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.