Sunday 30 November 2014

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.

Sunday 16 November 2014

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.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

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.

Saturday 11 October 2014

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.