New Zealand Curling

In the deep south of New Zealand – Central Otago is the last place in the world that still upholds the traditions of outdoor curling. At its heart is Naseby, a town of character and community, bound together by their love of curling. They hunger for hard frosts and freezing lakes but their passion for ice is now being tested.

A changing climate means that curling outdoors may soon become a thing of the past and these passionate curlers may never again be able to compete for New Zealand's oldest sporting trophy – the Baxter's Cup.

The documentary film Gone Curling wants to showcase our proud curling heritage to the world.

And New Zealand's curling community can help it get there.

Switzerland have continued their remarkable record at World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships. The Swiss team of Martin Rios and Nadine Lehmann beat Sweden's Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson 7-6 in the 2012 gold medal game to win their country's fourth championship title in the five year history of the event.

Claudia Toth and Christian Roth won the first ever WCF curling championship medal for Austria, winning the bronze medal game 12-7 against the USA pair Cristin and Brady Clark.

Earlier, New Zealand's Natalie Thurlow and John Campbell just failed to reach the playoff rounds, finishing fourth in their pool with 4 wins and 4 losses.

New Zealand Curling's recent international run continued this weekend. After a best-ever fifth placing at the World Men's Championship, the NZ teams have also posted their best results at the World Senior Curling Championships over the weekend.

The NZ Senior Women finished fourth with a 5 win - 3 loss record, and the Men came in fourth from a 23-nation field.

On the opening day of the World Senior Curling Championships in Copenhagen, the New Zealand Senior Men carried on from where Peter de Boer's team left off a week earlier at the World Men's.

They created history in their afternoon match to record NZ's first win over any Scotland team at any World Championship event.

New Zealand's fifth place at the just-concluded World Men's Curling Championship 2012 has been has produced excellent results for our sport.

The 7 win - 4 loss record has secured some serious bragging rights – not the least of which were wins against all three medallists from the 2010 Winter Olympics, including inflicting the only loss suffered by the Canadian tournament winners. Team New Zealand also came away with a flying start to their campaign to qualify for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Sean Becker, vice-skip of the New Zealand men’s team, has won the 2012 World Curling Federation Collie Campbell Memorial Award.

	Sean Becker presented with the 2012 Collie Campbell Award by Chief Umpire Alan Stanfield. Photo - Richard Gray / WCF

Becker was selected for the award by fellow players at this year’s World Men’s Curling Championship in Basel, Switzerland. All participants at the Championship were invited to nominate a fellow competitor who, in their view, best exemplified the traditional values of skill, honesty, fair play, sportsmanship and friendship during the event.

Becker and his teammates Peter de Boer (skip), Scott Becker, Kenny Thomson and Phil Dowling finished fifth at the 2012 event – the best ever finish by a New Zealand team.

Meet Team New Zealand - the 'Kiwis' are playing their first World Curling Championship in 7 years as they line up for their country in Basel, Switzerland. They qualified by finishing second in the 2011 Pacific Asia Curling Championships in Nanjing, China.

World Curling TV's Alison Walker went to find out more about the team, their aspirations and curling in the southern hemisphere.