Happy New Year everyone!

MNT was back in action last night for a new season, with statistics reset and ready to go for a big year ahead.  The question was whether some of the regulars had too many mince pies, or whether they had been secretly training during the close season, ready for the opening day.

Regrettably, London's Finest Pool reporter was hurrying back from the Brentford win over Liverpool, so was late to the MNT, meaning that there were no interviews in the early rounds.  However, there were some epic results, notably Ervin "Vini" Demiraj getting his first ever win on a Monday night!  His game is starting to come along nicely, an he took our Peter Hsu in a match that went hill-hill.  Notably, the boy wonder, Kostiantyn Ivanov was fresh back after a little bit of a lay-off where he actually had to attend school and do some studying rather than spend his life at the pool hall.  He managed to take out Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali 6-5.  Also, in a real close game, Gauhar Khan took out Pistol Pete Cloherty, which really shows off Khan's improvement that he showed towards the end of 2022. 

Into the second round, and Ciaran Boylan was looking ominous.  During the close season, whispers had it that Ciaran was going to step up to the plate this season as he looked really good in practice.  However, practice is practice, and whilst Ciaran might have taken out Paz "the Punisher" Brennan in the first round, Dan Jenkins came in to gain revenge against Ciaran for a defeat less than a month ago, and won 6-5.  Elsewhere, Ranj Sarraj looked determined to get off to a flyer, and inched past Andrew Phan 6-5.  

All hotting up nicely, and the quarters looked tasty as Doug "the Shark" Clark breezed past the conqueror of Ciaran, Dan Jenkins, 5-2.  Saman Gholami was also looking pretty serious as Kostiantyn didn't quite have the answers to beat him, and Saman came through 5-4.  And then onto the big guns.  Ram decided that time wasn't on his side, and took out Dhari Alduraibi 5-0 in super quick time.  Meanwhile, the other big gun, Rod "the God" Altes quickly took out Ranj 5-2.  All looking setup for a Ram-Rod final (again), but the question was whether Saman could defeat Rod, and whether Doug could take Ram down.

Nope...was the answer.

To be fair, Doug played well.  Really well.  Almost flawlessly in fact, but "almost" against Ram isn't enough.  5-4 to Ram and into the final against............*surprise surprise*, Rod.   Rod quickly took care of Saman with a 5-1 win, and the first MNT final by LFP at the LST was Ram vs Rod.  Winning the first rack, Rod was looking ominous, but Ram bashed up Rod 5-2 in the end.  Rod was left stunned at the end and commented "The guy's consistency is unbelievable. Respect!"  But we all know that Rod is just going to knuckle down and work Ram out.  But what a superb evening, with the big guns starting the season exactly as they left off the last.

Over the coming weeks, though, the challengers (piranhas) will be out in force.  This was just the curtain-raiser, a taster of what's to come, but whilst 2023 started out with the usual suspects, but expect a sea of change.  Way too much talent in the rest of the field.  So who to watch out for? 

Cip's gone into a secret location, doing an impression of Rocky Balboa in Rocky 4, getting his game back to where it belongs.  So be very scared when Cip is back in the frame.

Gabriel is undoubtedly going to be a fearsome competitor this season, but just needs a break from all the Christmas excess that he's been indulging in.

Tash is already known to be one of the big guns in Tooting.  He fears no-one.

Martinho has proven himself with his exceptionally high win ratio in 2022, so expect great things from the great man.

Kostiantyn could well be the surprise package, as he's threatening to be consistent, and with his talent, could surpass anyone.  And then there's still the likes of Doug, who probably needs to find that extra 1% in his consistency to be threatening, and Craig would be right up there if his mummy let him play on a Monday more often.  Some fine talent in the pool of piranhas waiting to eat Ram and Rod alive.  2023 is going to be a fine year for our community, and standards are going to reach new levels.