The Playoffs are Coming Up

As the NHL regular season comes to an end, and the playoffs in full view, the crokinole season also enters its most crucial and exciting stretch. On May 11th, the focus shifts to St. Jacob’s for the 2013 Ontario Crokinole Championships, and the conclusion to the 5th season of the NCA Tour. And only a few weeks later will be the 15th edition of the World Crokinole Championships.

Last weekend was a busy one, as always, with the Joseph Schneider Haus and PEI Provincial Championships going on. While we’ll wait for full results to come in from the PEI tournament, we can report that the Varna Crokinole Club has won the exclusive team tournament. While the tournament has underwent some changes over the years, its current competition slate has teams from Varna, St. Jacob’s, Preston, London and Waterloo. In the most recent years it has really been pure dominance from Varna and St. Jacob’s, creating quite the rivalry, but now Varna has won the past two JSH tournaments.

With the London and BC full tournament results now available, we can update the rankings.

For the NCA with one tournament left, the standing are tight.

The “Low Score” column shows the lowest score counting in a player’s current point total. A score of 0, means that this player has played less than four tournaments, and does not yet have a complete point total. This column gives an indication to how much a player’s score can change, as a strong St. Jacob’s finish will eliminate their lowest score. Obviously “Max Score” shows the highest possible point total for the player.

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
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
24	Lloyd	Wiseman	103	0	158
25	Kent	Robinson	98	0	153
26	Dale	Henry	97	20	132
27	Ron	Haymes	96	0	151
28	Quin	Erzinger	95	0	150
29	Linda	Irvine	95	0	150
30	Jody	Good	94	0	149
31	Ron	Reesor	88	0	143
32	Reuben	Jong	87	0	142
33	Len	Chard	85	0	140
34	Rob Jr.	Mader	83	0	138
35	Adrian	Conradi	82	0	137
36	Tony	Snyder	82	0	137
37	Jordon	Ripley	81	0	136
38	Nathan	Jongsma	81	0	136
39	Michael	Hughes	80	0	135
40	Lawson	Lea	77	0	132

I plan on doing a more in depth analysis of the NCA Tour scenarios soon, but for now we’ll leave you with a bit of a teaser.

• 3 players can finish 1st
• 4 players can make the top 3
• 6 can make the top 5
• 18 can make the top 7
• 22 can make the top 10

And let’s not forget about another edition of the CrokinoleCentre rankings, updated as of London 2013 tournament. Here’s the top 40:

Rank	Name	Points
1	Brian Cook	305.5
2	Jon Conrad	298
3	Fred Slater	289.5
4	Ray Beierling	288
5	Jason Beierling	283
6	Eric Miltenburg	259.5
7	Clare Kuepfer	251.5
8	Louis Gauthier	245.5
9	Nathan Walsh	233.5
10	Howard Martin	231
11	Justin Slater	230
12	Joe Arnup	227.5
13	Matt Brown	226.5
14	Paul Brubacher	204.5
15	Chris Gorsline	201
16	Rex Johnston	192.5
17	Tom Johnston	191
18	Lawson Lea	189.5
19	Roy Campbell	178.5
20	Dave Brown	169.5
21	Rob Mader	160.5
22	Nathan Jongsma	155
23	Ron Haymes	152
24	Greg Matthison	150.5
25	Kent Robinson	149.5
26	Quin Erzinger	139
27	Linda Irvine	137
28	Rueben Jongsma	127.5
29	John Harvey	125
30	Adrian Conradi	123.5
31	Michael Hughes	120
32	Ed Ripley	116.5
33	Tom Doucette	115
34	Wilfred Smith	114.5
35	Ed Erzinger	111.5
36	Denis Chartier	110
37	Ron Reesor	106
38	Lloyd Wiseman	104
39	Wayne Gingerich	96
40	Jody Good	94

You’ll notice the top 6 remain unchanged, Louis Gauthier and Clare Kuepfer swap places at 7th and 8th, and Howard Martin reclaims a spot in the top 10 as Paul Brubacher falls from 9th to 14th. By not playing, Justin Slater has reached his highest ranking yet at 11th, and once the PEI results come in, and the points from 2012 get cut in half, he’ll even move up into the top 10, as those ahead of him lose points.

Speaking of PEI, Lawson Lea still holds the highest position of a non-Ontario player, sitting at 18th. And from BC, Quin Erzinger moves up to 26th, with fellow BC contender and highest ranked female, Linda Irvine in 27th.

And in the singles rankings:

Rank	Singles Only	Points
1	Brian Cook	305.5
2	Jon Conrad	290
3	Ray Beierling	286
4	Eric Miltenburg	255
5	Fred Slater	255
6	Clare Kuepfer	235.5
7	Jason Beierling	234
8	Louis Gauthier	215.5
9	Howard Martin	211.5
10	Nathan Walsh	199.5
11	Paul Brubacher	196
12	Matt Brown	171.5
13	Roy Campbell	168.5
14	Justin Slater	154
15	Greg Matthison	150.5
16	Joe Arnup	149.5
17	Rob Mader	126.5
18	Rueben Jongsma	107
19	Kent Robinson	106.5
20	Ron Reesor	106
21	Lawson Lea	103.5
22	Rex Johnston	100.5
23	Dave Brown	99
24	Tom Johnston	99
25	Chris Gorsline	93
26	Nathan Jongsma	92.5
27	John Harvey	82
28	Jason Hogan	75.5
29	Tom Doucette	74
30	Quin Erzinger	71.5
31	Lawrence Wicks	68
32	Wilfred Smith	67.5
33	Alex Protas	67.5
34	Lloyd Wiseman	67
35	Adrian Conradi	65.5
36	Linda Irvine	65.5
37	Jason Carter	65
38	Ron Haymes	59.5
39	Brian Wensley	56.5
40	Ab Leitch	54.5

Brian Cook remains out in with no signs of relinquishing his top ranking, though the two most important tournaments of the year are approaching with lots of ranking points up for grabs. With the London results, Jon Conrad’s second place finish pushes him ahead of Ray Beierling for a second-third place swap. Jason Beierling’s absence, thus not being able to defend his London title has caused him to drop to 7th, allowing Eric Miltenburg to move to 4th, Fred Slater to 5th and Clare Kuepfer up into 6th. The biggest mover was Matt Brown, some nice results moved him up from 18th to now 12th, with the potential to reach the top 10 before the end of the year.