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.
