Sorry, due to me going away, this will be a brief match report.
What a week it has been. With many of our players playing in the UK Open, it's been a great week for all concerned. A huge thank you to everyone who attended the UK Open to support our guys too. I know it was massively appreciated, and whilst we probably didn't get the results we wanted, it's a great experience and next year, I'm fairly certain that one or two of us will progress further. These are the kind of tournaments we should be striving for, and improvements to our game need to be made in order for us to continue developing. Great to see Spencer and Hassan get on TV, and yes, I was on TV in case you hadn't heard! Hahahaha. Best day of my pool life by far, and maybe one day, I'll actually not crap myself and do myself justice.
Anyway, back to London Snooker Tooting, and we had a mammoth MNT, partly because Ramesh "Ramma Jamma" Gokhul had laid down the gauntlet to all the other regulars. £40 bounty was put on his head, to any of the regulars to end his streak of 29 wins and 6 tournaments in a row. A lovely gesture by Ram and one that had the whole field looking at the draw to see who were going to get the chances to claim a historic victory. "I'm putting up the money because I'm that confident no-one will take off me, unless you lot improve!" said Ram to the press. "Start building that statue of me, and let me set a record that will last 100 years!"
Maybe it's his big mouth, but you could see everyone had stopped practice to assess Ram's levels of confidence, and whilst it wasn't about the money, it really came down to everyone wanting to stop Ram from extending his unbeaten streak to a level that was completely unattainable. We love Ram, but we want to break his records.
Break and Run was lucky number 2 ball, Sunnny "Boy" Garib, who smashed in a ball off the break, and controversially caromed a ball without calling the pocket, but it was awarded as it was fairly obvious. However, he pulled out early (not the first person to say this) and took home £100.
First round was quite a mad run of whitewashes. Andy "Banks" Curzon seemed to think that there was a prize for finishing the first round the quickest, as he took Krishen "Kris" Sookhraz down in record time. No prize though. Sam Storey easily won against newcomer, Alex Plunkett. Ram took on another newcomer, Curtis Lecky, who couldn't was faced with a bit of an onslaught. Hassan Mehedi played really well to quickly (well, actually slowly as we all know how Hassan plays!) dispose of Arjon Hasi. Saman Gholami seems to have really upped his game of late, and came in looking like a different player as he easily won 4-0 against Andrew Phan. And Danny Navidi was delighted to record his first victory at the MNT, with a 5-0 win over Ervin "Vini" Demiraj. Couple of really tight matches, as Ciprian Dandu struggled past Jim "Greecey Nandos Slim Penis" Siampanis, and Gabriel Vasilache also dug deep to overcome Tomasz Jedlecki 5-4.
In the second round, notably, Banks just about beat Joe Granville. Gabriel had to face up to Joe (face of Matchroom) Prince, the 8 Ball specialist, but still managed to beat him at his own game. Hassan Mehedi did well to ho hill hill with Martinho Correia, and edged it at the death to progress. The most notable match in the second round was Sam Storey overcoming Ram and winning the "bounty". A bit of a shame, as Ram claimed he was upping the reward on his head for next week to £100. But well done to Sam, who told the crowd "there's a new sheriff in town". He also said that after his poor showing in the UK Open, he was delighted to play some really good pool again.
The quarters saw Sam Storey overcome Banks 4-2, Sunny beat up Hassan 5-1, and Spencer "Afrotastic" Oliver had to dig deep to overcome Saman 4-3. The other quarter final was not able to be played due to an issue over the venue. Gabriel progressed to the semis. The semis saw Sunny fight out a tough match against Spencer, which went to hill hill, and it was Sunny who managed to sneak through to the final. In the other semi, Gabriel lost out to Sam 5-1. Sam is known for getting knocked out in the first round or getting to the final, but is yet to actually win. It's a matter of time before he does, such is his prowess, but it was Sunny who finished the final off as the winner, leaving Sam disappointed, but we know this won't be the last these two face each other in the final. So, well done Sunny. As always, a tough competitor and when he's on form, is a top top player. Sunny is now ranked number 3 in Tooting, just behind Tash, and shows what a powerhouse of a player he is.
Just as an addition, MNT has been a great success, especially the ranking system. Cip, Andrew, and I all want you to have something to aim for, and not just a few prizes at Christmas. Therefore, watch this space, as we will be finalising details of a test event against Solihull, who also run weekly events and a ranking system. If players are ranked highly enough, and play enough times in the year, then we will be selecting teams to represent Tooting against other clubs who can also prove that they have a stable participation and ranking system. This is to avoid "guests" being recruited.
Therefore, we are encouraging everyone to regularly participate, AND, improve! Get your ranking up because you might get selected to represent us throughout the year at special events. Pride is at stake. But moreover, it gets you playing new players in different pressure situations, which means you can prepare yourselves for other big tournaments that occur around the UK and beyond, including Matchroom events.
As a final point, it was great to see Ali HK back in London, after a long absence due to his studies. It was also great to hear that he thought the standard had risen throughout the community, as he watched players battle it out. So well done to all of you for making improvements and keep working on your games!
See you in July when I'm back and hope you all play well.
