And welcome back to MNT, where London's Finest Pool hosted the 2nd event of 2023. Most will tell you that it's the best you'll see in London, some say that it's the best you'll see in the UK. Whichever you believe, the fans waited in anticipation for the gathering of London's Finest Pool players at London Snooker Tooting. Most spectacularly, Dan "the Destroyer" Suh unveiled his new sponsored apparel. Fans were overawed as he unveiled his new sponsors: London Snooker Tooting, Seyberts, Predator Cues, IQ Cues, Korea Foods/Seoul Plaza, and Takini Cloth/Table Min. Dan told the media before the night began that so many companies had been after his signature for a number of months, and had to succumb to putting an extra sponsor, such was the high demand. "I was especially delighted to sign up with Takini Cloth/Table Min, who are a Korean company, where London Snooker Tooting will exclusively be using their cloths in 2023." Destroyer merchandise was expected to be launched last night, but due to the huge numbers of pre-orders, this has been delayed by a few weeks.
So, into the early rounds of last night's MNT. Amazingly only one match went to the wire, with Kris fighting his way to hill hill with Glen "THE Hitman" Hargreaves, but Glen's a canny operator and with one eye on a massive match-up against Gabriel "Hitman" Vasilache, he had every incentive to get through to the quarters to face the Romanian assassin. 4-3 to the big Geordie lad, in what was a gruelling, nail-biting affair. Two big grudge matches were also played out. Paz "the Punisher" Brennan and Ciaran "Killer" Boylan are partners...no, not that kind, but they do work together and regularly practice against each other. They had faced each other at the end of November, where Ciaran came through easily, 5-0. And just last week, Ciaran beat Paz 6-1, so Paz was bang up for some revenge. It didn't happen. 4-1 to Ciaran, who even had to play with a borrowed cue after all his pool equipment was nicked out of his car the other day. Paz was left to rue the day, but will surely come back stronger and get back to his punishing ways. And in the other grudge match, Saman Gholami and Muhammed "he's the greatest" Ali, faced each other after an immense battle in the Piranha Bowl last Saturday. Both had played exceptionally well in the Piranha Bowl, and Saman was looking very sharp in the warm-up. So this was really the match to put an end to last Saturday's rivalry. However, Saman just couldn't summon up enough of his powers to give Ali much of a game, and Ali was on fire, resulting in a 4-1 victory.
Meanwhile, three spankings in the early rounds. Henri continuing his decent form by disposing of Ranj (4-0) to get to the quarters. Ram got off to a flyer with a 4-0 win over Dan Jenkins, Rod followed suit with a 4-0 drubbing of Pistol Pete Cloherty. The two main men really laying down the early markers, but let's not forget Gabriel "Hitman" Vasilache. After 3 weeks of not playing, indulging in every Christmas excess you can think of, weighing 5 kg heavier than his pre-Christmas fighting weight, Gabriel is considered one of the ones to look for in 2023 to topple the Ram/Rod titans at the top. Gabriel saw off another of the big names, Martinho Correia, in the first round, 4-2, and then disposed of Kostiantyn Ivanov, the young star at Tooting, 4-2 also. What a route to the quarter-finals! However, what a modest man Gabriel is, as he described his chances of winning the tournament as "slim, unlike my belly".
The quarters looked tasty. Dhari Alduraibi faced Rod the God. Dhari had been playing really well too, seeing off Ciaran 4-2 earlier, and he was looking confident. Rod, however, was finding his usual inspiration from his pint of cider (some say he was on his 5th pint by the quarters), and ran out 4-1 winner. Post-match, Sky Sports Arena caught up with Rod to question his pre-tournament brags about giving any player a 5 frame start...Rod responded "no starts for anyone, that's a fool's game (*pulls a BA Baracus face at the cameras*), but I WILL be getting to the final". Meanwhile, an out of form Ciprian Dandu was still dishing it out, winning 4-1 against Henri, but was still disappointed with his game having only broke and run won once in his quarter. We all know that when Cip hits form, he's going to be challenging for the top spot as his C game is pretty much better than most people's A game. Ram really was in fine form as he overcame Ali 4-0. In the post-match interview, Ram was his usual modest self, explaining "I fear Ciprian, Andrew, Gabriel, Kostiantyn, and Rod the God. There's too many people in here who can win." Great words from the great man, although he did leave out the Destroyer, but I'll have words with him later. And the last of the quarters, the two hitmen faced each other to see who the real Hitman is. Pre-match, Glen "THE Hitman" Hargreaves said that he held great respect for Gabriel but "I'm feeling confident, and we shall see who the best Hitman is tonight, but I can think I can go all the way". And what a match we had. A real high quality game between two high calibre players, but having seen off both Martinho and Kostya, it was Gabriel who came out on top with a 4-3 win, leaving Glen distraught at fans questioning whether he really was "THE" Hitman, or whether he was just "A" Hitman.
The semi-final line-up was full of high quality and reflective of how experience in this game can really push you to the pinnacle. Cip lost out 4-1 to Ram, but as has been said before, Cip's only on his C game, and his A game is one of the best in Tooting. Meanwhile, Gabriel ran out of steam and perhaps, a lack of match fitness took its toll and lost 4-2 to Rod. This set up the two titans, Ram and Rod, in the final for the second week running. Both are highly competitive and both are pushing each other hard. In the last 10 meetings, Rod had lost to Ram 7 times, with 2 of those wins coming in March and April of last year, but Rod's right up there for a reason, and the final went to hill-hill. Psychologically, this was going to be an important rack. If Ram won, then he really does become Rod's nemesis and potentially it could scar Rod for a while. But with a point to prove, a win for Rod would close the gap, remind Ram that the gap is closer than is sometimes believed, and ensure that the next time they face each other, it would be psychologically more even than ever. Fuelled by his magic apple juice (reports are that Rod was on his 8th pint by now), Rod came through to bag the all important win and be crowned champion in only the second MNT of the year.
Post-match, Rod said "I'd just like to say that I picked the winner from the start. And going into the final, luckily, the statistics were 50% in my favour! This year, nothing matters more than my earning the Top Gun badge that Ram won last year. It's what every player should aspire to own".
So, another fantastic night drew to a close and the rankings are already taking shape. Ram still leads Rod, but there's not much in it, whilst Gabriel is starting to make his move on the top two already, and Tash is still very much in early contention. Hopefully, by next Monday, we will see new cloths on the tables, with a few other minor fixes to tables. This may well see a big improvement take place, and we expect there will be more substantial news to follow over the coming weeks.
