Sorry for the late update, but last weekend was a big weekend for pool fans, especially for representatives of Tooting and the London’s Finest Pool community.
A number of us went to Redhill for the Total 9 Ball event. Hasan Aljumaili, Tolik Petrov, Daria Siranchuk, Gabriel Vasilache, GJ Oyangoren, Tomasz Jedlecki, Muhammed Ali and (pre-tournament favourite) Dan Suh were all attending and surprisingly, it was Dan the Destroyer who got the furthest by getting to the quarters, finishing at 1am. The lateness took its toll on the Destroyer, with highlights being the wins against Anthony Ginn and taking Mark Foster to hill-hill before losing in the quarters.
This was followed by the LFP Winter Open, where a huge number of the Tooting regulars turned out, making up over half of the field. A decent showing from the Tooting faithful, but in a field that contained some extremely strong UK ranked players. The quarter-final line up demonstrates the strength of the competition, with Imran Majid beating James Welch 7-0, Gabriel Vasilache beating Hasan Shahid 7-3, Craig Osborne beating Mark Foster 7-5, and Rod the God Altes beating Anthony Ginn 7-2. Imran Majid went on to lift the trophy, by beating local Tooting deity, Rod Altes, in the final, but a good showing by Rod who succumbed to a seriously good opponent.
MNT was in full swing on Monday night, with a “special” night planned, as Straight 14.1 pool was the discipline to be played. As is the case with the seldom played disciplines, a smaller turnout was expected, but the die-hards were out to have a thoroughly enjoyable evening, in an event that carried no ranking points. Being a community, it was good to be able to play against each other in a relaxed manner, but still fiercely competitive.
If you’re not completely aware, straight pool is massively skilful and relies on excellent potting, positional, and carom skills. The idea is to keep potting and build up a run of points. The record is held by Jayson Shaw, who put together a run of 714, which is over 47 and a half racks of potting. Incredible stuff. But could someone at Tooting be as incredible?
The answer is no, but that didn’t matter. The quarters saw one of the most imperious, but also shocking results, as Rod faced up to Shadi Ed, who we all know is a superb competitor. However, Shadi just couldn’t get out of the blocks and lost 75-9 to Rod. Doug “the shark” Clark also had an emphatic win over Khan, who just couldn’t get into his rhythm. Meanwhile, Ali and Dan had a tight affair until Ali surged ahead and demoralised the Destroyer. And in the last quarter final, Saman and Kostya had a really tight game, with Kostya just coming through at the death to win 75-65.
The semis saw an exciting game between Ali and Kostya, where Ali just capitalised on Kostya’s mistakes to win 75 to 49. The other semi saw Doug up against Rod for the second week in a row, and again, thoroughly enjoyed watching Rod play his way to a comprehensive victory. In his post-match interview, Rod further rubbed it in by admitting that he’d never played straight pool before, and reminded Doug that he had lost to a player who hadn’t even been playing American pool for a year. Doug responded with asking what kind of monster was Rod going to turn into after he gains some real experience in the game?
It's no exaggeration to say that Rod was pretty much on fire, especially having played so well the night before in the Open, and Ali had to stand and watch Rod march his way to victory. It was a remarkable performance. Not that Rod didn’t make mistakes, but because Rod is playing in such a way that you have to be immensely brilliant at this game to capitalise on his rare mistakes, which demonstrated that Rod’s immortality in this game is only minor.
A bit of an Achilles heel for Rod, though, is Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul. It’s true to say that Rod has the game to beat Ram, but can he do it every week, once Ram is back in Tooting? Surely that must be the benchmark, and regularly beating Ram will be one of Rod’s objectives in 2023.
As is always the case with our fantastic community at London Snooker Tooting, it was a really enjoyable evening, and I believe we’re back to 9 Ball this coming Monday. Make sure you keep your eye on the WhatsApp group and have a great weekend.
