Last night's MNT at London Snooker Tooting produced another high quality tournament, only a day after the Spring Open event, won by Imran Majid. With a few of the Tooting regulars advancing well in the Open, one person who was disappointed on Sunday was, Rod "the God" Altes.
For whatever reason, Rod wasn't quite at the races, at an event where he wanted to make a statement and get the chance to battle it out with the likes of Imran, Rico Diks, Tom Staveley, and similar big names.
In the pre-tournament press conference, Rod said to the gathering media: "Yeah, I didn't play well yesterday, but I never play badly twice, and tonight's my night."
Of course, we all know that this is typical of Rod's mind games, designed to intimidate the rest of the field, but something felt different, as if Rod meant it.
First up was the Break and Run attempt. With the pot at around £400, Birthday boy, Nick Ronase got drawn out randomly, and took home £40 for potting off the break, but gave up his chance to carry on despite the easy jump shot chance on the 1 ball.
The main tournament commenced, and this is always a chance for either a major upset, or for some of the pre-tournament favourites to warm themselves up.
No huge surprises as the big guns started warming up with relative ease. Perhaps the match between Pistol Pete Cloherty and Spencer Oliver looked to be one that could have the crowd captivated, and it proved to be one of high quality, but Spencer came through to win 6-3.
Additionally, Henri Linnainmaa faced up to unknown quantity, Sammy Liu. On a personal level, it's been around 16 years since I last saw this guy, potting his way around Clapham Riley's, and it was a genuine pleasure to see Sammy after all these years.
Making claims that he hadn't played too much in the last 15 years, Sammy fought his way through the match, but Henri proved to be just a bit more match ready and came through 6-4 winner.
The next round contained two mammoth matches. Dan Jenkins had to face up to Jim "the Greek Warrior" Siampanis. Both highly adept, but Dan's confidence had taken a bit of a battering in the Wednesday League, finishing bottom of the Premier League without a win, but his grit and determination is always in abundance, and took Big Jim to the wire. However, falling at the final hurdle, it was the long-legged Greek who progressed to the next round and Dan just needs to find a way to turn his performances into wins.
The other highlight match was Glen "THE Hitman" Hargreaves, against the very well-respected Sam Storey. Pre-match, Glen told Bet 365: "why aye, aam on fiyuh like, naw won canna beet me, I feeyah naebodee."
Regrettably we didn't have an interpreter at the time.
Not surprisingly, with Sam's last outing resulting in getting to the final, Glen was fired up and determined to take Sam down. However, under pressure, Glen just failed to sink a crucial ball, leaving him to sit in his seat, muttering all kinds of profanities to himself.
Rounding off the major results of the second round, Rod was gearing himself up nicely by quickly taking care of Muhammed "He's the Greatest" Ali 6-0.
So the quarters shaped up to have even and close matches. Sunny "Boy" Garib had to face up to Kostiantyn "GCE, Young Gun, Junior Donkey" Ivanov. Kostya, we all know, has the game but up against last week's MNT winner, Sunny came through to win 5-3 with a strong display showing off all his years and experience.
Jim was certainly on a bit of a roll, but Sam's steely demeanour translates onto the pool table, as he picked Jim apart 5-1.
Rod was certainly taking care of the stiff opposition that he was facing, but perhaps it might take the force of the Afro, Spencer Oliver, to overcome the local God. A high quality affair, as you would expect from these two, but Rod was looking ominous as he won 5-3.
And then to the upset of the night, as Henri had to contend with the fearsome reputation of Dan "the Destroyer" Suh, the master of disaster, who makes the unmissable...missable. Both players had started off well, making the kind of shots that mere mortals dream of playing. But the Destroyer couldn't capitalise on the chances provided and Henri wasn't going to give up his opportunity to progress to the semis.
Into the semis, and Sunny had to face Sam. Perhaps Sunny underestimated Sam, and if that was the case, that was very much to his peril. A barnstorming performance by Sam and Sunny was blown out of the water 5-1. Surprising result in many ways, as Sunny has shown he has the game to challenge at the top, but as is constantly reported, Sam's merciless and never to be underestimated.
In the other semi, Henri was riding on a massive high after his win against the infamous Destroyer, and had to face God of Tooting. A tough ask, made worse by Rod being slightly peed off with his Sunday performance, and 5-0 later, Henri looked beaten, was beaten, and had the face of a beaten man. After the match, Henri said "to be honest, Rod has a reputation that is quite intimidating", but from my point of view, it's a matter of time before Henri works it out and will prove himself to be more competitive against the elite players at Tooting.
With Rod vs Sam in the final, Sam was certainly looking to go to the next level and get his first win at MNT. Fired up, he looked confident and said all the right things: "I've reached the final in my last tournament, and I can go one better for sure. It's a great experience to be playing on Mondays and good preparation for the upcoming Solihull and T9B events. And don't forget that Rod's lost to me before!" Rod, however, looked even more confident telling fans before the final: "this is my church and I can pretty much guarantee I'll win tonight. " In record time, Rod went about his business and quickly send Sam home after winning 5-1. A strong performance from Rod and that makes it 1 loss in the last 18 games, an impressive run from the resident moaner.
Finally, just a bit of housekeeping, but the magic racks cost us around £8 per rack, and I've noticed new ones are being pinched, which renders them useless. Any pinching of racks ruins them and costs money to replace. Please take care of the racks in future...it's not much to ask for.
