2013-2014 NCA Tour - Halfway Check

It’s almost strange to think that half of the NCA Tour has already been completed, but with the advent of many tournaments spread out over the calendar year, such is the case as 2013 comes to a close.

The 2013-2014 Tour consists of 11 scoring events, 6 of which passed with the 2013 year; including New York, Belleville, Brucefield, Owen Sound, and the doubles and singles events in Tavistock. That leaves only Hamilton, London, the 2 events in BC, and the NCA finale in St. Jacob’s.

The 2012-2013 Tour, won by Jon Conrad, will most likely be remembered for Conrad’s terrific start, collecting 2 World titles and amassing 110 points on the first day of the Tour. Even with Brian Cook winning 6 consecutive titles and finishing 2nd in St. Jacob’s, Conrad still won the NCA Tour by a sizable 5 points.

This season however, is shaping up to be much more competitive, and is heading to a much tighter finish as the Tour enters the back half of the season.

While Jon Conrad got out to another amazing start in Tavistock, taking 107 points, the parity around the Tour so far has left the NCA title in doubt, and has left many players still in the hunt. In fact, currently the Tour’s top spot doesn’t even belong to Conrad, but rather Ray Beierling. R Beierling was also very successful in Tavistock with two 3rd place finishes to take 100 points, but has also won in Brucefield and New York to lead Conrad by a single point, at an even 200.

The chart below shows the current top 20 players on the 2013-2014 Tour. Of most importance is the points column where we can see the tight battle for first place, and then a decent gap to Fred Slater in sole possession of 3rd spot, as the ranking points trickle down.

I’ll direct your attention to the two rightmost columns, which provide more detail into the scores that make up a players total. The “4th score” column indicates the lowest score currently counting towards the point total. As is obvious, to improve one’s overall ranking, they have to replace that lower score with a larger one.

This is definitely an important piece of information, as Ray Beierling’s lowest score of 50 shows that he cannot improve his point total until the St. Jacob’s tournament when more than 50 points are available for a first place finish. While Beierling leads Conrad by 1, Conrad certainly has the advantage, by having more chances to increase his total. As 45 points is a 3rd place finish in regular tournaments, an appearance in the finals will allows Conrad to retake first place.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Points	4th score	3rd score
1	Ray	Beierling	200	50	50
2	John	Conrad	199	45	47
3	Fred	Slater	183	40	41
4	Nathan	Walsh	179	42	42
4	Jason	Beierling	179	39	40
6	Louis	Gauthier	172	33	43
7	Matt	Brown	170	39	41
8	Clare	Kuepfer	166	33	33
9	Roy	Campbell	160	37	38
10	Eric	Miltenburg	157	38	38
11	Howard	Martin	148	25	38
12	Raymond	Haymes	147		47
13	Justin	Slater	145		45
14	Ron	Haymes	142		47
15	David	Brown	139	20	35
16	Brian	Cook	134		43
17	Tom	Johnston	130		39
18	Tony	Snyder	122		25
19	Peter	Tarle	118	25	28
19	Dale	Henry	118	20	27

Looking into the chart a little more, you get the idea how good of a chance several players have to challenge Beierling and Conrad for the top spot.

With low scores of 40 and 41, if Fred Slater were to win one event and then finish in the top 3 in St. Jacob’s, his score would end up between 202 and 207. He’s certainly very capable of doing that, and could very well be on top when the dust settles.

While Walsh and Jason Beierling currently share 4th place, Beierling is in a much better position to improve his scores. A win and a top finish in Hamilton and London would put his score close to 200, to be within striking distance of first place.

Three more notables come in the ranks from 12th to 14th as Justin Slater is sandwiched between Ray and Ron Haymes. The blank cell indicates that none of them have registered a 4th event so far this year, meaning that they have a tremendous opportunity to grow their score. While it’s uncertain whether the Haymes will reappear to the crokinole scene before the 2014 World Championships, it’s very likely Justin Slater will be competing to defend his St. Jacob’s title, with a chance to bump his score up to 200 points, which should be good enough for a spot on the podium.

Lastly, it should be mentioned the scores of Brian Cook and Tom Johnston at 16th and 17th. Each still do not have a 4th event to score yet, and each have relatively low “3rd scores”. While both face a tough mountain to climb, the number of events remaining provide them an outside opportunity to fight for the NCA title.

So the back-half of the season should be filled with a lot of excitement as there is still a lot to be determined. In about a month the first tournament of 2014 will take place in Hamilton for the 6th edition of Golden Horseshoe Crokinole Tournament (one of only 3 tournaments from the NCA’s inaugural tour). Brian Cook was not in attendance to defend his title in last year’s tournament, allowing Ray Beierling to win his first Golden Horseshoe trophy. Perhaps they will both be competing in what should be a star-studded field as the 6th NCA Tour continues in 2014.

If you are sitting down with some relatives around a crokinole board this holiday season, this is a nice thing to keep in mind. This photo was found on http://louisvillecrokinoleclub.com meaning the credit likely goes to Jim Farris.

Gauthier wins first NCA title in Owen Sound

Louis Gauthier probably hopes for 2 things come the day of a tournament. One, that his name gets pronounced correctly, and two, that he can walk away with the title. He made sure the latter occurred on Saturday on a snowy day in Owen Sound.

Weather held back a few competitors, and made a few more a little late to the party, but when it got going 44 competitors made up the tournament total. 16 teams competed in the Recreational Doubles category and 12 in the competitive singles.

While the singles field contained 7 of the top 12 CrokinoleCentre ranked players, only one of the top 6 (Fred Slater at 5th) was in attendance. That left the door open to any other top player looking to have a particularly strong day at the Scenic City Crokinole Tournament.

The preliminary round saw 10 games of action with Louis Gauthier leading the log jam with 55 points and 89 20’s. Right behind were Nathan Walsh with 54 points and a tournament high 105 20’s, then Fred Slater and Eric Miltenburg with 53 points, and Howard Martin and Matt Brown with 52 and 51 points respectively.

Into the afternoon the second round action heated up. Leading the way in Pool B action were Robert Bonnett and Clare Kuepfer, setting up the semifinals. Robert Bonnett prevailed over Gloria Walsh, and Dale Henry defeated Clare Kuepfer. In the finals, Bonnett was in top form to take the B title.

In Pool A, Nathan Walsh and Matt Brown took the top seeds, with Fred Slater and Louis Gauthier just behind. Fred Slater was able to defeat Matt Brown in one semifinal match 5-1, 6-2. In the other semifinal, Louis Gauthier got revenge over Walsh from their Belleville semifinal, winning 4-4, 5-3, 3-5, 4-0 (in extra rounds), in a match that saw both players amazingly score a perfect game twice.

That set up Gauthier’s first ever NCA final, against Fred Slater, looking for his second tournament title of the 2013-2014 season. In the first game both players held the hammer rounds to finish 4-4. Gauthier began to shoot very well in the second game and won 6-0. In the third game Slater was looking for a win to extend the match, but Gauthier failed to miss an open 20 and took the third game 5-3 to win the match, and become the King of Scenic City Crokinole.

The NCA Tour is now off for a couple of months, before returning in 2014 for the Hamilton tournament.

Beierlings win Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship

Cold and rainy weekends in the local church of small Ontario towns were where crokinole thrived. It was in the United Church in Brucefield where Raymond and Jason Beierling won the 2013 Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship.

52 competitors packed the small community centre, with 14 teams in the competitive division and 12 in the recreational. It was a star-studded field of competitive action with 16 of the 28 competitive players having previous top 4 World Championship finishes, and 8 World Doubles Champions.

The top dogs in the event were: 

Fred Slater and Eric Miltenburg (making up one half of the 3-time defending Ontario champions)

Ron and Ray Haymes (2006 World Doubles champs)

Jon Conrad and Tony Snyder (2012 World champs)

Ray and Jason Beierling (6-time World champs)

Rex and Tom Johnston (2011 3rd place World Doubles teams)

Dave and Matt Brown (2011 World Doubles runner-up)

Bill Freeman and Paul Brubacher (one-half of the 2001 World champs)

The preliminary round consisted of a full round-robin with each team playing 6 rounds against one another, with the top 4 proceeding to the page playoffs.

Leading the way with 105 points was Ray and Ron Haymes, followed by Ray and Jason Beierling with 100, and Jon Conrad and Tony Snyder with 96. Tied for the 4th and final spot were Tom and Rex Johnston and Fred Slater and Eric Miltenburg with 91, with the Johnston’s making the cut based on 207 20’s. Just missing out were Ab Leitch and Wayne Gingerich with 86 points, and John Harvey and Ron Reesor with 85 points.

Page Playoff action at the 2013 ODCC.

That set up a newly designed page playoff system, used primarily in curling. As a result the top 2 seeds, Ron and Ray Haymes and Jason and Ray Beierling, would compete for an entry into the finals, with the loser going to the semifinals. The other match would be the 3 vs 4 page playoff with the winner moving to the semifinals and the loser being eliminated. That 3 vs 4 match between Conrad/Snyder and Johnston/Johnston went the distance in a first to 10 point match with a point cap of 18, where Conrad/Snyder came out on top 18-16.

Jon Conrad sinks a 20 in the marathon match as Conrad/Snyder edges Johnston/Johnston.

In the 1 vs 2 match, Beierling/Beierling prevailed 11-3 over Haymes/Haymes to move to the final. That left a semifinal match between Haymes/Haymes and Conrad/Snyder for the last spot in the finals. Haymes/Haymes would reverse their fortunes from their previous match to win 11-3, and leave Conrad/Snyder to a 3rd place.

2013 ODCC Finals - Beierling/Beierling vs Haymes/Haymes

So the 2013 Ontario Doubles Champions would be decided with a rematch between Haymes/Haymes and Beierling/Beierling. The Beierlings would get an early edge, stealing one point against the hammer with a tie in the first round. The match was extremely tight, tied at 5-5, until the Beierlings took over to win the match 11-5 and take their first ever Ontario Doubles Crokinole title.

2013 ODCC Winners - Ray and Jason Beierling

The next stop on the 2013-2014 NCA Tour will be in Owen Sound for the Scenic City Crokinole Tournament on November 23, 2013.

Walsh wins rematch in Belleville

For the most part it was a case of deja vu on Saturday, as a Brian Cook and Nathan Walsh met for the second straight year with the Belleville Crokinole Challenge title on the line. This time it was Walsh who would come out on top to win the NCA’s September Tour stop.

A total of 24 were in attendance with large crews from Belleville and Kingston for the 3rd annual Belleville Crokinole Challenge. What was once thought to be a venue too far from Southwestern Ontario has become a staple of the NCA Tour and one of the best run tournaments of the year.

The morning play split the field into two groups of 12. A familiar bunch found themselves at the top of the heap of Round 1 scores as John Conrad, Ray Beierling and Brian Cook each had 66, 64 and 63 points respectively, with Cook having the high 20’s score with 96 through 10 games. Cruising in comfortably with scores in the 50’s were Nathan Walsh, Jason Beierling, Louis Gauthier and Fred Slater, and not too far behind were Dave Brown, Chris Gorsline, Ken Anderson and Eric Miltenburg. The fight for the final spot in the top group was tight, but it would go the way of the Quinte’s own, Matt Brown with 39 points, just ahead of Clare Kuepfer, Phil Somers and Jairo Munoz.

With 4 of the 12 spots in Division A belonging to the Quinte Region Crokinole Club, the hosts were looking for some players to make the playoff portion of the day. The man to answer that call was Louis Gauthier, advancing to the semifinals with 54 points and 93 20’s. Gauthier’s score would be second best to John Conrad with 56 points and 93 20’s, while Nathan Walsh would be 3rd with 54 points and 80 20’s.

But there would be a log jam for the 4th and final playoff position as only 4 points separated 4th through 8th. Eric Miltenburg scored 41, and Matt Brown scored 42, despite having the tournament-high 109 20’s. Jason Beierling scored 43 points, and Raymond scored 44, while Brian Cook slid into 4th with 45 points and 99 20’s.

In Division B, Clare Kuepfer took the top spot through the round robin, with Phil Somers, Wayne Scott and Shirley Sager (claiming the top Woman’s prize) completed the top 4. The semifinals saw the top seeds of Clare Kuepfer and Phil Somers advance to the finals, which proved to be a hotly contested affair. After 3 games the two players were tied, which meant the famous Quinte Convention would be placed into effect. Through the first pair of tiebreaker rounds the players were still tied, and the deadlock persisted through 2nd and 3rd sets of tiebreaker rounds, until Phil Somers nabbed a 3-1 edge in the 4th set of rounds to take the Division B title.

All had gathered around to watch the final match, between Kuepfer and Somers, come to its dramatic conclusion.

Meanwhile in Division A, Brian Cook faced off against John Conrad (a rematch of last year’s semifinals) and Nathan Walsh battled Louis Gauthier. It’s interesting to note that the 4 semifinals were almost an exact match to the 2012 results, with the only discrepancy coming as Gauthier replaced Fred Slater.

The similarities to 2012 continued as Cook defeated Conrad, and Walsh defeated Gauthier to meet in the finals. It was the 3rd championship meeting for Cook and Walsh, with Cook holding a 2-0 edge (2009 WCC and 2012 Belleville Challenge), while Brian Cook was also searching a 3rd consecutive title in Belleville.

The very competitive match saw each player score 7 20’s in the third round of the first game, to level it a 3-3. But Walsh would win the fourth round to take the first game, and ride the momentum into the second game to win the match 5-3, 5-1 for his first NCA singles title.

After those results, here’s a look at the updated CrokinoleCentre rankings for the top 20 spots. Also attached are the rank and points changes from the previous rankings released after the New York tournament.

Rank	2013 Belleville	Pts	Rank Chg	Pts Chg
1	Jon Conrad	304.5	0	0
2	Brian Cook	298	0	-3
3	Fred Slater	297.5	0	0
4	Ray Beierling	295.5	0	-1
5	Jason Beierling	286	0	0
6	Justin Slater	279.5	0	0
7	Nathan Walsh	260	2	12
8	Louis Gauthier	255.5	2	9.5
9	Eric Miltenburg	250	-2	-3
10	Matt Brown	250	2	19
11	Clare Kuepfer	249	-3	0.5
12	Rex Johnston	235	-1	0
13	Roy Campbell	227	1	0
14	Howard Martin	225.5	-1	-4
15	Dave Brown	225	1	12
16	Tom Johnston	220.5	-1	0
17	Barry Kiggins	206.5	0	0
18	Peter Tarle	191	0	-4
19	Greg Matthison	189.5	0	0
20	Chris Gorsline	189.5	0	5.5

Walsh, Gauthier, Gorsline, Matt and Dave Brown all saw a decent boost in their total points due to strong results in Belleville.

A full list of the updated ranking can be viewed by clicking the "CrokinoleCentre Rankings" tab at the top.

The next stop on the NCA Tour is the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship, sponsored by CrokinoleDepot and hosted in Brucefield for the day of November 2nd.