Ram Stays Top of the Pops

Once again, Monday night saw some of Tooting's finest at London Snooker for an 8 Ball showdown.  As is always the case, before the tournament starts, entrants into the Break and Run for the big money prize pot waited in anticipation.  If I remember rightly, it's up at £60 per ball or more, and Hassan Amin's eyes lit up as the arrow selected his name.  Makes a change from it being Ramma Jamma in any case.  Hassan was looking like he was on fire, lined up his cue for the break and.....miscued the break.....!  No laughter, no words, just a sad face on Hassan as he asked if he could take the break again.  Not a chance buddy.  Tragic, but entertaining at the same time.

So into the main tournament and the early rounds saw some epic games played out.  Muhammed "He's the greatest" Ali and Pistol Pete Cloherty had a gargantuan battle as they went hill hill only for Ali to somehow scrape through.  Borax succumbed at hill hill to Henri Linnainmaa who managed to win his first match in his 5th time of entering the Monday night tournaments.  Andy Curzon decided to play perfect pool by thrashing Hassan Amin, and Nick Ronase managed his first win in 6 events to sneak past Paz.  Of course I know you lot are desperate to know how the pre-tournament favourite did, and the Destroyer went 2-0 (for the first time in months), got a bit giddy whilst Ben raised his game to play perfect pool and managed to win the next 5 frames on the spin.  Next week will see the Destroyer back to winning ways.

The next round saw Andy C whitewash Peter Hsu, again, playing flawlessly throughout.  The absolute monster battles in this round saw Tash and Ram face each other, but Ram put on his magic bodywarmer to keep warm, asked for the reggaeton on the screens to be turned up loud and beat Tash 5-1.  The other huge battle saw Rod the God up against a really determined Ciprian, who seems hell-bent on chasing after Rod to get second spot out of the regulars and hopefully chase down Ram.  Cip came through 5-2, playing some superb shots that we all know he is more then capable of.  

Into the quarters, and the closest match-up was between the ever-improving Saman, against Hassan Mehedi.  Another close game, and in the end, Saman proved why he's risen to 34th from being 85th just last month, with a 4-3 victory.

The semis seemed strangely one-sided, with Cip beating Saman 4-0 and Ram beating Ali 4-1.  I think it proves just how competitive these guys are, and in the final, Ram overcame Cip to win yet another tournament victory.  The magic bodywarmer certainly helped Ram, but we have to blame big Jim Siampanis for not beating Ram in the first round when he was still cold.

Anyway, the highlights for me were seeing players gain long-awaited wins.  Henri and Nick are certainly two examples of players who have so much ability, but haven't been winning much recently.  

Onto the rankings, and Saman jumped from 70th to 34th.  Andy C climbed 30 places to 50th.  Henri also leapt to 53rd from 81st.  Where it really matters though, is that Ram just keeps on widening the gap between himself and the rest.  His 0.206 points total is getting smaller, as Cip took the biggest gain with a whopping 0.406 gain and climbed to 5th place.  Muhammed Ali also climbed 5 places to 11th after his performances.  Meanwhile, the Destroyer inexplicably remains at the bottom of the table.  This surely can't continue for much longer.

Finally, we've got a few players over in the European Open playing this week.  Spencer Oliver, Hasan Shahid, Tom Jedlecki, Benjamin Belhassen, GJ Oyangoren, are five who have graced the Monday night tournaments, with Tom Staveley and Imran Majid who have played in our Opens.  Best of luck to them.

Have a great week everyone and hope to see you on Monday.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 09 August 2022

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Veni Vidi Vici

For those who aren't sure what the Latin headline is, it means "Came, Saw, Conquered" which is precisely what our French tourist guest (Benjamin "le bandit Français" Belhassen) has done in the last two tournaments, winning again this week, before buggering off back to France to prepare for the European Open.

Congrats to Benjamin for his massively high quality performances in the last two weeks, where he beat Saman, Rod, Ram, and Gabriel, en route to the final, where he overpowered Greg Mostyn who was making his first final.

To be honest, that route to the final couldn't really have been much tougher, going hill-hill against Rod, Ram, and Gabriel. This shows the high quality of our top players at Tooting, and having Benjamin visit us has been really good for the tournaments and gotten everyone motivated to up their game even more.

Greg also had a great run to the final, nicking a win against the returning Marius Dandu, Ray Navarro, spanking Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali, and then got pushed to his limits by Geordie Glen in the semis. But up against Benjamin, he just ran into a top top performer and lost 5-1.

In other significant matches, Ram managed the upset of the night by beating pre-tournament favourite, the Destroyer, 5-1, in the first round. Glen also demonstrated what he's capable of by whitewashing Big Jim Simpianis and then going on to beat Suk. Shot of the night has to go to Sean for sealing his win against Paul Choong with a crazy display of perfect cueing as he sunk a long pot with the cue ball in the jaws of a corner pocket as if he sinks these thousand times out of a thousand.

Break and run saw it spin over my name again, but slowly settle 1 millimetre into the next name. I feel destined to never get selected. So Rod got his opportunity, buoyed on by the rest of the crew begging him to dry break, he managed 3 balls at £50 per ball. Not a bad evening's work for Rod and for £5 entry, it's pretty decent value unless you're me (never gets selected) or you're Ali (never pots a ball off the break)!

Good luck to Benjamin as he returns to France to prepare for the European Open equipped with everything Tooting could teach him. Hopefully his wife won't give him a kicking for getting home so late!

Also, a quick one, but good luck to Ciaran Boylan as he's off to get married. Probably won't see him for a while whilst he's under the thumb for a bit!

Anyway, keep your eye out on the WhatsApp group to sign up for next week's tournament and hope you all have a great week.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 27 July 2022

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100th player to have played this year!

It might have something to do with Benjamin Belhassen returning back to France, but Ramma Jamma was back to winning ways as he narrowly beat Tash in last night's 9 Ball tournament.  The standard is getting really high, with some superb performances throughout the evening.  Tash was a man on a mission, absolutely obliterating pre-tournament favourite, The Destroyer, Shadi and Saman.  Certainly, the demolition job on Shadi in the first round, 6-1, demonstrated just how much Tash was up for this week's tournament.

Martin was back from a long break from pool, but he started brilliantly against Glen, before finding wins against Pistol Pete and Ciprian at hill hill in both games, before succumbing to the mighty Tash.  Suk also had notable destructions of Paz and Marius on his way to the semis, but Ram played flawlessly to send Suk home.  

Perhaps a surprise result, but Rod whitewashed Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali and then followed up in the next game by getting whitewashed by Ram.  

Some really close battles throughout the tournament, notably GJ taking Ram to hill hill in the first round, Cip and Borax getting to hill hill, and then Martin overcoming Cip after hill hill in in the next round, but Martin scraping through.

What is great is that not only is there some exceptional quality pool going on during Monday nights, but the level of sportsmanship throughout has been superb.  Players are willing to help each other out, have a laugh between games, but still remain massively competitive.  It's this community spirit that is really helping the game thrive in Tooting.  As of yesterday, we had our 100th participant in the Tournaments in 2022.  Ernesto Gonzales became the 100th player to have played at the Tooting Tournaments this year and of these 100 players, around a quarter have played in over a third of all the tournaments.  It's an amazing achievement, and a huge thanks to Cip and Andrew for their commitment to organising these every Monday.  My opinion is that we should all take the time to thank Cip and Andrew, and go out of our way to at least buy them a drink from time to time.  Without them, we wouldn't be able to get out on Mondays in such a thriving and positive pool playing environment.  Please help these guys by being on time, pay your fees on time, being ready to play, and buying them a drink!

Break and Run fell to Ram....again.  Seems to be the same people most weeks!!!  So imagine everyone's disappointment when Ram broke as dry as the current London summer.  Gutted!  Might be me next week....you never know.

Finally, here are the updated ranking lists with the weekly changes.  Have a terrific week and hope to see you next Monday when I might not actually draw someone who plays in the bloody final.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 02 August 2022

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Vive La France

Thank you for air-conditioning!  The club, last night, was nicely cool and protected from the ridiculous heat and a healthy 22 players entered the 9 Ball Tournament that proved to be a fantastic event that actually didn't finish too late!

The Break and Run draw was made, and yet again, Ramma Jamma was the lucky entrant and went on to dry break, and didn't get the £40 per ball as he was hoping for.  Everyone was devastated for him! 

The main event saw a newbie from France enter, as he's on his family holiday in London, but brought his cues with him...no doubt his missus must have been delighted.  Regardless, Benjamin Belhassen wanted some practice before the European Open, and he had to overcome first round jitters as Dan "The Destroyer" Suh pushed him for part of the match until Dan did his usual thing and messed up some easy pots.  Peter Hsu also caused Spencer Oliver a fright by leading his first round match, but Spencer's energy drink kicked in just in the nick of time and he fought off Peter's resistance.

The second round saw Benjamin totally annihilate Nick Ronase; and Spencer was living off the energy boost and turned into Efren Reyes, destroying Daria Siranchuk in the process.  Ali HK and Toby Bolt also had a hard-fought battle, and went to hill-hill before Ali managed to win the last frame.  Notably, Ram played flawlessly as he took out snooker champ, Eliot Johnson.

The quarters were highly competitive, but Konstiantyn is starting to show some form and consistency, as he took out Saman.  Benjamin was really starting to get into his groove as he beat Muhammed "He's the greatest" Ali, whilst Spencer was still riding high as he beat Ali HK, and finally, Ram saw off an initial scare as Jim Siampanis threatened to leave Ram sat down as he played impressively, but couldn't keep it up for long enough...a problem my wife tells me that I have too.

Into the semis and despite Konstiantyn's impressive play, Benjamin was looking like a machine, whilst Spencer ran out of gas against another consistently great performance from Ram.

The final, much as Ram was looking forward to it, was going to be a battle of the evening's titans.  Ram knew what Benjamin was capable of and went toe to toe with him but being in his first tournament as a guest from France, Benjamin was determined and focused, and barely made a mistake where Ram could capitalise on.  A really entertaining final but Benjamin was the deserved winner.

Next week, we will be seeing our French guest again for one more tournament before his missus and family gets pissed off with him.  To beat Ram, you have to be one helluva player, and he is.  But I'm sure anyone who faces him next week is going to do their best to send him home fully disappointed!

Also, a big thanks to Muhammed Ali for helping me organise the tournament, and also to Andrew for still helping out whilst sitting at home looking after his dog.  It was also great to have all the players help out and report their scores in, and so on.  It really made organising last night much much easier. Thanks to all of you!

I think next week is 10 Ball, but I'll get that confirmed.  So long as I don't draw the eventual winner in the first round without me getting any practice before the tournament, next week will be the week I win.....a game (at least!)

Have a great week despite the heat, and hope to see you all on Monday.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 19 July 2022

Hits: 343