Rod the God Back to Winning Ways

Another Monday and another top class field as some of the finest players in London got together at London Snooker Tooting to battle each other yet again.

A field of 26 lined up, including 7 of the top 12 ranked players, demonstrating how competitive it's getting near the top. It's pretty clear that everyone has their eye on Ramesh, and despite the wide points gap, will believe that they can rein Ramesh in before the end of the year.

Tournaments always kick off with the Break and Run, where the "random draw" randomly selected Ramesh for something like the 10th time in the last 11 weeks. Unlike last week, Ram didn't dry break, but Ram ran out 6 balls to take £300. It's testament to the sportsmanship of Ram that he put the money behind the bar for everyone to get themselves a drink. What a top man.

Into the main tournament, and regulars know that the early rounds can spring a few surprises or scares. Everyone, on their day, has the ability to clear the table and the only thing that separates the top ranked players to the lower ranked players tends to be the levels of consistency.

Notably, there were quite a few hill hill battles. Konstiantyn had to overcome a really tough battle against Peter Hsu that went to hill hill, and followed up with another hill hill battle against Ciprian.  Konstiantyn overcame Cip and then had yet another hill hill battle, but finally succumbed to the Craig the Bear Laurie.  Muhammed 'he's the greatest' Ali also had a massive hill hill battle against Khan, which he came through, and after luckily beating Dan the Destroyer Suh, went on to face Rod the God Altes, which went to hill hill, but Rod used all of his divine powers to edge past Ali.  Elsewhere, Sean the big man Avery took Gabriel Vasilache to hill hill (apparently Gabriel was a bit tipsy from getting his free drink from Ram, which Sean categorically states he didn't spike), but Gabriel just edged past Sean and then had another hill hill battle against Andrew Phan, who showed some fine form to beat Gabriel 6-5.  Epic battles all over the club throughout the night, and we all love a tight hill hill battle. 

Drubbing of the night has to go to Hassan the Bangladeshi Magician Mehedi. Up against the notoriously slick Glen Hargreaves, Hassan thrashed Glen 6-0, leaving the club absolutely stunned at the margin of victory.

As I've often said, the standard of the players is superb on Monday nights, but there are a certain bracket of players who really purr like Ferraris when they are on form.  The quarters were made up of Craig, Konstiantyn, Ali, Rod, Ram, Hassan Mehedi, Tash and Andrew Phan.  An immense line-up, and the winners, being Craig, Rod, Ram and Tash, would grace any top tournament in the UK.  The semis saw Rod continue his fine form against Craig, beating him 6-3.  Rod is reportedly said to demand "perfect pool" from himself, and in this form, not even the mighty Craig could beat him.  But performance of the night surely has to go to Tash for absolutely whooping Ram 6-2.  Maybe Ram was making uncharacteristic mistakes, but let's be honest, Tash is a supremely talented player on his day, and well deserved to beat Ram.  With the final being Rod vs Tash, it was probably likely to end up being a hill hill battle, but Rod dug deep, as far as his deep pockets allowed, and possibly Tash just ran out of steam late in the early hours of the morning, and Rod ran out 5-2 winner.  

As is always the case, such a high quality tournament, and the rankings are starting to really tighten up near the top, as the top players have their eyes on hauling Ram in.  Anyway, don't forget that September 4th is the 8 Ball Open at Tooting.  Please check WhatsApp group, Facebook or Instagram for further details.

Have a superb week and hope to see you all on Monday.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 18 August 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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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

Hits: 765