Ray Beierling takes Scenic City Crokinole Crown

Coming off an extremely strong performance at the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship, Ray Beierling entered Owen Sound looking for back-to-back victories. While the competition was tough, Beierling held it together when the nerves were high and title was on the line.

With particularly modest November weather, the Owen Sound crowd made for a packed field of most of the best crokinole players in Ontario. A field of 26 for the competitive singles and another 19 teams for the recreational doubles made for a tournament size of 64, which may stand as the largest tournament this year outside of the World Championships.

The preliminary round lined up all 13 tables for singles action of 10 games. A high level of competition raised the bar for 20’s scores with 6 players recording more than 100 20’s in the round. Roy Campbell was the class of the field, scoring 61 points and 122 20’s, and decent distance ahead of second place with Ray Beierling at 56 points. 

Closely behind were Brian Cook, Justin Slater (at a tournament high 129 20’s), and defending Owen Sound Champion, Louis Gauthier. Fred Slater and Robert Bonnett also qualified, just ahead of Nathan Walsh and Howard Martin who grabbed the final spots with 47 and 46 points respectively. Rueben Jong, Jon Conrad and Roger Vaillancourt would hold the unlucky cards, all finishing less than 3 points out of the top group and head to Pool B for the afternoon.

Meanwhile a large doubles round robin was being played, featuring many of the hometown members of the Scone Crokinole Club, and others who drove the long distance in the name of crokinole addiction. While the visitors would perform admirably with Bob Jones and John Lichty finishing second in the 19 team competition, Neil and Carol Cook would bring home the title for the local crowd with a narrow victory of a single point.

On the singles side the 26 players split into 3 groups for the afternoon play. In Pool C, Bev Vaillancourt led the way with 44 points, with Abijah Jong, Wayne Scott and Kyle Vaillancourt following to also qualify for the top 4 playoffs. It was Kyle Vaillancourt who would emerge from the playoff round robin as the top seed, while Bev Vaillancourt needed to win a tie-breaker to sneak past Abijah Jong. That set up a Pool C final of mother vs son, and Bev Vaillancourt would come out on top, once again needing a tie-breaker round to do so.

In Pool B, Brian Simpson started to take charge, scoring 41 points and finishing ahead of Jon Conrad at 40. Roger Vaillancourt and Eric Miltenburg would take the 3rd and 4th spots, just ahead of a dead-heat for 5th place with Peter Tarle, Rueben Jong and Dave Brown all at 31 points. The round of of 4 playoffs would see Roger Vaillancourt lead the way in 20’s with 33, but that was not enough as Jon Conrad and Eric Miltenburg finished first and second with 15 points. In the final Jon Conrad was at his best, winning the best 2 out of 3 match in 2 straight games.

With the Owen Sound title on the line, Pool A saw a lot of tight play as points were extremely hard to come by. Nathan Walsh scored 39 points to earn the top spot, while Justin Slater recorded 38 points, and Ray Beierling 37. The 4th and final spot would be as close as it gets, with Roy Campbell, Fred Slater and Brian Cook at 33 points. After a little math to see the head-to-head scores, it was determined that Roy Campbell had won the final playoff spot. The playoff games were extremely competitive as 4 of the 6 games ended in a 4-4 draw, but when the dust settled Ray Beierling was set to play Nathan Walsh in a rematch of the 2014 London final from last March.

While Nathan Walsh was looking to win his first tournament after losses in his last 2 finals appearances, Ray Beierling was looking for his first singles tournament victory since the Turtle Island Championship in 2013. Continuing on a similar thread of very even play, the first 2 games of the best of 3 would end in a 4-4 tie. Just when it looked like the 3rd game was also going to a draw, Ray Beierling snuck out a point against the hammer to make it 3-3 heading into the 4th round. With the hammer advantage, Beierling grabbed an early 20 and held the advantage to win the match 4-4, 4-4, 5-3.

With the Scenic City Crokinole Championship, Ray Beierling becomes the first player on the NCA Tour to win consecutive tournament titles since Brian Cook, who also won the ODCC followed by Owen Sound in 2012. 
EDIT: As pointed out by Ray Beierling himself, Justin Slater and Brian Cook have completed the same feats within the last 7 months.

The Owen Sound results keep the NCA Tour a fairly tight race, with Justin Slater holding a slight cushion in the lead. It’s still too early to  begin throwing around projections, but look for players less tournaments played, like Brian Cook, Matt Brown, Jason Beierling, Roger Vaillancourt and Louis Gauthier, to make some advancements later in the season.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Home Club	Events	Points	Avg
1	Justin	Slater	Toronto	5	204	49.8
2	Nathan	Walsh	Waterloo	5	196	46.0
3	Ray	Beierling	Varna	6	195	46.8
4	Brian	Cook	Toronto	4	190	47.5
5	Fred	Slater	Toronto	5	186	45.4
6	Matt	Brown	Quinte	4	181	45.3
7	John	Conrad	St.Jacobs	5	171	41.4
8	Roy	Campbell	St.Jacobs	6	168	39.3
9	Jason	Beierling	Varna	4	167	41.8
10	David	Brown	Quinte	5	162	38.4
10	Clare	Kuepfer	Hanover	6	162	36.3
12	Eric	Miltenburg	Toronto	6	160	37.0
13	Peter	Tarle	Quinte	5	146	34.6
14	Roger	Vaillancourt		3	123	41.0
15	Louis	Gauthier	Quinte	3	119	39.7

Meanwhile, on the year-round CrokinoleCentre rankings, the Ray Beierling victory moves him into a co-#1-ranking with Brian Cook for the singles category. The full rankings can be found in the “CrokinoleCentre Rankings” tab above.

Rank	Name	Points		Rank	Singles Only	Points
1	Justin Slater	312		1	Ray Beierling	292
2	Ray Beierling	296		1	Brian Cook	292
3	Nathan Walsh	293.5		3	Nathan Walsh	287.5
4	Brian Cook	292		4	Jon Conrad	279.5
5	Fred Slater	287.5		5	Justin Slater	274.5
6	Jon Conrad	282		6	Fred Slater	262
7	Jason Beierling	275		7	Roy Campbell	252.5
8	Matt Brown	266		8	Eric Miltenburg	241.5
9	Roy Campbell	260		9	Jason Beierling	235.5
10	Louis Gauthier	257		10	John Harvey	215

And with that, the crokinole season quiets down for a little bit. No tournaments in the month of December or February, so we’ll look forward to the Golden Horseshoe Crokinole tournament in Hamilton in January. No specific date set for that tournament yet, but details are sure to come soon.

While the competitive action lessens, the Winter weather is sure to come soon if it hasn’t already, and that mixed with the holiday season makes for some great family memories around the crokinole board.

Back-to-Back for Beierling Brothers

As the defending champions and tournament hosts, Jason and Ray Beierling went out to make a statement, and by the end of the day had an undefeated scorecard combined with a perfect 2-0 record in the page-playoffs to win the 2014 Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship.

The Brucefield United Church held the location for the 5th annual tournament, and even featured a visit from Bluewater mayor Bill Dowson. (Who unfortunately lost his mayoral race a few weeks later to Tyler Hessel.) A gloomy and brisk October day made for some great crokinole, and adequate driving conditions made for a great turnout.

It was a packed field with 12 teams in both the competitive and recreational divisions. Highlighting the competitive field included 2-time defending world champions Justin and Fred Slater, making their first appearance as partners in the ODCC, and 2014 WCC 3rd place team of Matt and Dave Brown.

A full round robin took up all of the morning and the early afternoon as each team targeted a top 4 finish. A lot of teams formed of the usual partnerships from the same club, like Howard Martin and Roy Campbell of St. Jacobs/Waterloo, Tom and Rex Johnston of Varna, Dennis Ernest and Alex Protas of Waterloo, and Peter Carter and Robert Bonnett and the team of Clare Kuepfer and Neil Cook, both of Scone.

But a team that performed spectacularly in the preliminary round was the London/Hamilton pair of Ron Reesor and Eric Miltenburg. Forming quick chemistry, Reesor and Miltenburg scored big wins against Fred and Justin Slater, and Tom and Rex Johnston. Those wins would propel them to a 4th place finish with 53 points. Another pair that do not get matched up with too much frequency, despite being from the same club, were Louis Gauthier and Peter Tarle, who bounced back from an early loss to the Walsh/Hartviksen team to score 55 points and grab the 3rd spot.

In typical fashion, Fred and Justin Slater were responsible for one of the best scores, in both points and 20s. They would finish just ahead of Gauthier/Tarle with 56 points and 144 20s, to earn the crucial spot as the 2nd seed for the page playoffs.

On another level though was Ray and Jason Beierling, who soared to 1st place with a staggering 70 points and 160 20s. Congratulations should be given to Clare Kuepfer and Neil Cook as the only team able to draw even with the Beierlings at 4 points each in the preliminary round.

It was tough luck for both the teams of Martin/Campbell and Brown/Brown who finished 5th and 6th respectively with 48 and 47 points. It was especially tough luck for the hometown team of Ab Leitch and Steve Lefaive, who 4 times had the unfortunate event of outscoring their opponents in 20s, but failing to convert that into any more than 4 points in the game.

On the recreational side the battle to reach the playoffs was even tighter. Al Carter and Jo-Ann Carter earned the most 20s at 79, but finished only 6th with 48 points. Just ahead of them were Alex Ostrem and Pete Wiley at 49 points, but still shy of the top 4. Conrad Sitter and Bill Heather were the lucky ones to squeak into the final spot with 51 points, while Rueben and Abijah Jong (56), Bob Jones and John Lichty (58) and Dave White and Murray Perdue (61) found themselves atop the heap. The recreational playoffs saw the fortunes turn, as Rueben and Abijah Jong finished 1st, followed by Sitter/Heather, Jones/Lichty and White/Perdue.

In the competitive playoffs, and 3-4 page playoff saw Reesor/Miltenburg take on Gauthier/Tarle in a do-or-die match. Reesor/Miltenburg took an early lead in the “first to 12 points” match, only to have Gauthier/Tarle come back with in striking distance, before Reesor/Miltenburg finished it off 13-9.

Meanwhile, Beierling/Beierling and Slater/Slater fought for the automatic entrance into the championship final. Continuing their unbeaten streak, Jason and Ray Beierling comfortably took the match 12-6, sending Justin and Fred Slater to play Miltenburg/Reesor in the semifinal.

With Miltenburg/Reesor coming in with confidence, and Slater/Slater fixing some of their mistakes from the earlier match, it was a thrilling semifinal. Fred and Justin Slater were able to avenge their 7-1 loss to Miltenburg/Reesor earlier in the day, to pull off the great victory 12-10.

That set the final to be a rematch of the 1-2 page playoff, putting the defending Ontario Doubles Champions against the defending World Champions. While there are sure to be rematches in the future, the day belonged to Jason and Ray Beierling, as they dominated the final 13-3, to win their 2nd Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship.

The doubles theme continues on the recreational side of the next stop on the NCA Tour, as Owen Sound hosts their Scenic City Crokinole Tournament on November 22nd. The competitive side will return to singles action as Louis Gauthier hopes to defend his title, and the all of us hope the weather will be give way to bearable driving conditions.

There is still time to register for the tournament, details can be found below.

2014 Choner Crokinole Championship

Apologies for not posting a tournament review from the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship yet. That will come in the following days.

Until then, please enjoy this fantastic review of the 2014 Choner Crokinole Championship from Knipsbrat.

October Crokinole Updates

The NCA Tour hasn’t even hit its halfway mark, but it is well worth having a update on the activities following the competitive crokinole world in the early part of October.

Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship

Photo Credit: CrokinoleDepot

Brucefield will once again play host to the ODCC tournament. It’s the 2nd straight year in that venue as CrokinoleDepot co-sponsors the event with the Varna Crokinole Club. The previous 3 years of the tournament’s history included tournaments in Stratford, and the recurring theme of Brian Cook and Fred Slater coming away as the champs. But as that team was unable to join forces last year, Ray and Jason Beierling stepped up as they defeated Ron and Ray Haymes in the final.

While the tournament entry list is not finalized yet, expect to see the Beierling’s challenging for the title. The Haymes team as well as Tom and Rex Johnston and Matt and Dave Brown have a lot of chemistry and will also be strong forces at the event. The mix and mash of players as they team up for the event is always pretty interesting, so it will be fun to see the teams made up of some pretty strong doubles players like Jon Conrad, Fred Slater and Brian Cook.

However, like all crokinole tournaments, it will all depend on how everyone plays that particular day. And if you want to be there that day, contact ray@crokinoledepot.com to sign up.

Credit: Choner Crokinole

Choner Crokinole Tournament

A fanatic crokinole group exists in New York, and this Astroria-based tournament will enter its 4th edition on the 18th of October. By all accounts it is a terrifically enjoyable event, and word is that Demian Johnston will return in an attempt to reclaim the title. T-shirts are included with registration: http://www.chonercrokinole.com/register.html so how can you go wrong?

All joking aside, it will be nice to see if they find a bump in registration thanks to the BBC Radio shout out in June: http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-06-06/ever-heard-crokinole-sport-has-small-passionate-following.

NCA Tour Standings

Normally analysis of NCA Tour standings are reserved later in the crokinole season when the races for the top spots have taken shape and players are close to clinching the top spot. Well it’s October, and don’t look now, but one player in particular is extremely close to cementing a high score with many tournaments to play.

If you have been paying attention, that player, unsurprisingly, is Justin Slater.

Rank	First	Last Name	Events	Min score	Points
1	Ray	Beierling	4	41	181
2	John	Conrad	4	36	169
3	Justin	Slater	3	50	157
4	Clare	Kuepfer	4	27	152
4	Roy	Campbell	4	34	152
5	Brian	Cook	3	45	150
6	Nathan	Walsh	3	47	149
7	Matt	Brown	3	43	141
7	Eric	Miltenburg	4	29	141
9	Fred	Slater	3	41	139
10	David	Brown	3	36	122
11	Jason	Beierling	3	32	117
12	Tony	Snyder	3	36	112
13	Dale	Henry	4	20	107
14	Peter	Tarle	3	27	98
15	Chris	Gorsline	3	23	89
16	Roger	Vaillancourt	2	44	89
16	Rob Jr.	Mader	2	43	89
18	John	Harvey	2	41	86
19	Cathy	Kuepfer	3	25	85
20	Raymond	Haymes	2	39	78

With only 3 tournaments player, Slater sits in 3rd place - 157 points. Supposing he racks up at least one more tournament victory before the St. Jacobs finale (certainly a feasible task), he’ll sit at 207 points.

207 would be particularly significant because only 4 other players have the potential to earn that many this season. Those players (along with their highest possible scores) are: Brian Cook (210), Fred Slater (210), Nathan Walsh (207) and Clare Kuepfer (207).

Of course, those numbers are only attainable by any of those players by winning 2 more tournaments, plus the NCA final in St. Jacobs. That would be a tough enough task without mentioning that Justin Slater makes it a habit of winning the St. Jacobs tournament (4 victories in 6 years). 

While the crokinole season is still young, the race for the NCA Tour title may be over early.

CrokinoleCentre Rankings

The CrokinoleCentre rankings have been around for two years now and have been an interesting side project to look at every now and then. Here’s a look at the top 25 for both the singles category and the overall. A full listing the updated rankings can be found on the Crokinole Rankings tab above.

Rank	Name	Points		Rank	Singles Only	Points
1	Justin Slater	312		1	Brian Cook	295.5
2	Brian Cook	298.5		2	Ray Beierling	289
3	Ray Beierling	293		3	Nathan Walsh	284
4	Nathan Walsh	291		4	Jon Conrad	279.5
5	Fred Slater	289		5	Fred Slater	264.5
6	Jon Conrad	287		6	Matt Brown	250
7	Jason Beierling	273.5		7	Roy Campbell	243.5
8	Matt Brown	268		7	Eric Miltenburg	243.5
9	Roy Campbell	257		9	Jason Beierling	235.5
10	Clare Kuepfer	249		10	Justin Slater	229.5
11	Eric Miltenburg	247		11	Louis Gauthier	220.5
12	John Harvey	245.5		12	Clare Kuepfer	219
13	Dave Brown	232.5		13	John Harvey	215
14	Howard Martin	224.5		14	Howard Martin	213.5
15	Louis Gauthier	220.5		15	Robert Bonnett	196.5
16	Tom Johnston	218		16	Dale Henry	171
17	Peter Tarle	207.5		17	Peter Tarle	154.5
18	Paul Brubacher	198.5		18	Reuben Jong	151.5
19	Robert Bonnett	196.5		18	Dave Brown	151.5
20	Rex Johnston	195.5		20	Alex Protas	147.5
20	Tony Snyder	195.5		21	Gloria Walsh	143
22	Dale Henry	193		22	Peter Carter	136.5
23	Chris Gorsline	185		23	Tom Johnston	112.5
24	Reuben Jong	184.5		24	Chris Gorsline	109
25	Ron Haymes	183.5		25	Roger Vaillancourt	108

After Jon Conrad owned the number one ranking all last season, there have been significant changes. Ray Beierling grabbed the number one spot after the World Championships, then Brian Cook regained the throne after winning in New York. And now, Justin Slater has finally recorded enough tournament results to get a full ranking, and firmly sits at the top. While Walsh, Brown and Campbell have climbed to career highs, Slater has amassed a massive 312 points, which should secure the number one ranking at least until May of 2015.

Meanwhile, in the Singles Only rankings, Brian Cook still appears as the top name, though Ray Beierling has a good chance to challenge for that, should he get some strong results in the coming tournaments. In case you are wondering, Justin Slater has yet to play a full 4 singles tournaments in the past 12 months, (or the 12 months before that), leading to his lower score. He, along with Louis Gauthier, are ones to watch as they play in a few more tournaments, and their rankings rise as a result.