The MNT is really hotting up as we're edging closer to the end of the year, and you can barely separate Rod "the God" Altes and Ramesh "Ramma Jamma" Gokhul for the race to the Number 1 spot.  A mere 0.011 points separate the two Goliaths of Tooting after what was another big night at London Snooker Tooting.  Regular Tooting reporter, Dan Suh, reports from last night's action.

The night started off with a really strong first round showing.  Three of the first round ties went to hill-hill.  Newbie Dhari Alduraibi faced an in-form Andy Curzon, who was off the back of a 6 in 9 winning record in recent weeks.  Unknown quantity that he might be, Dhari snatched victory at the death and Andy was left to rue his chances.  Gauhar Khan faced up against another newbie to Tooting, Jim Williamson.  Khan has a lot of experience in the game, and he summoned up all of his panther like prowess to progress to the next round.  One of the big results was Ram losing out to Craig "Bear" Laurie, where Craig took every chance that came his way and played flawlessly to win 5-1.  Absolutely the result of the night fell to Dan "the Destroyer" Suh.  A bit like a non-league team facing a Premier League side in the FA Cup, the odds were stacked heavily against the Destroyer, as he faced the might of Ciprian Dandu.  Cip, however, just wasn't at the races, and the Destroyer is starting to befit his fearsome reputation, taking his chances when needed.  5-4 to the Destroyer, who celebrated as if he'd won the World Cup.  This sits 2nd in the Goliath table, where Saman still sits at no 1 after beating Ramesh back in August.

One whitewash in the first round, where Ramon Navarro obliterated Mariusz Wiszowaty 5-0.

The second round saw Paz "the Punisher" Brennan face Ciaran Boylan.  Ciaran has recently been trying out a new stance, but couldn't quite get into his groove, so decided to revert back to his snooker stance, and it reaped the rewards as he ran away with an easy victory over the Punisher.  At this stage, a big mention to Paz and Ciaran for supplying some free beers as gratitude for letting them into the Tooting gang.  It was much appreciated and shows what a great community we have at Tooting. 

Also in the second round, newbie Dhari faced up against Craig.  Being a newbie, reputations mean nothing to Dhari, and took Craig right to the wire, but in the end, it wasn't enough and Craig sneaked into the quarter-finals.  

Notably, Sean "Scarf" Avery looked like a potting machine, so Gabriel "Hitman" Vasilache had to dig deep to get to the quarters, but only after Gabriel admitted in the press conference that Sean had gifted him 3 racks.  Olly Lawrence produced some of the finest potting displays against the Destroyer seen at Tooting, to ease through 5-1.  Olly said he was intimidated by Dan's bodyguards, who has recently shot to TV stardom, so he ran around the table on fire!  GJ "Panda" Oyangoren looked unbeatable against Doug "the Shark" Clark and explained that a mixture of luck and Doug not performing won him the match.  Meanwhile, Rod eased past Ranj Sarraj with the kind of ruthlessness that we've come to expect, and Ramon continued his fine form to beat Saman Gholami.  Result of the second round, though, goes to Gauhar Khan.  Muhammed "he's the greatest" Ali couldn't stop the juggernaut-like momentum of Khan, although Khan played down his efforts in the post-match interview: "Ali was a bit distracted after winning £380 in the skill shot, so this was the only chance I'll get to beat Ali".  Ali was unavailable for comment, but the skill shot win of £380 must have been a small consolation for losing to Khan.

The quarters saw two of the big guns face each other.  Gabriel had earlier played his chances down by telling Sky Sports that he had "zero chance" of winning tonight, and perhaps that played on his mind a little as he went hill-hill with Rod.  That little element of doubt might have crept into Gabriel's mind, as Rod finished up and ended up in the semis.  Two huge wins for Craig and Ramon, as they threw down their gloves to the rest of the field by securing their semi-final places without losing a single rack.  And finally Ciaran's night ended as GJ was revving up his engine to win 4-1.

The semis looked tasty indeed.  GJ vs Craig, and Ramon vs Rod.  It's true to say that Ramon has some style about his game, and participating in his first semi-final of the year against the fearsome Rod, the occasion might have gotten to him.  Ramon lost out 4-2, but it's highly likely that Ramon will be back challenging for further progression, very soon.  Moving to the other semi, and Craig was really flexing his bear-like muscles.  If GJ is a panda, then Craig is a grizzly bear, the meanest badass bear on the planet, compared to the rather docile and cute panda.  4-0 to the Grizzly Bear and nicely set up for the final.  GJ said afterwards, "the fans love pandas more, and I'm here for the fans".

Those who follow London's Finest Pool community at Tooting know that Craig is no stranger to winning.  You also know that Rod is on fire of late, on a 14 match winning streak before the final.  A final of high quality, but in the end, a few mistakes cost Craig in the end, and Rod extended his winning streak to 15.  In fact, Rod's lost two matches at MNT since the 26th September.  He needs two more to go second in the winning streak competition, as Ram holds the current record of 23.  Most importantly, Rod is now within 0.012 of overtaking Ram, and that means next week's competition has an extra bit of spice.  This time next week, we could have a new leader, as the race for top spot heats up as we enter December.