This week saw 8 Ball return to MNT at London Snooker Tooting.  A quieter week meant only 22 runners (reasons not to be late!) but no less quality than normal.  A lot of players who have been performing well recently, were out in force to see if they could continue their decent form.

Bookies still had Rod “the God” Altes as favourite, but with less money being taken for Rod after his recent defeats, all eyes were on Sunny “Boy” Garib, Kostiantyn Ivanov, and Ciaran “Boiling Point” Boylan to progress to the latter stages.

First off, as usual, Break and Run was set at £50 a ball, and Ciaran managed to be the lucky one out of the hat.  Feeling the love and support from his fellow competitors in the arena, Ciaran sunk the 2 ball and set himself up for an easy peasy 1 ball, even if it was slightly hampered cueing, and failed to deliver, much to the derision of the pack of hyenas who surrounded the table.

Into the first round, and a couple of easy wins occurred.  Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali was still buzzing from winning the overnight special tournament in the early hours of Sunday morning, whilst his opponent, Andy “Banks” Curzon, who had also been playing in the same overnight tournament, also played the SMB Tournament in Acton on the Sunday, and therefore had virtually no sleep whatsoever.  This was highly evident as Andy turned up to Tooting incorrectly dressed as Paz Brennan, looking more like a Trucker Hill Billy than Paz!  Andy was not really at the races, and Ali shone through 5-0. 

In the other first round whitewash, Ciprian Dandu started warming up against relative newcomer, Alan Llorente, with a 5-0 win.

The second round proved to be where the magic happened.  Ali continued his good form with a 5-3 win over Pistol Pete Cloherty, although in controversial circumstances where Pete had threatened to jump on the pool table and throw orange paint around in protest at being called for a clothes foul (for the second week in a row), which meant his clothing touched a ball.  However, he found solace in a kebab and Ali progressed to the quarters. 

Also, the very dangerous Hamza Itum demonstrated why he’s a feared opponent, by methodically picking Andrew Phan apart, 5-1.  Dan Jenkins has also been showing signs of improvement of late, and came up against Kostya.  Dan’s careful and methodical approach is in complete contrast to the explosive abilities of Kostya and it was an intriguing match up between the pair.  Kostya found himself getting punished, and Dan took it to hill-hill, before Kostya finally creeped over the line to set himself up against Cip in the quarters, after Cip found himself a bit of form to beat Tomasz Jedlecki 5-1.

In the bottom half, Saman Gholami was feeling under the weather and lost 5-1 to Ciaran, the unexpected conqueror of Dan “the Seoul Destroyer” Suh (yes, there's been a rebranding of the Destroyer) in the first round.  Hassan “the Sniper” Aljumaili had the 8 ball firmly in his sights as he overcame Danny Navidi 5-3.  Sunny was also gearing up nicely by winning 5-1 against Glen “the Hitman” Hargreaves, and finally Henri Linnainmaa compounded Rod’s recent (relative) slump by winning 5-2.

The quarters had Sunny facing up to Henri.  Sunny’s shown that if he’s motivated, he can compete to win, but has a habit of looking a bit disinterested or distracted with things to moan about.  But on this particular occasion, Sunny had made an effort to dress up, get out of his daddy casuals, and it made him feel good.  His motivation was evident as he sauntered around the pool table and he was just too good for Henri.

Ciaran, who had earlier told the media that he was starting to “simmer”, was sending out signals to the rest of the field by beating the Sniper 5-1. 

Meetings between Kostya and Cip, who both have a real flair about their game, are always really interesting to watch.  Whilst experience often counts for much, with Cip not playing to his real abilities (yet), Kostya took advantage of Cip’s mistakes to ensure that he progressed to the semis.

And finally, Ali, determined to reach the semi-finals, just couldn’t match Hamza’s superb potting, and after a high quality game, Hamza’s focus gave him the edge and won 5-3.

The semi-final line-up, with Hamza taking on Kostya, looked like a really interesting battle.  Again, a contrast of styles, but Hamza was in really fine form, and whilst Kostya can be explosive, can play some shots that many cannot, can suffer from maintaining his good play to the end, and on this occasion, Kostya crashed and burned with a 5-3 loss.  Kostya sat on the sofa after the game, and it was evident that the young Ukrainian talent was fuming with himself and no-one dared to go near him!   

In the other semi, Ciaran and Sunny are already known to be big players.  Big in talent and yes, physically big too.  These two powerhouses take up a lot of space (especially when Ciaran takes a step back to sight his shots), and this match proved to be the one to keep an eye on.  Ciaran is renowned for his straight cueing action, which gets him out of trouble and makes him one of the best potters in Tooting.  Meanwhile, Sunny’s knowledge and experience, when he’s focused, makes him one of the most ruthless finishers in South London.  No surprise that this match went to hill-hill, and in the end, Sunny snatched the win leaving Ciaran gutted but nonetheless all smiles too.

So, Hamza Itum in the final, facing up to Sunny Garib.  Absolutely a cracking final where Hamza just could not be underestimated or there was going to be an upset on the cards.  Both players were playing well but if you have the experience and you’re playing well, that’s going to nearly always count in your favour, and Sunny’s experience came through to win 5-3. 

In the post-match press conference, Sunny said “if you look good, you feel good, and therefore you play good”.  Something for all the poorly dressed opponents (trucker hill-billy’s excluded) to think about. 

Well done to Hamza for reaching his first final, but well done to Sunny too.  The question is whether Sunny can back himself up by winning again next week, or will his motivation decrease after winning, as he showed after he last won a tournament?  Tune in next week to find out to see if Sunny can do it again……