London’s Finest Pool welcomed 27 of the best London has to offer on a Monday night, in Tooting.  We welcomed new faces, familiar faces, and notably, had the return of Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul, the Top Dawg in Tooting, after his world travels.

First off was the break and run, and after a few weeks of dry breaks and missed chances, the pot was ever-growing.  Lucky number 1 ball came out of the hat and Hassan Mehedi was the lucky participant.  The man known for his measured breaks, stepped up and….never mind. Dry break again, and the pot rolls into next week, when it will surely be someone new who’s put more money into the pot than anyone else that gets their chance (finally). 

Into the first round proper, and two terrific matches that went right to the wire.  Andrew Phan faced up to Viktor Rabin, who was a virgin to MNT.  Viktor is built, frankly, like a brick shithouse, and if it was me, I’d have let him win 5-0.  In any case, Andrew went about his business, but Viktor showed he wasn’t just brawn, but displayed some fine potting skills that left Andrew up against it.  However, Andrew is an experienced player and Viktor may well have buckled under the pressure as Andrew scraped through 5-4.

In the other big match, Ervin “Vini” Demiraj had the daunting task of having to face up to another of Tooting’s Titans, Rod “the God” Altes.  Pre-match, Rod told the media: “it all started with the shock loss to the Seoul Destroyer.  Wiped me out and it’s been a mental struggle to rediscover my form ever since.  But I’m only off very slightly, and it won’t take much to trigger me back into a good run again.”

Vini is certainly one of those who is determined to improve his game, and he fought hard against Rod, to punish Rod’s misses on pressure shots to take the match to hill-hill.  With the final rack in the balance, Vini had the chance on the 9 ball to potentially put himself in the running for the race for the Goliath trophy, but twitched and Rod finished the match off with a huge sigh of relief.  Shame, as Vini was promising to buy everyone in the club a drink if he had won!

It was also interesting to witness Muhammed “He’s the Greatest” Ali, crumble on a crucial pot against Ciaran "Boylan Point” after being told that the winner of his match had to face Dan “Seoul Destroyer” Suh.  After being told of the news, Ali’s face looked like he’d seen a ghost, went for a pressure pot to get the match to hill-hill, but just couldn’t cope with the prospect of having to face Dan in the next round.  Psychology is 90% of this game!!!

The second round saw an equal amount of excitement, as Andrew Phan squared up to Hassan Mehedi in what was destined to be an awesome match.  Two contrasting styles as Hassan is a measured player whilst Andrew’s speed and flow is “almost” unrivalled in Tooting.  Both players with huge ability and it was no surprise to see this match go to hill-hill too.  Andrew, though, seemed to really be on his game and eventually took the win.

In the other tight match in Round 2, newbie David Luna faced up to the might of Sean “Scarf” Avery.  The King of the jump shots, Sean was settling into the tournament nicely, after winning against Danny Navidi in the previous round.  However, David Luna demonstrated that he’s got skills and played really well to push Sean all the way to hill-hill, scraping over the line and getting through to the quarters. 

Finally in the second round, Ciprian Dandu blasted his way past Kostiantyn Ivanov with an easy win, 5-0, which was great to see from Cip’s point of view after his recent patchy form.

The quarter-final line-up was full of Andy’s.  Andy “Banks” Curzon is a bit of an enigma, and who knows which Andy would turn up, but last night saw the top quality Banksy turn up, and he played out a really high quality 5-2 win over Ciaran.  

Andy Adams, who beat Rod 5-2 in the previous round, had to face up to Cip.  With Andy feeling on cloud nine after his win over Rod, Cip had to really dig in deep as Andy played some fine pool to get Cip to hill-hill.  However, perhaps Andy was getting a nosebleed, having not reached the quarters before, but Cip came through to win but Andy was still happy with his form.

David Luna had to face up to Andrew, who was gathering some momentum and confidence.  And with confidence, Andrew was able to demonstrate to the rest of the field that his game is right up there with the best of them, and managed to win 5-3.

Guest entrant, Klaus Zobrekis who is a former European Champion and owner of Z9 cloth, was welcomed to Tooting and he had to face up to Ram.  Ram told Klaus that every guest he brings, tends to win the tournament, so no pressure on Klaus!  Getting in his excuses in early, Klaus told the crowd that he’d been out of practice, so was unlikely to win, and this proved to be the case as Ram showed no mercy or hospitality, and won 5-2.

With what was the fastest line-up of players I’ve seen in a semi-final, all four players were destined to ensure that this particular MNT was going to finish early!  You might be forgiven for thinking that a shot clock was in action, but all four players are speedy and so it proved.   

Andy “Banks” had to contend with Ram, and before the match, Andy told Ram “every minute and every second of practice in recent months have led to this moment”, such is the regard Andy holds for our local diminutive Yoda-like presence who we call Ram.  Perhaps Andy had psyched himself up a bit too much as his game couldn’t withstand the pressure pots and his missed opportunities were never not going to be taken advantage of by Ram, and in the end, Ram won 5-0.

In the other semi-final, the two organisers at London’s Finest Pool faced each other for the first time since February 2022.  Two top players who, I have to say, have made sacrifices to their game in order for tournaments to run smoothly.  Not only do they have to run around after people, collect and record the money, record the scores, allocate tables, look after the equipment, answer all the questions and requests from players, take photos and run the social media, have to stay until the last ball is potted at every tournament, keep in constant contact with Asif and the owner, arrange the open tournaments, and many many more….and they don’t make a single penny from doing this.

So it was a genuine pleasure to see the both of them in the advanced stages, and of course there’s going to be a bit of rivalry between them, as neither of them want to lose!  The match was fast and frantic, with both players playing pretty well.  And of course, it had to go to the wire, and it was Andrew who snatched it at the death to reach his first final since records began.

And so to the final.  Ram had already been in form of late, playing in multiple countries and winning the Solihull event only the day before.  And Andrew Phan, the man who can…but not on this occasion.  In an unsurprisingly quick final, Ram came through as an easy winner with a 5-1 victory, cementing his place as the Top Dawg of Tooting.