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.