NCA Tour - March Update

We are a little over a week removed from the BC Provincial Championships, and the crokinole season has hit it’s peak where several events are jammed into a great 3 month stretch. While the NCA Tour only has 2 events remaining (London and St. Jacob’s) there are still several major events coming up. While the London tournament is fast approaching for the end of March, April has the Joseph Schneider Haus and the PEI Provincial Championships.

But the main focus of this writeup is to take a long look at the current NCA Tour points race, now knowing that only two events remain. Here’s a look at the top 25 ranked players.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Points	4th Score	3rd Score	Max Score	Max Position
1	Ray	Beierling	200	50	50	205	1
2	John	Conrad	199	45	47	212	1
3	Ron	Haymes	192	47	47	203	1
4	Fred	Slater	186	41	43	207	1
5	Nathan	Walsh	182	42	45	200	1
6	Jason	Beierling	179	39	40	205	1
7	Louis	Gauthier	172	33	43	201	1
8	Matt	Brown	170	39	41	195	3
9	Roy	Campbell	164	38	41	190	4
10	Eric	Miltenburg	157	38	38	186	4
10	Howard	Martin	157	34	38	190	4
12	Raymond	Haymes	147	0	47	205	1
13	Justin	Slater	145	0	45	205	1
13	Clare	Kuepfer	145	33	33	184	5
15	David	Brown	139	20	35	189	4
15	Nathan	Jongsma	139	30	35	179	6
17	John	Harvey	135	22	34	184	5
18	Brian	Cook	134	0	43	196	3
19	Tom	Johnston	130	0	39	196	3
20	Gloria	Walsh	125	26	29	175	7
21	Tony	Snyder	122	0	25	202	1
22	Peter	Tarle	118	25	28	170	8
22	Dale	Henry	118	20	27	176	7
24	Rex	Johnston	113	0	31	187	4
25	Chris	Gorsline	89	0	20	174	7

The first few columns contain the names and current points, as of the Hamilton tournament. Afterwards you’ll see the “4th and 3rd score” columns. These indicate the 4th and 3rd highest tournament scores that make up the player’s current score. With there only being two events remaining, these scores are the ones that will be removed should a player record a higher score in one of these last 2 events.

As an example, Ray Beierling’s score of 200 points is made up of 4 scores of 50 points. Thus his result in London will not change his score as the maximum number of points he can receive is 50 from the tournament. However, if he was to win in St. Jacob’s, picking up 55 points, it would replace his lowest score of 50, thus improving his total score from 200 to 205.

That leads into the “Max Score” column, which indicates the highest possible score a player can receive (after winning London and St. Jacob’s), and the “Max Position” column which indicates the highest possible ranking a player can receive for the 6th NCA Tour.

Analysis

You’ll notice that several players have a chance to crack the first place, in fact a total of 10 players have a chance to win the NCA Tour. I ran the same analysis on the top 65 NCA Players and found that:

• 13 players a chance to reach the top 3
• 24 players a chance to reach the top 5
• 56 players a chance to reach the top 10

NCA Tour - Battle for 1st Place

Obviously some of those players have a much greater chance to win than others. John Conrad and Fred Slater have the best chance for improvement, with maximum scores of 212 and 207 respectively. Of course Ray Beierling is in the driver’s seat, leading by 1, but will have to fend off challenges from Conrad, both Slater’s and both Haymes’s. 

In this group of 10 with a chance to win the title, there are several long-shots that must win in London to keep their low percentage chances alive. That list includes Nathan Walsh, Louis Gauthier and Tony Snyder. To add to that list, Jason Beierling, Raymond Haymes and Justin Slater would need to finish in the top 3 to keep the NCA title in sight.

That leaves the focus square on the 4 with the best shot at taking the title.

John Conrad, Ray Beierling, Fred Slater and Ron Haymes currently hold the top 4 positions. All had at least one top 3 finish at the 2013 World Championships, and each has numerous other NCA top 4 finishes.

The pressure will surely be on when the London tournament begins as each player attempts to solidify their ranking before the NCA finale in May.

6th Annual BC Crokinole Championship

Photo courtesy of Oliver BC News

As the sun rose on a cold and snowy 1st of March, the 6th Annual BC Crokinole Championship got under way with a few words by Oliver’s mayor, then the preliminary rounds of doubles play commenced.  There were 8 teams for the competitive division and 14 teams for the recreational division.  5 Games were played, and after the results were in, the top 4 teams from each division advance into the semi-finals.  Another round of 3 games determined who was to play for first place.  After the wax had settled, we ended up with Ralph Hargrave and Linda Irvine facing the familiar pair of Michael Hughes and Jody Good.  These teams had met last year to determine the champion, and at the conclusion of a very close three game final, first place went to Michael Hughes and Jody Good.  Personally, I can’t wait to see next year’s rubber match!

The recreational doubles title was claimed by Bruce Slater and Andreas Wins-Purdy. 

A lunch break was had as the efficient set up crew got the afternoon ready for singles play.  Also at the tournament was a silent auction and raffle prizes donated by the many local sponsors of the tournament.

At 12:30 PM, singles play started.  After 10 games, the scores that proceeded into the Round of 8 were as follows:

1. Michael Hughes 56/53
2. Quin Erzinger 55/82
3. Jody Good 54/87
4. Adrian Conradi 51/63
5. Linda Irvine 47/76
6. Ralph Hargrave 45/56
7. Wayne Ripley 41/49
8. Nancy Clarke 40/51

As you can see, Jody Good took home the award for most 20s for the second year in a row with 87, including a perfect round in one of his matches.

Seven more games were played to determine the four semi-finalists, scores below:

1. Linda Irvine 39/53
2. Quin Erzinger 38/54
3. Jody Good 29/40
4. Adrian Conradi 28/48

Semi-final play was a display of skill and nerve that was extremely entertaining to watch.  Its conclusion produced the finalists, Adrian Conradi and Quin Erzinger.  Adrian won the first game 6-0 and took the final with a 4-4 win in the second round, decided by twenties.

Linda Irvine defeated Jody Good 2-1 to take third place.

The recreation division title went to Andreas Wins-Purdy who beat Wilf Pauls in the final.  Saje Good and Brendan Pauls finished third and fourth, respectively.

Although the weather may have been cold in Oliver, the atmosphere throughout the day was anything but.  It is always a treat to see players, competitive or otherwise, from across Canada come together to have a blast spending the day playing crokinole.  I invite every one of you to join us for the 7th Annual BC Crokinole Championship.

Until next year,

Quin Erzinger