London’s Finest Pool hosted the weekly Monday Night Tournament at London Snooker Tooting last night, where no other club can boast a gathering of such mighty talent in one place on a Monday night. The smell of sweat, testosterone, and kebab rolls lingered in the club’s atmosphere as 31 players rolled in to cause upsets, create magic, and ultimately…win.
First off, Paz “the Punisher” Brennan got pulled out of the hat for the Break and Run. Only pulled out of the hat two weeks ago, and broke as dry as the Sahara desert that time, could he possibly pull it off this time? Nope. Another dry break, and an opportunity missed. Maybe that chance, next week, might fall to someone who has entered every bloody week since it started and STILL hasn’t had even one chance to have a go.
Anyway, onto the first round, and there was relatively little drama. Alex Vilmanis and Krishen Sookhraz produced a match up where Kris threw everything he could at Alex. However, Alex is a seasoned player who can play under pressure, and despite Kris’s decent showing, Alex came through to win 5-4.
Some really impressive, but ultimately, easy wins in the first round. Marius Dandu, the ladies’ favourite, seems to have slowly started to turn his form around. Normally a slow starter, and having been in poor form lately, he came out of the blocks to win 5-0 against Arul Ellappan. Marius has all the ability, and this might well be the start of an upsurge in his fortunes, as his ranking doesn’t reflect his ability.
In the battle of the Hassans, Hassan overcame Hassan 5-0, which was surprising as Hassan can be a slow starter, whilst Hassan has shown good determination and fight in previous MNT. Hassan will be disappointed with his performance, whilst Hassan gained plenty of confidence having started the tournament with a positive performance.
Meanwhile, Sunny Boy Garib kicked off his evening with a 5-0 win over Marc Harris, and Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul also made light work of Ervin Demiraj.
The second round also only saw one match go to the wire. Saman Gholami faced up to Kostya Ivanov, who turned up to the tournament looking like a dodgy teen pop idol auditionee with his new hair colour. Saman has all the ability to play well, but can be a bit inconsistent at times, whilst Kostya produces some absolute magic at times. This was always going to be a good game, and it wasn’t a surprise that it went to hill hill. Despite the chances that Saman had, Kostya scraped through, leaving Saman wondering how he lost the match.
In other key results, Marius Dandu continued to wow the audience with a second whitewash win of the evening over Glen “THE Hitman” Hargreaves, Hassan Mehedi also pulled out his second clean sheet of the evening by beating Henri Linainmaa, and Ram also pulled out his second thrashing of the evening against Alex Vilmanis. Phenomenal stuff from these three, and not an easy feat to achieve.
The quarter-finals is where it gets really tasty. Marius Dandu against Hassan Mehedi. Ciprian Dandu against Martinho Correia. Rod “the God” Altes against Sunny. And Ram against Kostya.
Marius and Hassan engaged in a gritty battle, but Hassan was building up a head of steam and was starting to play pretty well. Marius just couldn’t take his chances, and was ground down by Hassan 4-2.
Cip and Martinho seemed to produce a poor quality match by their high standards, and Martinho lacked his usual flow. Cip managed to get himself together, and came through 4-1.
Rod and Sunny had a really interesting match-up as Sunny is slowly and surely getting back to a level that he might be happy with. Rolling back the years, Sunny is making some nice progress, but Rod’s a different proposition and there was no way Sunny was going to get easy chances. And Rod didn’t provide many chances at all. Not really even missing any pots, but Sunny created his own chances by break and running 3 out of the 4 times he broke, to win 4-3. Stunning stuff.
And in the last quarter, Ram was displaying some fine form, making the most of every opportunity in the way that he does. Very few mistakes and Kostya is yet to beat Ram since August of last year.
The semis saw both matches go to the wire. Hassan and Cip had a really good but tense game. Cip was still yet to fire on all cylinders, whilst Hassan battled hard and played well to keep it tight. With Cip about to either turn it on or run out of steam, in the final rack, he absolutely flicked a switch to run out the last 3 balls with absolute precision and mastery. Cip showing glimpses of his A game again.
In the other semi, Sunny had no fear. Ram might send a shiver down most people’s spines, but not Sunny. His languid style covers much of the competitive spirit that he possesses, and as he’s been showing his improvement of late, this was the time to demonstrate it. With both players on the hill, Sunny took his opportunity and waved to the crowd as they celebrated a hard fought victory.
And to the final. It’s been argued that Cip had the easier run to the final, as Sunny had to overcome Rod and Ram. Was it going to drain Sunny, or was Cip just getting stronger and stronger? As has been said a few times, Cip is one of the best players I have ever had the pleasure of playing against. His A game is flawless and a match for almost anyone in this country, but this man is focused on ensuring that MNT goes smoothly and his game has suffered as a result.
Up against Sunny, this was never going to be anything other than top quality pool, and the final didn’t disappoint. 3-3 and it went to a one rack shootout. Just one rack to decide the winner of what had been an exhausting evening, and in the end, Cip came through for the win. A thrilling encounter and it was great to see more names challenging at the top. Sunny’s on his way back to his best, and Cip is showing signs of getting back to his A game too, so expect some real fireworks over the coming weeks.
Next week is a non-ranking event, the Blind Scotch Doubles! One of the most entertaining tournaments where players are drawn together and play with much less pressure. It’s a good exercise as doubles is very much a part of the scene, and with no ranking points involved, it’s always been an enjoyable evening for all concerned.
Have a great week everyone!
