The NCA Tour in 2022-2023 had a dubious streak of uncompetitive championship matches after 4 events, but the spectators were practically salivating at the deliciously tense final that was served up between Beierling/Beierling and Tracey/Hutchinson at the Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship.

The November day began with clear weather and 28 doubles teams making their way to Brucefield for the 11th edition of the provincial doubles event. The recreational division fielded 11 teams, while the competitive division had 17 teams, the highest number since the tournament added the recreational side.

The 4-time tournament championships, and organizers, Jason and Ray Beierling, came out of the preliminary round with the top score of 88 points over the full 16 game round robin. They would have been considered among the top 3 favourite teams, and only lost 1 game in the preliminary round (to Carrafiello/Kappes).

Andrew Hutchinson and Jeremy Tracey earned the 2nd seed with 87 points, and one lone loss to the Beierlings. They previously partnered in the 2019 US Open, finishing runner-up to the Beierlings. They also would have been among the top 3 pre-tournament favourites, joined by the team of Justin and Fred Slater. The Slaters, 4-time finalists and 1-time victor in their 5 previous ODCC appearances finished the preliminary round in 4th with 85 points. They lost three games in the preliminary round, 6-2 decisions to all the Beierlings, Hutchinson/Tracey, and the Tracey/Tracey team.

Nolan and Reid Tracey impressed the field through the preliminary round, finishing 3rd and only 1 point back of 1st with 87 points. With the top 6 teams from the preliminary round making the playoffs they would have been expected to advance, but most prognosticators likely would not have stated they’d be at the top of the group. They were the only team to go undefeated in the 16-game round robin.

Roy Campbell and Paul Brubacher had only played together in one prior ODCC and made the semifinals in 2016. In this round robin they finished 5th with 79 points, with losses only to the teams of Tracey/Tracey and Team England of Simon Dowrick and Mark Boot.

The 6th and final playoff spot went the way of Gerald Kuepfer and Tyson Kuepfer, playing in their first ODCC, who scored 73 points. They finished just one point ahead of the first-time pairing of Ray Kappes and Josh Carrafiello at 72 points. Kappes and Carrafiello even won the head-to-head against Kuepfer/Kuepfer 6-2, but it wasn’t enough to surpass the Kuepfers’ total score.

On the recreational side Dave and Sean White had a superior performance in the preliminaries scoring a pro-rated 89 points over 15 games, finishing ahead of Darlene Kuepfer and Jo-Ann Carter at 87 points, Voenn Vann and Vuth Vann at 80 points, and Dave and Doug Mills with 77 points. In the semifinals the team of Vann/Vann came through in a tight 10-8 victory over Kuepfer/Carter to make the finals. But the White/White team were the class of the field, winning 10-0 over Mills/Mills in the semifinal, and then 10-4 over Vann/Vann in the finals.

Back on the competitive side the playoffs were set with the top two teams, Beierling/Beierling and Hutchinson/Tracey, having earned byes through to the semifinals, while the teams ranked 3rd-6th played in the quarterfinals.

In the first quarterfinal Nolan and Reid Tracey had the choice of hammer and unusually elected to shoot first. The Kuepfers scored the first 2 points and were formidable in the 20-centered elements of the game and superior in open 20s performance, but the Traceys greatly outclassed their opponents in disc positioning. Rarely was a takeout-20 opportunity given to the Kuepfers, who were forced into errors going for low-percentage shots, which is where the Traceys capitalized and made their way to a 10-2 victory.

In the other quarterfinal Brubacher and Campbell started well and got out to a lead, with the Slaters stumbling on open 20s. That continued for the first half of the match but the Slaters were very consistent while Brubacher/Campbell let some errors pile up and the Slaters took advantage to stay level at 4-4. The Slaters steady play allowed them to bide their time until their open 20s success returned, and at that point the gap between the two teams widened, with the Slaters taking the last 3 rounds to win 10-4.

That setup two very intriguing semifinals: another instalment of the Beierlings v Slaters doubles epic, and a triple-Tracey match with Hutchinson/Tracey against Tracey/Tracey.

The Slaters v Beierlings match started off well for the Beierlings, who where strong but not spectacular. Open 20 scoring was equal throughout the match, and the difference seemed to be in the takeout-20s department. The Slaters were notably unsuccessful in the first half of the match, only converting two hangers or short-ricochets over about a dozen opportunities, as the Beierlings lead was 6-2. The Slaters improved their takeout-20s in the 2nd half, but the Beierlings turned their average takeout-20 performance into superb, capped off by a rebound 20 Jason scored on the last shot of the match to clinch a 10-2 victory.

The Hutchinson/Tracey v Tracey/Tracey semifinal began dramatically with Andrew Hutchinson jamming an open takeout on the final shot for a tie round. In the 2nd round Tracey/Tracey had an early advantage but missed a couple of chances to build a bigger lead, allowing Hutchinson/Tracey to gain an advantage of their own. Then Hutchinson/Tracey over-hit their final takeout losing the shooter and allowing for Tracey/Tracey to tie this round as well for 2-2. The match settled down afterwards with less errors on both sides, and in later rounds Hutchinson/Tracey proved to be better in Open 20s and takeout-20s and won the match 10-4.

That setup a rematch of the 2019 US Open Doubles Championship where Beierling/Beierling won 12-2. The 2022 Ontario final match was already more competitive through 4 rounds with the teams tied 4-4 in the first to 11 format. The 5th round was won early and mostly comfortably for the Beierlings following Tracey and Hutchinson missing their first 3 Open 20s, of which the Beierlings’ scored 2 touch-20s, and the Beierlings had the chance to go ahead 8-4 but Jason missed a heavy-hanger-20 on the final shot and the score was 6-6.

Tracey and Hutchison came close to winning the 7th round against the hammer, but a combination-ricochet-20 for Hutchinson came up just short, while the Beierlings almost won the 8th round, but a double-takeout-20 attempt for Ray just left an enemy disc on in the 5, which was the winning disc when Tracey scored the Open 20 on the final shot of the round for an 8-8 score.

In round 9 the Beierlings won the 20 race and Tracey/Hutchinson spent most the round just trying to get the play back into the middle. They only got one chance, and Hutchinson just missed on a rebound-20 and the Beierlings moved one point from the title with a 10-8 lead. Facing victory the Beierlings failed to put the pressure on with Ray missing the first Open 20 and Jason losing the shooter on a ricochet-20, while Tracey and Hutchinson kept out of danger otherwise to level the match at 10-10 and force a winner-take-all round.

In the final round the Beierlings had hammer and Tracey opened the round by leaning over to the right and missing his 20 attempt. Hutchinson would get a chance for a takeout-20 on his next shot, but also just missed the 20. From there the play continued to remain within the 15-circle, but no 20s were made. With only 4 shots left there was one disc on the board and still no 20s scored. Tracey left a long ricochet-20 short, and Jason Beierling did well to stick his disc close to a peg, leaving Hutchinson with little to make a takeout-20. Hutchinson and Tracey milked the final moment for all it was worth, discussing the shot for 3 and half minutes in a desperate hope that the crokinole board physics would evolve in front of their eyes to make the final shot something more reasonable. Finally Hutchinson took the shot, but lost his shooter to the gutter, and Ray Beierling stuck his final shot into the 15-circle to win the match 12-10.

The win, their 5th Ontario Doubles title, puts both of the Beierlings in the hunt for the NCA Tour title. Five players have won a single event on the 2022-2023 Tour, with only Connor Reinman having won two events.

The NCA Tour calendar now closes for 2022, but the events are being lined up for 2023. The Hamilton event is off the Tour for this season, but has been replaced in the January time slot by a new event in Elmira. Following that will be another new event in Chatham in February, which will then be followed by events in London, Voorheesville and St. Jacobs to close the Tour season.