Beierlings, Conrad Race for NCA Title

On Saturday, May 7th one of the most competitive crokinole fields will assemble once again for the Ontario Singles Crokinole Championship, and the finale of 8th National Crokinole Association Tour. With the 2016 Ontario Provincial title on the line, Ray Beierling, Jason Beierling and Jon Conrad will battle it out for the NCA Tour Championship.

The event will once again be played at the St. Jacobs Mennonite Church in St. Jacobs and serve as the final warmup event before the 2016 World Crokinole Championship.

The 2015-2016 NCA Tour has been one of the most even and tightly-contested tours in its short history, which has resulted in extremely close points totals with a 3-way race for 1st place, a 4-way contest for the top 3 podium, and 16 players capable of finishing in the top 5. 

Battle for 1st Place

Found below is a look at the current NCA Tour standings. Ray Beierling holds the top spot with 194 points, but can be overtaken for the title by both Jon Conrad and Jason Beierling. 

Jason Beierling holds the longest odds of winning the title, needing a victory in St. Jacobs to do it. The win would give Jason Beierling 194 points to share the lead, and the clear edge given as he will have clinched the tie-breaker which awards higher ranking to whoever places better at the St. Jacobs tournament. Regardless, Jason Beierling has a chance to have his highest ever Tour ranking. He has finished 4th twice, and 5th twice, but never inside of the top 3.

Jon Conrad has a slightly better chance at being victorious. A first place finish in St. Jacobs would clinch the NCA title, as would a 2nd place finish so long as Ray Beierling does not finish 1st. Conrad won the NCA titles in 2013 and 2014, but came into the final event in both of those years with a lead in the ranking points. He now faces the more difficult task of trying to come from behind.

And simply put, Ray Beierling’s poll position heading into Saturday can be converted into a NCA title so long has he can stop the winning attempts of Jason Beierling and Jon Conrad. A victory would be Ray Beierling’s second NCA title (he once had a 1st-place tie with Justin Slater in 2010).

Rank	Name	Events	Points	4th Score	Max Score	2nd Place	Max Rank
1	Ray Beierling	8	194	47	197	194	1
2	Jon Conrad	7	192	45	197	194	1
3	Jason Beierling	5	191	47	194	191	1
4	Roy Campbell	8	176	40	186	183	4
5	Nathan Walsh	7	165	40	175	172	5
6	Rex Johnston	4	164	35	179	176	4
7	Clare Kuepfer	8	163	39	174	171	5
8	Rueben Jong	6	156	35	171	168	5
9	Tom Johnston	4	155	28	177	174	4
10	Fred Slater	5	155	37	168	165	5
11	Tony Snyder	4	152	20	182	179	4
12	Howard Martin	7	152	35	167	164	5
13	Eric Miltenburg	7	152	37	165	162	5
14	Justin Slater	3	143	0	193	190	2
15	Roger Vaillancourt	4	140	29	161	158	8
16	Andrew Hutchinson	3	133	0	183	180	4
17	Wayne Scott	4	132	23	159	156	8
18	Robert Bonnett	3	123	0	173	170	5
19	Ab Leitch	4	123	20	153	150	11
20	Peter Tarle	4	123	20	153	150	11

"4th Score" indicates the lowest tournament point total included in a player's score. This number helps calculate the "Max Score" a player would have if they win the final tournament, and the "2nd Place" total received for finishing in second.

The Top 3

The fight to reach the podium of this year’s NCA Tour is not particularly interesting as we have 4 players looking make the top 3 (above any score which would earn a top 3 finish is highlighted in yellow). Jon Conrad and Ray Beierling are both guaranteed to finish in the top 3, while Jason Beierling can only be removed from the top 3 if Justin Slater wins on Saturday. That makes 2016 the 5th straight year Ray Beierling has finished in the NCA top 3, equalling the streak of Brian Cook set from 2009-2013.

The Top 5

The green cells in the chart above indicate potential scenarios for different players to finish in the Top 5 on the 2015-2016 NCA Tour. The chase is quite crowded, but spots are sparse with Ray Beierling, Jon Conrad and Jason Beierling all guaranteed to make up 3 of the spots. The odds are also favourable for Justin Slater to finish in the Top 5 due to his 143 point total after only 3 events. Similar comments can be made for both Andrew Hutchinson and Robert Bonnett.

Ontario Singles Crokinole Championship

The OSCC has a long history dating back to the 1970s, before falling away and being rebranded along with the NCA Tour Finale. The new version of the tournament has been dominated by Justin Slater, who can lay claim to 5 of the 7 tournament titles since 2009, along with a current streak of 4 in a row.

Last year’s St. Jacobs final match included Slater and Ray Beierling (video footage below), and the matchup was replayed one month later at the World Championships. With the World Championships ever closer, practice time will certainly increase for most players, and the 2016 Ontario Singles Crokinole Championship on Saturday will undoubtedly showcase some extremely strong crokinole.

To register for the tournament: http://www.nationalcrokinoleassociation.com/tournaments.php

Last years St. Jacob's final: 

Crokinole is over 140 years old, but it has never travelled like this

Another crokinole innovation has come out of CrokinoleDepot, and just in time for the 2016 World Crokinole Championship.

The 2010 Creation: The 20 Board

CrokinoleDepot is responsible for the introduction of the 20 Board and the ground-breaking 20 Holder to the crokinole world. While their annual Crokinole Post was most of the inspiration for the creation of this blog. Their latest creation: “Crokinole 2 Go”.

The new innovation solves the common problem with high quality crokinole boards of inconvenient size and width, and provides a unique way to compact the game to a two-player travel form.

“We are very excited to introduce Crokinole 2 Go to crokinole players and gamers everywhere.  It is our latest contribution to the crokinole community and it fills a huge void in the market”, says Jason Beierling, co-owner and marketing manager of Crokinole Depot. “This 2 player version of the game is great for beginners and professionals alike.  It is the perfect size to travel with, yet it maintains the same feel and fun of the original game.”

Tournament style crokinole boards ($200+) have an outside diameter of 30 inches or more.  This makes the game very awkward to travel with, space consuming to store, and difficult to handle.  Crokinole 2 Go has measurements of 21x12 inches, making it convenient for travel, easy to store and a breeze to manipulate.  This new product, priced at $100, offers the same quality materials and construction for half the cost of the traditional game. 

Ray Beierling, co-owner and head of product development at Crokinole Depot had this to say. “The centre hole, 15 circle, posts, and discs of Crokinole 2 Go are all tournament board specs.  This allows a player to get the same angles, bounces and shot selection they would get from a regulation board.  The side ditches are an integral part of the design and keep the discs from bouncing back into play.  We have put a lot of time, thought and effort into this product and we know it is a 20.”  

As detailed on the CrokinoleDepot website, the $100 board can be purchased at a discount of $95 for any order placed before June 4th, and at $90 for any pre-order set for pickup at the World Crokinole Championships on June 4th in Tavistock.

This board should help solve that common crokinole itch that players get when they are looking to get a quick game in anywhere they go. To learn more about Crokinole 2 Go, Crokinole Depot, or the Beierling Brothers, visit the website www.crokinoledepot.com or email ray@crokinoledepot.com or jason@crokinoledepot.com.  

Varna Cruises to Top Spot at Schneider Haus

They lost the team title by a mere 2 points last year, but for the 2016 Varna Crokinole Club, the team mantra may have been “leave no doubt.” By the end of the day there certainly was no doubt, as Varna rolled through the competition and won the Joseph Schneider Haus Crokinole tournament for the 6th time in their history.

The oldest running crokinole tournament in the world opened up its doors for the 24th year, inviting 6 teams including the long-time attendees of Preston, St. Jacobs and Varna, and the relatively new clubs of Waterloo, Scone and Quinte.

The tournament format is a simple singles round-robin, with every player playing one-game against each other, excluding that of their own team members. While some traffic issues caused half of the Varna team to show up just on time for the beginning action, they had no problems getting comfortable and picking up points in pursuit of the team title. By the half way point (10 games) the Varna club was on pace to win the event by 80 points, while the St. Jacobs and Waterloo clubs were in a dead-heat for second place.

Crokinole/Checker board dating
back to 1897-1901

The competitors got a chance to rest after 10 games, enjoying a fantastic lunch spread provided by the staff at the Joseph Schneider Haus museum, which, in addition to housing the oldest known crokinole board, also holds the incredible feat of being the oldest dwelling in Kitchener, built back in 1816. On display on the day was also a few other boards, clearly first-cousins of the game of crokinole we know today.

A crokinole/steeplechase
board made in 1906

When play resumed in the afternoon, the battle was on for players to hold and improve their positions. The Quinte Region Crokinole Club had a fantastic afternoon. After starting the day against the heavy-weights of Varna and St. Jacobs, the Quinte club had the strongest rise up the rankings, going from 6th place, to a firm 4th place finish.

Meanwhile, the Waterloo Crokinole Club put forth a very strong effort, and were rewarded with the Club’s best ever finish at the event, grabbing 2nd place. The strong Waterloo performance saw St. Jacobs fall to 3rd, just 14 points behind despite beating Waterloo in the head-to-head battle.

	Scone	Varna	St. Jacobs	Quinte	Waterloo	Preston	Total	Rank
Scone	0	38	49	49	35	66	237	6
Varna	90	0	89	95	78	84	436	1
St. Jacobs	79	39	0	88	65	78	349	3
Quinte	79	33	40	0	56	72	280	4
Waterloo	93	50	63	72	0	85	363	2
Preston	62	44	50	56	43	0	255	5

The Varna Crokinole Club closed out the day as strong as they had started, beating every team comfortably, with the smallest margin of victory 78-50 over Waterloo, finishing the event with 436 points.

For the individual scoring race, Nathan Walsh was able to claim the top spot for the 3rd-straight year, with 127 points. Not surprisingly, the next 4 spots were held by Varna members, as each broke 100 points.

Rank	Player	Club	Points
1	Nathan Walsh	Waterloo	127
2	Ray Beierling	Varna	122
3	Rex Johnston	Varna	110
4	Ab Leitch	Varna	104
5	Jason Beierling	Varna	100
6	Jon Conrad	St. Jacobs	98
6	Matt Brown	Quinte	98
8	Andrew Hutchinson	Waterloo	97

As previously mentioned, this is the 6th Joseph Schneider Haus victory for the Varna Club. Through the 24 year history, still only 3 clubs have won the event. With this year’s win, Varna ended St. Jacobs attempt at winning the title for a third-straight year. Only the now-defunct Cameron Heights Teachers Club can claim the prestige of having won the event 3 years in a row (1994-1996, 2003-2005).

With the tournament complete, the crokinole scene shifts back to the focus of the 2015-2016 NCA Tour, which will reach it’s conclusion in one month's time at the finale event in St. Jacobs on May 7, 2016. The golden stretch of the crokinole season is once again upon us, with the big prizes on the table, and everyone looking to put their best efforts into grabbing the sweet taste of victory.

2016 Joseph Schneider Haus Team Champions - Varna
"Not in my Haus"

Beierling Dominates on way to 4th London Title

Tournament organizers, Joe Richards (left) and Bette
Cunningham (centre), with 2016 London Tournament
Champion, Ray Beierling.

It is not often that a crokinole tournament gets to crown a local winner, but on Saturday Ray Beierling used the hometown advantage and dominated the field on his way to his 4th tournament title at the Forest City Flickers Crokinole Tournament.

53 competitors hit the boards for the 8th annual event in London, setting a new high number for the 2015-2016 NCA Tour. The 30 Recreational and 23 Competitive players were split into separate groups for the preliminary round with each player vying for seeding for the afternoon round.

Ray Beierling was extremely strong in Competitive A action, scoring 47 points to leave the rest of the field behind in his dust. Andrew Hutchinson and Ab Leitch were able to comfortably qualify for the semifinals with 41 and 40 points respectively. Jon Conrad was able to grab the last spot with 38 points, which left Rex Johnston and Clare Kuepfer the unfortunate closest outside positions at 36 points each.

The Competitive B field saw a crowded group of 13 trying to squeeze into the top 2 positions. Ron Reesor and Roy Campbell had a strong showing, but they had to settle for third and fourth place as Robert Bonnett and Howard Martin achieved the top scores and would play for the B title.

On the Recreational side, Tom Walsh and Sharon Watson grabbed the top 2 spots in the C pool with Tiffany Henry just missing out on the final by 2 points. When all was said and done, Watson was able to pull of the victory and capture the pool C crown.

In Pool B, Amelia Hartman scored well to have 42 points and finish in third, but it was Gus Hohmann and Jacob Westerhof who had 53 and 52 points, and would face-off in the final. Westerhof would get the better of Hohmann in the final and claim the Rec B title.

The race for the finals in the Pool A Recreational was very tight. Abijah Jong grabbed the top spot with 51 points and was joined by Jo-Ann Carter, who scored 47, in the final. Derek McKie and MJ Andrea fought admirably but just missed out on the final with 46 and 45 points. Abijah Jong was able to keep up his strong play and win the final to take the A title.

Back on the Competitive side, Robert Bonnett raced out to 6-0 start in the “First-to-9-Points” final. But Howard Martin found his stride in the 4th round and came all the way back to claim in the Competitive B title in thrilling fashion.

The Competitive A semifinals was made up of an interesting group. Ray Beierling, Jon Conrad and Andrew Hutchinson had all qualified for the Hamilton semifinals just two months ago, while Ab Leitch was attempting to defend his London title from 2015. The match-ups saw another clash of the titans with Ray Beierling and Jon Conrad, while the other match of Hutchinson vs Leitch was their first ever playoff encounter.

Beierling continued to be on-fire throughout the semifinal, winning 10-2, while Hutchinson was able to edge-out Leitch in a see-saw affair, winning 9-7.

London Tournament Final
Andrew Hutchinson (left) vs Ray Beierling (right)

It was the second straight final for Andrew Hutchinson, after he was defeated in the finals in Hamilton, and a chance for revenge for Ray Beierling, after Hutchinson eliminated him in the Hamilton semifinals. But the day was to belong to Ray Beierling who made his victory look like it was never in doubt, as he won the match 10-0, to claim the 2016 London title.

As previously mentioned, this 2016 victory is Ray Beierling’s 4th in London, to go along with his 2009-2011 streak. The win is also quite significant as it secures Ray Beierling’s spot on the podium of the 2015-2016 NCA Tour. Here’s an abbreviated look at the current NCA standings (top 4 events count towards ranking points):

Rank	Name	Points	# Events
1	Ray Beierling	194	8
2	Jon Conrad	192	7
3	Jason Beierling	191	5
14	Justin Slater	143	3

With only one event to play, Ray Beierling holds the first place spot and is in the driver seat to win the Tour. Justin Slater is the only player outside of the top 3 who can find his way into a top 3 finish, but he cannot catch Ray Beierling. Jason Beierling and Jon Conrad have the difficult task ahead of them to win the St. Jacobs tournament if they hope to surpass Ray Beierling for the Tour Championship.

Speaking of the final event of the 2015-2016 Tour; it will take place in St. Jacobs on May 7th.

8th Annual BC Crokinole Championship

Contributed by Quin Erzinger

It was a gorgeous day that greeted the players of the 8th annual BC Crokinole Championship.  After coffee and some muffins, the doubles competitors drew their starting tables and settled in for play.  This year there were six teams on the competitive side and twelve on the recreational.  A five game round robin was played by both divisions, with the top six teams in recreational advancing to the next round.  Another five games were played and the top two teams on each side faced off in the finals.  After some thrilling action on both sides, the Good family from Kelowna really took things home with daughters Elle and Petal beating out Wilf and Pearl Pauls from Enderby to win the recreational title and last year’s champions Linda Irvine and Quin Erzinger narrowly losing out to the father-daughter team of Jody and Saje on the competitive side.

After a short break for lunch, singles play got started with a ten game round robin with the top eight scores on each side advancing.  This year it was evident that play was more strategic as, for the second year in a row, Quin Erzinger took home the award for most 20s with 75, a sharp drop over last year’s total of 91.  After playing another seven game series, the top four scores moved on to play each other and this determined who would face-off for the respective championships.  On the recreational side, Gordon Gunn from Owen Sound, Ont. beat

Brendan Pauls from Kelowna to take third place and the final was a showdown between the morning’s doubles victors, Elle and Petal Good, with Petal edging out Elle to take the title.  

Competitive Finals - Linda Irvine (left) vs Jordan Ripley (right)

On the competitive side, Quin Erzinger defeated Michael Hughes to claim third place and the final this year was between two opponents who had never before played in the finals, Linda Irvine and Jordan Ripley.  It was an intense display of skill and concentration, but after trading the first two games in the best of three series, a shocked Linda emerged as the first female competitive singles champion in the tournament’s history!

I love seeing the local talent improving each year and we now have a strong group any of which could win on a given day.  I hope to see you next year for the 9th annual BC Crokinole Championship!

For more about Crokinole in British Columbia, visit their Facebook page: Crokinole Players of BC

Quin Erzinger is a competitive crokinole player from British Columbia, and a 2-time BC Crokinole Champion. He posts crokinole videos on YouTube can be followed on Twitter @Q_Baller16. He also once had a crokinole tournament named in his honour.