Slater Plays Spoiler, Jon Conrad Wins 5th NCA Tour

When the field split and the top 11 were established the race was still on, and even heading into the final 4, who would claim the 5th NCA Tour title was still unknown. But after Justin Slater played spoiler and won his 3rd St. Jacob’s title, Jon Conrad would fend off all challengers and become the 2012-2013 NCA Tour Champion.

Justin Slater (right) eyes a takeout in the 2013 St. Jacob's Crokinole Tournament final against Ray Beierling (left) as the rest of the field looks on.

One May 11th, 33 players entered the St. Jacob’s Firehall for the ferocious finish to the 5th NCA Tour. The main attraction for the day was the question of who would win the NCA title; after Jon Conrad had led throughout the entirety of the Tour, he was looking to become only the 4th man to win the NCA Tour, and only the 2nd to win the title outright (Brian Cook won titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012, while Justin Slater and Ray Beierling tied in 2010).

Meanwhile, attention was also drawn towards who would win the Ontario Singles Championship, as the winner in St. Jacob’s. While the history of the Ontario Singles tournament is quite vast, its recent resurgence on the NCA Tour had only seen two previous winners. Brian Cook had won in 2009 over Kent Robinson and in 2011 over Jon Conrad. While Justin Slater won in 2010 by defeating Jason Beierling and 2012 by overcoming Brian Cook.

After the preliminary round, the field was split into 3 groups. Making the top 11 A group was Brian Cook, Ray Beierling, Rob Mader, Justin Slater, Jon Conrad, Ab Leitch, Jason Beierling, Rex Johnston, Roy Campbell, Fred Slater and Bob Mader. Narrowly missing the cut were Louis Gauthier and Greg Matthison, behind only by 2 points each.

Through the preliminary round, a common theme for the day became quite obvious: 20’s. While groups only played 7 or 8 games, a total of 4 players were on pace to score 100 or more 20’s through a full 10 game round. Those players included 20’s leaders like Justin Slater, Brian Cook and Robert Bonnett, but also included the self-proclaimed 20-shooting-cynic Ab Leitch who averaged the highest 20’s count with 89 through 8 games, and on pace to shoot 111.

In the A group the 20’s shooting continued, as the 11 players averaged a 20’s score of 96 each through 10 games. While the high 20’s scores were unfathomable, as Jon Conrad scored 128, Brian Cook scored 123 and Justin Slater had 113, the main goal was to make the top 4. Not surprisingly the aforementioned 3 did make the top 4, along with Ray Beierling. Just on the outside looking in were Jason Beierling and Roy Campbell.

The 20’s scores were also high within the B group, that averaged 94 20’s through 10 games, included a fantastic 20’s score of 138 for Nathan Walsh, 116 for Louis Gauthier and 101 for Eric Miltenburg. Nathan Walsh later admitted that after 4 games his main concern was to try and break the world-record currently held at 142 by Justin Slater.

In the C group, advancing to the playoff portion were Alex Protas, Howard Martin, John Lichty and Bob Jones. While the top seeds of Protas and Martin held their ground through the semifinals, Howard Martin did get the better of Alex Protas in the final to win the C division

The B group playoffs saw Robert Bonnett overcome his 4th seed placement, by beating top qualifier, Nathan Walsh in the semifinals, while John Harvey was able to defeat Barry Kiggins in the 2nd v 3rd seed match. In the final, Robert Bonnett would be victorious after defeating John Harvey in two games.

Focussing our attention back on the A group, the top 4 qualifiers did not include Fred Slater, ruling him out of the NCA title race. So that left Brian Cook and Jon Conrad, with the possibility that a Cook tournament and a Conrad semifinal loss would mean that the two would share the title.

In the 2-3 semifinal, Ray Beierling was the first to play spoiler as he defeated Jon Conrad to advance to the final. It appeared as though it would be a rematch of the 2011 World Championships as Brian Cook held a lead in the 1-4 semifinal. But a comeback from Justin Slater propelled him into the final match and assured that Jon Conrad would be the sole victor of the 2012-2013 NCA Tour. In the Championship match, Justin Slater was extremely successful at grabbing the early lead in almost every round and would eventually win the match to claim his 3rd St. Jacob’s tournament title.

Fred Slater won tournaments at the Ontario Doubles Championship and in London, as well as finished 2nd in doubles in Tavistock, but ended up tied for 3rd as Ray Beierling won the Hamilton tournament, and pulled out enough points to grab a spot on the podium with a runner-up finish in St. Jacob’s.

Ray Beierling (left) shares the 3rd place finish with Fred Slater (right). Interestingly the two were also quite close in 2011-2012 season when Ray Beierling finished 2nd and Fred Slater finished 3rd.

Brian Cook won three tournaments in the middle of the season to quickly earn 200 points, and in the end finished inside the top 3 for the 5th consecutive year.

Brian Cook finished 2nd for the first time on NCA Tour, after victories in 2009, 2011 and 2012, and a third place finish in 2010.

So after an incredible start to the NCA Tour, as Jon Conrad became the first to ever win the doubles and singles categories in Tavistock, Jon Conrad picked up several top 4 finishes and fended off all competitors to win the NCA title.

2012-2013 NCA Tour Champion, Jon Conrad (left) and NCA Chair, Greg Matthison (right)

Here’s the look at the final NCA standings for the 2012-2013 season:

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Points
1	Jon	Conrad	205
2	Brian	Cook	200
3	Ray	Beierling	197
3	Fred	Slater	197
5	Jason	Beierling	188
6	Louis	Gauthier	174
7	Roy	Campbell	172
8	Rex	Johnston	167
9	John	Harvey	164
10	Eric	Miltenburg	163
11	Nathan	Walsh	162
12	Matt	Brown	160
13	Justin	Slater	159
14	Clare	Kuepfer	158
15	Barry	Kiggins	152
16	Howard	Martin	150
17	David	Brown	148
18	Joe	Arnup	137
18	Tom	Johnston	137
20	Chris	Gorsline	136
21	Peter	Tarle	132
22	Rob Jr.	Mader	127
23	Dale	Henry	118
24	Robert	Bonnett	118
25	Albert	Leitch	115
25	Reg	Chisholm	115

And what’s the best part about the end of another NCA season?

It’s that the World Championships is just around the corner!

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll get you ready for the 15th annual World Crokinole Championship. So check back often for more updates, and get your game ready to play your best on June 1 in Tavistock, Ontario.

Conrad, Cook, Slater - Fight to the Finish

First off, that has to be the best crokinole poster I’ve seen yet. It’s almost as if Eric Miltenburg got them to pose for those positions just for the purpose of making the poster. But more importantly, the poster shows what we are all thinking: “This is the finish we want to see.”

On May 11th, the crokinole community will meet in St. Jacob’s for the Ontario SIngles Championship and the finale to the 2012-2013 NCA Tour. And three different men have legitimate chances of claiming the top prize as Jon Conrad sits in first with 204 points, Brian Cook in second with 200 points (with a potential score of 205), and Fred Slater sits in third with 197 points (and a potential high score of 207). Ideally, every NCA Tour would come down to a final tournament showdown where everything is on the line, but this year has probably been closest.

In the 2009 season Brian Cook entered St. Jacob’s with 155 points out of a possible 160. Only Ray Beierling had a chance to catch him, needing a win and Cook not making the final just to tie for the top prize. Cook won the St. Jacob’s tournament and the Tour title.

2009-2010 was a close season, but mostly due to the fact that the St. Jacob’s tournament offered a substantial boost in point totals, giving 65 points to the winner, while the World Champion only received 55 points for his efforts, and any winner of a regular tournament only earned 50 points. So while the Tour came to the exciting conclusion of a tie for the top prize with 209 points for both Ray Beierling and Justin Slater, this was mainly due to the point allocation system in 2010, which was promptly scrapped the following year.

2010-2011 had the potential to come to an exciting finish, with defending World Champion Ray Beierling near the top of the leader board, while Brian Cook “cleaned up” in mid-season. However, with Ray Beierling absent for the final tournament, Brian Cook only had to withstand the challenges from Fred Slater, Jon Conrad and Eric Miltenburg who faced extremely long-odds coming into the final tournament.

And in 2011-2012, the potential for an exciting finish was quickly diminished following the first round of play. As Brian Cook led the Tour, only Ray Beierling and Fred Slater could earn the top title with a victory, and a lower the top 2 finish from Cook. However, only Cook advanced to the top group for the afternoon play, securing the overall title.

So in the 5th season of the NCA, we have our most exciting finish yet. Here’s a portion of the table shown in the last blog.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Points	Low Score	Max Score
1	Jon	Conrad	204	47	212
2	Brian	Cook	200	50	205
3	Fred	Slater	197	45	207
4	Ray	Beierling	190	45	200
5	Jason	Beierling	186	45	196
6	Louis	Gauthier	174	39	190

In the race for first, there are a number of scenarios that could occur. Let’s break these out by player to see what must occur for each to earn the 2013 NCA title.

Jon Conrad

Jon Conrad, as the the reporters say, “controls his own fate”. To ensure the Tour title Conrad must:

• win in St. Jacob’s or finish in 2nd
• finish 3rd while Fred Slater does not win the title
• finish 4th while Cook and Slater do not win
• finish outside the top 4, while Cook does not win and Slater does not make the finals

There are also scenarios where Conrad could share the Tour title:

• finish 3rd while Fred Slater wins
• finish 4th while Cook wins
• finish outside the top 4 while Slater finishes 2nd

Brian Cook

Simply, Cook must win in St. Jacob’s. If Conrad:

• finishes lower than 4th, Cook takes the title
• finishes 4th, the two tie for the Tour title
• finishes in the top 3, Conrad earns the NCA title

Fred Slater

Slater’s scenarios are also simple. To win the title Slater must win the St. Jacob’s tournament while Conrad finishes outside the top 3. Or to tie for the NCA title, must win in St. Jacob’s while Conrad finishes 3rd.

The Top 3

Only 4 players have a chance to finish in the top 3, and they are the aforementioned NCA Tour seekers, plus Ray Beierling. Conrad and Cook are both ensured a place in the top 3, while R. Beierling can grab a spot on the podium with either a win in St. Jacob’s while F. Slater finishes no better than 4th, or Beierling can finish 2nd while Slater finished outside the top 6.

The Top 5

The race for the top 5 is a bit misleading. Louis Gauthier trails Jason Beierling for the 5th spot by a large 12 points, but also has a good deal of room to improve on with a score of 39 that he can remove from his total. Now Gauthier would still likely have to finish in the top 2 to steal a spot in the “Fab 5”, but this is not all to unlikely for someone who finished 3rd in Hamilton after beating the current world champion in the 3rd/4th place game.

The Top 10

Although you probably won’t get any certificates for just a top 10 finish, it’s certainly a nice feeling to end out the NCA season knowing that you are ranked among the top 10. Here’s the remainder of the list, containing all those who can earn a top 10 finish.

Rank

First Name

Last Name

Points

Low Score

Max Score

7	Eric	Miltenburg	163	40	178
8	Matt	Brown	160	38	177
8	Roy	Campbell	160	34	181
10	Clare	Kuepfer	158	38	175
11	Nathan	Walsh	157	33	179
12	Howard	Martin	150	31	174
13	David	Brown	148	34	169
14	Joe	Arnup	137	20	172
15	Chris	Gorsline	136	23	168
16	Peter	Tarle	131	29	157
17	Rex	Johnston	125	0	180
18	John	Harvey	124	0	179
19	Barry	Kiggins	115	0	170
20	Reg	Chisholm	115	20	150
21	Joe	Richards	106	0	161
22	Justin	Slater	104	0	159
23	Tom	Johnston	104	0	159

It’s amazing to see that Justin Slater could foreseeably earn a top 10 finish even after playing in only 3 events during a year.

While there are possibilities that 6th place Louis Gauthier could fall out of the top 10, we’ll ignore covering the extremely unlikely scenario in which that might happen. I may even suggest that Eric Miltenburg’s 163 points will be enough to make the top 10, but seeing as how 10th place last year had 175 points, I suppose it should not be assumed to occur.

Looking at “the cut-off man” of Clare Kuepfer, sitting in 10th with 158 points and a potential score of 175, let’s assume that Clare finishes in St. Jacob’s exactly what his NCA ranking suggests. That is to say in 10th.

That will give him 42 NCA points, for a total of 162. That means that for most of those currently outside of the top 10, a finish somewhere within the top 7 will be required to make the NCA top 10.

And if you are not looking at this tournament for the NCA Tour race, perhaps look at it as the final tuneup for the 2013 World Crokinole Championships. Rest assured, we will begin building towards that tournament immediately after the conclusion of the 2012-2013 NCA Tour.

Register for the the 2013 World Crokinole Championship: http://www.worldcrokinole.com