New Zealand Curling

	"Just here guys" - Shy Teds skip Kieran Ford tells Keswick Pearson and Morgan Long where he wants Brett Sargon's stone.

The Shy Teds side of Kieran Ford, Brett Sargon, Keswick Pearson and Morgan Long, 2010 Auckland Under-21 champions, stepped up a notch when they won this year's Auckland Premier League title.

They beat Team Bauer 5-4 in the Final. Team Bauer (Alex Bauer, Nick Lambert, Katie Bauer and Emily Whelan) were the top qualifiers for the playoff rounds after topping round robin play with 14 wins from 17.

"A" Division

The Shy Teds started strongly, stealing the first three ends with some wonderful shot-making. A hit and roll behind cover in the first end proved unreachable for Team Bauer. This was followed in the next by a hit on the edge of the house and roll to the button, again well guarded.

Bauer scored 2 in the fourth and were unlucky not to make it more when a draw for 3 pulled up just short. They followed with a well-crafted steal to leave the scores level at 3-3 with three ends to play.

Shy Teds though had hammer in the even ends, and coming home with last stone advantage they needed a single to win. Vice-skip Brett Sargon's last stone of the game drew behind cover for shot to Shy Teds. Alex Bauer removed the guard with his first attempt only to have his opponent replace it, protecting the shot stone well enough for the Shy Teds to win the championship.

The playoff for third and fourth was another close game, won 3-2 by Kenny Williamson's Rock Bottom over Brittany Taylor's Hotshots. The Williamson side, who won last year's title with Kieran Ford at third, were beaten by their former vice-skip in the previous week's semi-final.

Jon Jaksic's Cheryls Boyz, winners of the "C" Division last year in their first season on the ice, beat Chelsea Farley's Cleansweep in the 5/6 playoff.

"B" Division

Experience triumphed over youth when Liz Matthews' Thistles (with Christine Bewick, Pauline Farra and Ruth Morris) beat End Steele (Blake Steele, Kieran Grieve, Robert Giles, Garion Long, Tamara Long) 8-2. John Allen's Kohi Diamonds finished in third spot ahead of Ayr Rockers, Rockstars and Compass Box.

"C" Division

Metro Jets (Tash Dallow, Josh Dallow, Anoushka Dallow and Lester Dallow) came back from a 1-3 deficit to record a 5-4 victory over Smirnoff Ice (Kate Smirnova, Lisa Wu, Marie Tsai) to win the "C" Division title. Len Hill's Granite took a double on the last to secure third over CANZ, and the the Gall Stone Throwers were delighted to secure their second win of the season in beating Hot Rollers for fifth.

Prizegiving

The annual prizegiving was a little quicker than usual - the "window of opportunity" was the halftime break during the Rugby World Cup semi-final between the All Blacks and Australia!

Club President Al Langille said that the future strength of curling in Auckland looked very promising, with an increasing number of club curlers being under the age of 25. Many of these (including all players in the final) were in the "A" Division playoffs.

His sentiments were echoed by winning skip Kieran Ford. He praised the efforts of Liz Matthews in promoting School and Youth curling in Auckland over recent years – 5 of the 6 sides in the Premier League this year had wholly or partly been introduced to the Club league from the Secondary School competition.

• All result details
• Auckland Honours Board
• Final Standings

Final Standings