted by Shadi’s wand as Shadi ironed him out 5-2, Konstantin steamrollered Dmitrius 5-0, and Gabriel did Ahmad in 5-2, setting up the semis: Tash v
Gabriel, and Konstantin v Shadi.  Gabriel fought valiantly against the man of the moment, Tash, but couldn’t find a way past him - succumbing 5-2, whilst brave Kostya Ivanov (Konstantin/Ducky) somehow saw off Shadi 5-1 (it’s not often you see someone of Shadi’s quality being breadsticked – well done to the 15 year old).

And so to the final. Tash vs Konstantin. Would it be the up and coming Ukrainian or the silkster from hell itself? Konstantin did himself proud in his first final at the club but could only win 2 frames against Mr. Fishonahook who roasted the youngster over his spit before devouring him 5-2, cementing his second place in the club rankings.

Watch out Ram, Tash is back!

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 21 September 2022

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