With thanks to Andy "Banks" Curzon for writing the report this week:

In a rare 2nd 5pm bank holiday start in a row, Doug ‘anything-but-8-ball’ Clark kicked us off on the Brunswick against the Ukrainian Duckboy, but as the lag came in for Mr. Ivanov and he chose 8 ball, Doug’s face fell. Other than an unlucky early 8 ball losing him the opening rack, Kostya had the best of it, winning as he did, 5-2.

An in-form Phan found his rhythm against Tomasz Jedlecki, sneaking past him 5-3 and setting up a mouth-waterer vs the Ukrainian Duckboy in the last 16. Phantastically, the rhythm continued for Mr. P as he slayed the Duck hill hill, leaving him quacking in the corner with his tail between his legs. The Jam slammed Hassan Aljumaili 5-1 as Sean Avery got pimp-slapped 5-3 by Omkar Chimbaikar, setting up a second round between them, which Jamma landed 5-2, allowing us a first quarter final of Ramesh Danny Gokhul vs Andrew Phan (the 9 ball final from two weeks ago).

Ciaran, another player finding some stellar lines recently as he nestles into his new cue, crucified Ali 5-1 but was all out of steam immediately running headfirst into a Rod (luckily not holding his cue at the time), painfully losing his last 16 encounter without a single rack to show for it.

Ramon torched Alan Llorente 5-2 alongside the mighty Saman drilling through Ranj 5 racks to 3, leaving them to face off in the last 16. Saman, the most improved player of 2022, has been offering us some good clearances recently at MNT which he took into his quarter final clash, but couldn’t quite bag Navarro, who won 5-4 in a mammoth encounter that wasn’t over until well after the other 3 semis finalists were decided (remember this was a last 16 round, not even a quarter final yet).

The bottom half of the draw saw Arjon Hasi inch past Danny Navidi hill hill as Big Jim nailed Greg Mostyn 5 racks to 3, setting up a battle of the lefties in the last 16. Ultimately, Jimboleio fell short, allowing Arjon to climb even further up the rankings, sliding into the last 8 by only dropping a single rack v the Greece-ball. They will meet again in Tier 1 of the Tooting league on Wednesdays so it’s not all tears forever for Jimboleio!

‘Twitchy’ Joe Prince disposed of trucker-Paz, but a couple of Joe’s classic choke-artist jabs allowed Brennan a sniffle as he forged himself a consolation rack. Sunny the boy G struggled against Hassan Mehedi but managed to overcome Mehedi’s nous and roll into the last 16. After assuring the press he wasn’t related to Ding Junhui, Twitchy went on to face Sunny in a heated battle going all the way to the wire. Luckily for Sunny Boy, you can always count on Prince dogging a sitter in a decider. After the match he lamented “it’s ok, I won more than a break cue on the weekend – the ol’twitchy trigger finger won’t be a bother ‘til m’next hundred squid set with Pistol - which I need remember to lose or he’ll want an even bigger donkey start: Hee haw!”.

Without any practice at all recently, Martinho Correia took down relative newcomer Tobes Anyouku, who kept with Martinho until 3-3 but then the Master stepped in and experience won through. Weekend UK Open spot winner, Gabriel Vasilache burned a hole in Jenkins’ sidebag 5-2 but couldn’t maintain his form against Martinho in the last 16, who kindly finished Gabriel off 5-4, wiping the smile clean off The Vasilache.

Ali Merchant took down (another newcomer) Simon Prosser 5-1 as Maciej the Crocodile snoozed past Mariusz W 5 racks to 2. Ali Merchant was able to scream past Maciej, 5-0 in the last 16, only to face Master Martinho in the quarters, getting robbed blind 5-1.

So the quarter final line-up:

Ramma Jamma v Andrew Phan; Rodney v Ramon; Arjon v Sunny; Martinho v Ali Merchant.

Repeating his feat of a couple of weeks ago, Jamma drowned Phan 5 racks to 3, Rod rearranged Ramon’s priorities, 5-3, Sunny was having none of Arjon’s form, also snagging a 5-3 win, and Martinho decided to show up against Ali Merchant and book himself a place in the semis with a 5-1 mauling.

So…Ramma v Rod and Sunny v Martinho…4 of Tooting’s hailed “Big 6” (the other members being Gabriel V and the always-semi-retired Tash ‘fish-on-a-hook’ Witko Schultz) and an absolute privilege of a semi-final line-up.

In the top half semi, the Chilean superstar, Altes, had forgotten what it was like on the hot coals of Ram Palace as he eventually bent the knee, 5-2, and Martinho ambushed Sunny by the same scoreline, setting up a multiball battle of the ages: Ramesh vs Martinho, or as it would have been in Street Fighter:

Gokhul (Dhalsim) vs Correia (M Bison).

Martinho has made a good few MNT finals here in the past 6 months or so and this was his chance, despite having barely picked up a cue, and against the no. 1 in town, he pulled a rabbit out of his top-hat and took the game all the way after 8 racks to hill hill. But Ramesh the clutchmeister had one whiff and took his third MNT trophy in as many weeks, unbeaten since his tour of the Americas.

Often we ask ourselves in tight spots, or at least should: what would Jamma do? He’d win three in a row, that’s what! Well out on his own in rankings with over 9 points with no-one else even in the ‘8s’ he’s a stellar fella. Well done Yoda!

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 09 May 2023

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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.

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 25 April 2023

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Bank Holiday at London Snooker Tooting, and out came the big hitters at London’s Finest Pool, to strut around like peacocks, with an atmosphere full of testosterone and sweat, partially because it was pretty blooming hot in the venue.

Most of the big hitters were out last night, with 6 of the top 7 players eyeing each other up across the pool tables, and striking fear into the lower ranked opponents.

First round featured two big matches where all the drama played out.  First off was Ramesh “Ramma Jamma” Gokhul.  Last week’s winner, up against the big-mouthed young Ukrainian, Kostiantyn Ivanov.  Ram holds a 4-1 winning record over Kostya since having first faced each other in August 2022.  Kostya is well-known for being a superb player on his day, and his play with no fear, means he’s a match for anyone in Tooting.  With Ram looking a little off-form, this match went to hill-hill, but it was Ram who took it in the end.

The other featured match was between Dan “Seoul Destroyer” Suh and Saman Gholami.  Saman came racing out of the blocks, but at 3-1, snatched at an easy chance to make it 4-1, and Dan started to use every bit of gamesmanship to claw his way back into the match and brought it to hill-hill.  However, Saman pulled himself together and eased himself back into the match to win 5-4.

Only one whitewash in the first round, as newcomer, Maciej Kowejsza found himself up against the eminent, Martinho Correia, one of the most experienced players on the circuit, and one of the toughest to face if you’re making your debut at the Tooting Arena.  5-0 to Martinho but we’ll surely see Maciej back at Tooting to try his luck again.

The second round was more dramatic as there were some really captivating matches to follow.  Andrew Phan, finalist from last week, faced up to the might of Sunny “Boy” Garib. Getting in his excuses early, Sunny told the gathering reporters that he hadn’t been feeling very well over the weekend, and that it might affect his performance.  Andrew was feeling pretty solid, especially after the unsurprisingly quick-fire rapid win in the first round against fellow speed pool competitor, Andy “Banks” Curzon, and took his chances against Sunny to win 5-4.

Marius Dandu, who had been announcing his semi-retirement for months, put up a tremendous fight against Rod “the God” Altes.  Marius has been blowing hot and cold, but like a tiger eyeing up his prey, knew that he was facing Rod at the best time possible.  And like the little tiger that Marius is, jumped on Rod’s mistakes and devastatingly tore Rod to shreds to win 5-4.  Whether Marius actually semi-retires or not is yet to be seen, but any tournament without Marius swearing lots and claiming he’s going to give up the game is not a real tournament.

Meanwhile, Henri “the Finnisher” Linnainmaa, one of the most consistent players in Tooting, had to face up to the third ranked player in Tooting, Gabriel “Fake Taxi” Vasilache, the man with the hardest stare in all of London.  Gabriel hasn’t been able to make MNT for the last 2 months, but was able to put in a hard-working performance and ran out 5-4 winner. 

And the final close call in the second round was between Saman and Jim “Greecey Slim Penis” Siampanis.  Two warriors and despite the slow start, Greecey Jim turned on the pressure and played some really good quality stuff to win 5-4. 

Elsewhere, Dan Jenkins suffered a whitewash a the hands of Arjon “the Beard” Hasi, and what was supposed to be the match of the night between 1^st and 2^nd ranked players, Tashunka “Witko” Schultz arrived without his cues, and had to borrow one, which was a fine excuse for losing 5-0 to Ram. 

The quarters looked rather promising, and 3 of the big 6 were still in the competition, showing that the chasing pack are performing much more dangerously than a year ago.  First up was Ram against Joe Prince, the rather good English pool player who has taken to American pool lately.  Despite being a top level English pool player, Joe is extremely tidy stroking unfamiliar thicker shafts, but against Ram, it’s a different matter altogether.  A 5-2 win for Ram, but it’s pretty clear that Joe is going to improve and perhaps replicate a bit of what Rod has recently done, in terms of making the switch from English to American pool.

Meanwhile, Martinho demonstrated his silky skills as he tore through Andrew Phan, 5-1.  In the battle of Romanians, Gabriel and Marius promised to be an epic clash, but it was Gabriel who came through 5-3.  And Arjon was making light work of Greecey Jim by winning 5-1.  Arjon has, in the past, threatened to be quite some player, but underperformed to his true level, but this was certainly a top class performance, the kind of performance that the fans had been waiting for.

The first semi-final was a true battle between two of the wisest and experienced competitors.  If you can’t learn something from these two, then there isn’t anything to learn.  However, with Ram being very much a regular player, against Martinho who plays far less, it was evident in the match that whilst experience counts for much, so does regular play, and it was Ram who ended up 5-1 winner. 

In the other semi, the fearsome Gabriel had to contend with a high-flying Arjon, and Arjon was playing at his peak levels.  5-1 winner to Arjon and Gabriel will feel annoyed at not putting up more of a fight. 

And so to the final.  Ram is the King of Tooting for a reason, and yet again showed that it takes a lot more than a decent run to beat him.  An absolute master class was dished out as Arjon was blown away 5-0.  After the match, Ram pointed at the reporters and said “you see, I’ve even got the sniffles.  But man flu won’t keep me away, and the sniffles won’t stop me winning.  Bring it on and I’ll feel even better next week, so one of you will have to step up to the plate and beat me!”

Fighting talk from the diminutive yoda of Tooting indeed, and caps off his second tournament in the row since his return from his tour of the Americas.  What is noticeable, though, is that by and large, players are closing the gaps and there are almost no surprises when players lose, making it a very competitive season at Tooting.

FYI, for those who aren’t aware, there are a couple of Mosconi Cup tickets for the Friday 8^th December session at the Ally Pally, that are available.  If you’re interested in going, please message me, Dan “Seoul Destroyer” Suh on WhatsApp, and hopefully we’ll have some spaces.

Also, don’t forget that non-tournament chat goes on in the Piranhas group on WhatsApp too, so if you want to get quicker news, please join that chat.  Just message me and I’ll send you the link.  However, be warned, you might want to mute the chat and check it out from time to time, depending on who’s chuntering on and on and on.

Also, please see the weekly ranking and points changes below:

Have a great week and see you next Monday!

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 02 May 2023

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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……

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Written by Dan Suh

Category: Home

Published: 18 April 2023

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