Friday 19 July 2013

2013 Year-End CrokinoleCentre Rankings


One year ago the first edition of the CrokinoleCentre rankings were released. The main goal was to establish some way of ranking players on their most recent tournaments, to hopefully compare players on their current form. The rankings use results from the past two years with the majority of points weighted with towards the most recent year. 

When the rankings were first released, here’s what the top 20 looked like.


Rank
Name
Points
1
Brian Cook
305.5
2
Jon Conrad
298
3
Fred Slater
296.5
4
Ray Beierling
286.5
5
Jason Beierling
281.5
6
Eric Miltenburg
270.5
7
Joe Arnup
262
8
Nathan Walsh
255.5
9
Clare Kuepfer
246.5
10
Ron Haymes
240
11
Paul Brubacher
239
12
Louis Gauthier
233.5
13
Justin Slater
230
14
Howard Martin
223
15
Dave Brown
213.5
16
Matt Brown
183
17
Rex Johnston
179.5
18
Greg Matthison
168.5
19
Chris Gorsline
157
20
Ray Haymes
148


Despite being the first to ever win the doubles and singles categories in one World Championships (and amassing enough points to propel him to his first NCA Tour title), Jon Conrad still sat second to Brian Cook’s consistent form. This seemed fair, as the general consesus of players probably still would have ranked Brian Cook ahead of Jon Conrad at the time, even with Conrad’s historic feat fresh in their mind.
Fred Slater, Ray Beierling and Jason Beierling were coming off consecutive years in the NCA top 5. Miltenurg, Arnup, Walsh, Kuepfer and Gauthier all had strong years in the NCA, while Ron Haymes and Paul Brubacher had recently had strong performances in the World Championships.

Here is a look at the current standings following the 2013 World Championships. (The Top 50 are listed here, but the full rankings including 150 players are listed under the Rankings tab above.)

One full year later and not much has changed among the top group. Most noticeably, Jon Conrad has finally grabbed the number one rankings, moving Brian Cook down to #2. A fitting finish to the year for Conrad, who held the moniker of World Champion, while trying to defend a fantastic start to the NCA Tour, and performed brilliantly through it all. Back-to-back World titles in the singles categories, and a runner-up finish in doubles puts Conrad at the pinnacle of the game of crokinole and easily deserving of the number 1 spot in the rankings.

The rankings points also show a clear distinction between the top 5 and the field, with 33 points between 5th and 6th. A much larger gap than at the start of the year where only 11.5 points separated 5th and 6th. An equally fitting result as the top 5 players, made up the championship finals of every Ontario tournament with the exception of 3. The only Ontario tournament not won by one of these top 5 players was the 2013 St. Jacob’s.


Rank
Name
Points
1
Jon Conrad
304.5
2
Brian Cook
301
3
Fred Slater
297.5
4
Ray Beierling
296.5
5
Jason Beierling
286
6
Eric Miltenburg
253
7
Clare Kuepfer
248.5
8
Nathan Walsh
248
9
Louis Gauthier
246
10
Rex Johnston
235
11
Justin Slater
234.5
12
Matt Brown
231
13
Howard Martin
229.5
14
Roy Campbell
223
15
Tom Johnston
220.5
16
Dave Brown
213
17
Barry Kiggins
206.5
18
Peter Tarle
195
19
Greg Matthison
189.5
20
Chris Gorsline
184
21
John Harvey
177.5
22
Joe Arnup
172
23
Rob Mader
169.5
24
Ron Haymes
162.5
25
Kent Robinson
161.5
26
Ab Leitch
159
27
Lawson Lea
158
28
Dale Henry
157.5
29
Ray Haymes
157
30
Robert Bonnett
155
31
Paul Brubacher
150
32
Lloyd Wiseman
143.5
33
Bob Mader
141
34
Joe Richards
140.5
35
Tony Snyder
139.5
36
Quin Erzinger
139
37
Linda Irvine
137
38
Alex Protas
126.5
39
Rueben Jongsma
126
40
Nathan Jongsma
125.5
41
Ron Reesor
124
42
Adrian Conradi
123.5
43
Michael Hughes
120
44
Reg Chisholm
120
45
Ed Ripley
116.5
46
Bill Freeman
115
47
Ed Erzinger
111.5
48
Roger Vaillancourt
111.5
49
Denis Chartier
110
50
Tom Doucette
109

Throughout the year, the results of only the singles events of the year have been tracked, with the idea that removing the doubles tournaments will provide as different look at each players form, and perhaps give a better idea of who the top players are.
At the start of the year the top 5 looked like this:


Rank
Singles Only
Points
1
Brian Cook
305.5
2
Jon Conrad
298
3
Fred Slater
296.5
4
Ray Beierling
286.5
5
Jason Beierling
281.5


Throughout the year Brian Cook held the number 1 spots in both ranking categories, and will remain the number 1 ranked player in this category at the end of the season. However, the hunt for the top spot has become much tighter with less than 4 points separating the top 3 players. Furthermore, that hunt for the top has created a massive gap between the top 3 and the remaining field, separated by 38 points.


Rank
Singles Only
Points
1
Brian Cook
295
2
Jon Conrad
293.5
3
Ray Beierling
291.5
4
Fred Slater
253.5
5
Eric Miltenburg
246
6
Nathan Walsh
232
7
Clare Kuepfer
227.5
8
Louis Gauthier
222
9
Jason Beierling
221
10
Howard Martin
209.5
11
Roy Campbell
194
12
Peter Tarle
171.5
13
Ab Leitch
159
14
Dale Henry
157.5
15
Greg Matthison
155.5
16
Justin Slater
153.5
17
Barry Kiggins
142
18
Tom Johnston
138
19
Dave Brown
136
20
Joe Arnup
128
21
Alex Protas
126.5
22
Rueben Jongsma
126
23
Ron Reesor
124
24
John Harvey
122.5
25
Rob Mader
115.5
26
Paul Brubacher
113
27
Reg Chisholm
99
28
Bob Mader
90
29
Tom Doucette
88.5
30
Chris Gorsline
88


Overall it has been an enjoyable start to producing and tracking these rankings, and this will continue into the future.

Soon around in the calendar is the second annual running of the Turtle Island Crokinole Tournament in Lewiston, New York on August 11th. And as an extra bonus it will be added to the 2013-2014 NCA Tour.

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