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

Haymes Hammers Hamilton

Ron Haymes made a rare NCA appearance and took the field by storm, in what was a stormy Saturday in Hamilton, capping the performance with an overtime win over Ray Beierling in the finals.

The forecast for yet another Ontario winter storm proved to be accurate, as Hamilton suffered the same fate of Owen Sound, with several players unable to voyage. After a late start, the tournament was set to begin with 18 strong.

A view of the empty boards before those who had to brave the weather arrived to compete.

The field split into two groups of 9, with advancements into Group A in the second round requiring a top 3 finish in the preliminary group, or one of the next 3 wildcard positions.

Coming through in Pool B after 8 games in the preliminary round were Nathan Walsh with 58 points, Ray Beierling with 38 and Bob Jones with 32. In Pool A, Fred Slater (50 points), Roy Campbell (46) and Ron Haymes (40), grabbed the top 3 positions. The remaining would actually all go to Pool A members as Jake Ruggi (38), John Harvey (37) and Nathan Jongsma (37) rounded out the Group A qualifiers.

The second round would see 9 players gunning one of the 4 semifinalist positions, and the competition would be incredibly tight. Fred Slater narrowly grabbed the number 1 seed with 42 points, with Haymes, Beierling and Walsh crammed together at 41. After examining the tie-breaker rules, Haymes was given the 4th seed and was set to battle Fred Slater in one semifinal, while Beierling and Walsh lined up for the other.

In the Walsh v Beierling match, Nathan stormed out to a 4-0 lead, but yielded to a Beierling comeback to end game 1 with a 4-4 under the Quinte Convention. Game 2 would be a clear victory for Ray Beierling 6-2, and he sealed the match in the final round of the third game to finish 4-4, 6-2, 4-4.

The Haymes v Slater match would be even tighter. Ron Haymes jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game 1, only to have Fred Slater pull even and tie the game 4-4. Haymes would go up 4-2 in the second game, but Fred Slater would once again even the game 4-4 with a 4th round win. That same result would occur again in the third game as a 4-2 Haymes lead would be erased with a third consecutive tied game, sending the match to extra rounds. However, Haymes would finally prevail, winning the first two extra rounds clinch the match.

That set up a Ray Beierling and Ron Haymes final. The two met earlier in the NCA season, as they played against each other at the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship. Ray teamed up with brother Jason and won the match and the title 11-5. The Hamilton final would be Beierling’s 3rd NCA final of the season, as he aimed for his 3rd NCA title of the year. Meanwhile it was Ron Haymes first ever finals appearance at an NCA singles event.

In the first game, Haymes and Beierling started with a tied round, before Haymes took control and grabbed an insurmountable 5-1 lead to earn the final game and move one away from the Hamilton title. 

Beierling would respond in the second game after falling behind 2-0 to win 6-2, and set the match up for a decisive third game. After two rounds the score was tied 2-2, and Ray Beierling stole a point against the hammer in the third round as the score became 3-3 with victory in sight for both players. However, the match would continue into overtime when the two players tied the 4th round, and the 3rd game 4-4.

The overtime rounds would go back and forth, until Ron Haymes stole 2 points against the hammer in the 3rd set of extra rounds, and consolidated the break to win the overtime rounds 8-4.

Runner-up Ray Beierling receiving his due from tournament organizer Eric Miltenburg.

2014 Tournament Champion - Ron Haymes

On the NING website prior to the tournament, Eric Miltenburg alluded to the numerous winners we have seen this season. With Ron Haymes win of the Golden Horseshoe Crokinole title, this 6th NCA season has proven to be the most the most equal Tour race yet. Among the 7 events so far this year (5 singles and 2 doubles events) the NCA tour has seen 8 different champions, with Ray Beierling being the only repeat champ so far this year.

Unlike past seasons, where the Tour champion has almost been decided by this point in the season, it is still wide open for the taking. The British Columbia Provincial Championships are slated for the first weekend in March. There has not been word from Ontario players about their possibilities of making the trip, but regardless it should be a great tournament. 

Afterwards, only the London tournament and the NCA Finale in St. Jacob’s will remain in this 2013-2014 NCA Tour. Here’s a key look at the unofficial Tour points to date. The explanation of this chart is available in the previous blog.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Points	4th score	3rd score
1	Ray	Beierling	200	50	50
2	John	Conrad	199	45	47
3	Ron	Haymes	192	47	47
4	Fred	Slater	186	41	43
5	Nathan	Walsh	182	42	45
6	Jason	Beierling	179	39	40
7	Louis	Gauthier	172	33	43
8	Matt	Brown	170	39	41
9	Clare	Kuepfer	166	33	33
10	Roy	Campbell	164	38	41
11	Eric	Miltenburg	157	38	38
12	Howard	Martin	148	25	38
13	Raymond	Haymes	147		47
14	Justin	Slater	145		45
15	David	Brown	139	20	35
16	Brian	Cook	134		43
17	Tom	Johnston	130		39
18	Tony	Snyder	122		25
19	Peter	Tarle	118	25	28
19	Dale	Henry	118	20	27

The points race is really heating up. The most obvious battle is between Ray Beierling and Jon Conrad, one which will come down to the final rounds of the St. Jacob’s tournament.

However, there are a total of 11 players who have the ability, with a win in London and a win in St. Jacob’s, to reach or exceed Ray Beierling’s Tour leading score of 200 total points. So hold on to your hats, it will be quite a battle in the homestretch of the 2013-2014 NCA Tour.