3 Straight Wins for Ray Beierling

 Ray Beierling came into a cold day in a crowded field in Hamilton, and left with his hot streak still intact.

A great group shot of the competitors after the
action completed at the 2015 Golden
Horseshoe Crokinole Tournament
Photo Credit: Eric Miltenburg

The 7th Annual Golden Horseshoe Crokinole Tournament on January 31, 2015, marked the 6th year in Hamilton’s Cornerstone Canadian Reformed Church (after the first edition of the tournament took place in Toronto).

With the tournament usually taking place in January, mid-Winter weather has often hindered tournament attendance. That was certainly not the case in 2015 as clear roads paved the way to a tournament-high number of 44 contenders, including a number of new faces and international competition.

The preliminary round divided the players into 4 groups of 11.That round gave the competitors a chance to mingle and mix, combining the 4 World Champions with large groups from London, Owen Sound, Toronto, Waterloo, Tuscarora and the hometown Hamilton bunch. Also in the mix, and welcomed to the tournament were the newcomers from Guelph, Grimsby, Niagara and even Brazil.

Photo Credit: Eric Miltenburg

The action really heated up in the second round, with players reseeded into 4 more groups with prizes and money on the line. In Pool D, John Trinka found his form earning the highest of any second round score with 63 points out of a possible 80. Arthur Giuliano challenged for the final at 46 points, but was narrowly beaten by Mark Weiler with 47 points.

In the final, John Trinka kept up his strong play, winning the final in 2-straight games, taking home the D Pool title in his first NCA tournament.

Pool D Winner: John Trinka
Photo Credit: Eric Miltenburg

The C Pool play was very tight as Jacob Westerhof and Braden Van Andel each scored 44 points, but it was only enough to grab 4th and 5th place. Gloria Walsh also suffered the fate of close but not enough at 47 points, missing out by one point as Bill Geris and Jo Ann Carter advanced to the final with 48 and 51 points respectively.

While Jo Ann Carter fought back to send the match to a deciding 3rd-game, Bill Geris eventually prevailed for the C Pool title.

Reuben Jong (left) claims the B Pool title.
Photo Credit: Eric Miltenburg

John Harvey looked fantastic through the second round in the B Pool, earning 57 points and cruising to a top place finish. Harvey’s 92 20s were also the highest of the group, just ahead of James Nicholson’s 91 20s. Grabbing the second spot in the final was Reuben Jong at 51 points, just barely above Ron Reesor who’s 49 points had to settle for 3rd place. The final was very competitive between Harvey and Jong, but Reuben Jong was able to come away the victor of the B Pool with a 5-3, 5-3 finish.

A shot of the semifinals from Pool A.
Photo Credit: Eric Miltenburg

The A Pool playoffs saw the top 11 fighting for the top 4 semifinals. The A Pool was a very strong mix of some of the best crokinole players from the NCA Tour. Congratulations should be given to Andrew Whitfield for making the top group in his very first tournament appearance.

Roy Campbell looked to top his 5th-place finish in Hamilton from the previous year, and soared to first place seed with 55 points. Jon Conrad was also in fine form to take 2nd, while Nathan Walsh took 3rd. Ray Beierling finished 4th with 49 points, no doubt helped by his tournament-high 135 20s through 10 games.

The semifinals were excruciatingly close as Ray Beierling edged out Roy Campbell 1-5, 6-4, 5-3. Meanwhile Jon Conrad and Nathan Walsh had to play overtime after being tied through 3 games. Walsh eventually prevailed in the 5th and 6th extra rounds.

Ray Beierling accepts the title from Eric Miltenburg,
his 3rd-straight tournament victory this year.

That setup a Ray Beierling and Nathan Walsh final - a repeat of Owen Sound’s final only a couple months earlier. Beierling won in Owen Sound and was looking for his 2nd victory in what was his 4th-straight finals appearance in Hamilton. Similar to the Owen Sound final, the match required a decisive 3rd-game to determine the winner, and Ray Beierling pulled away to take the 2015 Golden Horseshoe Crokinole Tournament title.

It was an extra bonus for Ray Beierling - not only winning his 3rd-straight NCA tournament title (including the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship in Brucefield, and the Owen Sound tournament), but it was also his birthday. A fact which tournament organizer, Eric Miltenburg, brought up as he awarded Beierling the tournament trophy. It led to a rousing rendition of the “Happy Birthday”.

With the NCA Tour moving closer to the end of the 2014-2015 season, players are starting to keep a closer eye on the Tour Rankings. Justin Slater still holds the top spot, and likely will until at least the NCA Finale in St. Jacobs in May. Ray Beierling has slid into 2nd place after the win, moving past Nathan Walsh. Meanwhile Brian Cook, only with 4 tournaments, still sits in 4th place at 190 points.

Rank	First Name	Last Name	Events	Points	Avg
1	Justin	Slater	6	204	48.3
2	Ray	Beierling	7	198	47.3
3	Nathan	Walsh	6	196	46.2
4	Brian	Cook	4	190	47.5
5	Fred	Slater	6	186	44.5
6	Matt	Brown	4	181	45.3
7	John	Conrad	6	176	41.7
8	Roy	Campbell	7	173	40.1
9	Jason	Beierling	4	167	41.8
10	David	Brown	5	162	38.4
10	Eric	Miltenburg	7	162	37.1
10	Clare	Kuepfer	7	162	35.6
13	Peter	Tarle	5	146	34.6
14	Ron	Reesor	4	144	36.0
15	Howard	Martin	4	143	35.8
16	Alex	Protas	4	139	34.8
17	Reuben	Jong	4	133	33.3
18	Roger	Vaillancourt	3	123	41.0
19	John	Harvey	3	120	40.0
20	Louis	Gauthier	3	119	39.7

It’s a little bit too early to start working out all of the possible ranking scenarios, but there is definitely a clearer picture starting to form.

Now the NCA takes a small break through the month of February, before returning in March with the British Columbia Provincial Championship and the London Crokinole Tournament.

Thoughts on the World Championship Schedule

The World Crokinole Championship (WCC) Committee works throughout most of the year to plan the day’s events of the largest crokinole tournament on the globe. The Committee’s planning is so extensive that registration has already opened for the 2015 edition on June 6th (details can be found here: http://www.worldcrokinole.com).

There was some additional excitement with registration opening this year, as a new tournament schedule was also released (found under the ‘Tournament’ tab here:  http://www.worldcrokinole.com). The two key highlights are additional games added for the doubles portion (going from 6 to 8 games in the preliminary round) and an earlier finish to the day.

The changes seem to be a no-brainer, but for many years they were made impossible due to a lack boards and tables being able to accommodate everyone playing singles at the same time. However, with more and more top quality boards being available every year, and a trend that’s seen the tournament attendance drop in the last few years, the move to play all singles events simultaneously becomes practical.

If you ask around, almost every player has a suggestion for a tweak or complete overhaul of the WCC tournament structure. And while those suggestions vary greatly, a common theme has always been to extend the doubles preliminary round beyond 6 games. While the doubles games are longer than singles, the 6 games always felt like such a short window to determine the top competitors for the playoff portion.

Many years ago the structure made it nearly impossible to qualify for the playoffs without being flawless. If you consider that the competitive doubles category could have had anywhere between 80 and 120 teams, the short 6 game preliminary round meant not only did one have to hope to not face another top team, one also had to be perfect in all 6 games. In some years the 6th place qualifying score was 40 out of a possible 48 points (an average of more than 6 points a game).

When the Recreational Doubles category was added in 2009, it almost split the field in half, making the task of advancing to the playoffs still difficult, but now manageable. However, you would still see the odd top quality team missing out on the playoffs due to one bad game, or an unlucky draw of opponents.

Now with a preliminary round of 8 games, not only do you get more bang for your buck, but teams can afford to have a poor game, shake out the nerves and find their best shots without the pressure that one bad game, or one bad shot could ruin everything.

Overall, the addition of two games is very positive both for the competitive and casual player. While there are still changes I’d like to see (such as a championship match for the doubles title rather than ending at the conclusion of a round robin), this modification is enough to keep me satisfied.

Shifting the focus to the afternoon portion of the day, the singles play is scheduled to conclude a full hour earlier as the preliminary singles round will be followed by the playoff rounds without any large gaps for breaks. While the earlier finish will be appreciated by long distance travellers, it will also be much easier on the tournament volunteers who can often be there 2-3 hours after the last match has been completed.

The only potential drawback is those players (in recreational, competitive and cues divisions) who go the distance and play in the playoffs for both doubles and singles action. As the schedule doesn’t offer a large break, it could be a very long day of crokinole for some individuals. This, however, should not be considered as too much of a concern. The competitors who find themselves in this position are often the ‘hardcore crokaholics’ who would still probably enjoy playing even after 13 consecutive hours.

On a side note, this change will make it impossible to drive to Waterloo to write an exam in between doubles and singles action.

The main point is that these schedule changes are very beneficial for the average tournament attendee, which should help grow, or at the very least maintain, the size of the tournament. In the mean time, these changes make the event more enjoyable for casual players, competitive players, and volunteers, which ultimately makes this a fantastic move by the WCC Committee in advance of the 2015 World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, Ontario.

If you are looking to get started on your tournament preparations for the World Championships, the first move should be registering for the 2015 Golden Horseshoe Crokinole Tournament in Hamilton on January 31st. It promises to be another great stop on the 2014-2015 NCA Tour with a lot of strong players in attendance. More tournament details can be found here: http://worldcrokinoleleague.ning.com/profiles/blogs/golden-horseshoe-tournament-saturday-january-31st?xg_source=activity.

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.