New Zealand Curling

Dunedin's first Summer Classic Spiel last weekend was voted a success by all who participated.

This was a two-part competition, comprising both curling and other on-ice and off-ice contests.

The Central Otago team skipped by John Campbell, with Natalie Campbell, Brydie Donald and Warren Kearney won both the curling competition and the overall title, and with it a trophy that is certain to be much sought-after in years to come.

The idea of the Spiel was born at the 2009 Wendorf Rock Bonspiel and the Summer Spiel had a similar programme – limited to eight teams, a round robin of six matches, with opponents being drawn out of a hat so that there was not a predetermined structured competition format.

Curling competition

After the 6 draws of the round robin, the rinks of John Campbell and Al Langille both had a 5 win - 1 loss record. The Campbell four won the 1 v 2 playoff, and with it the curling title. Interest in the finals play-off was heightened by the “Calcutta” auction that took place after the first round, with the payout on the teams which finished the actual curling event in 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th places. Full results:

1st	6-1	John Campbell, Natalie Campbell, Brydie Donald, Warren Kearney
2nd	5-2	Al Langille
3rd	4-3	Peter Becker (NZ Senior Men)
4th	3-4	Wendy Becker (NZ Senior Women)
5th	4-3	Dan Mustapic
6th	2-5	Charlie McLeod
7th	3-4	Kenny Thomson
8th	1-6	Reece Aiken

Overall title

Dan Mustapic's organising committee put together a competition that also included

• musical chairs
• short curling, standing in the hack to the near house, no take-outs allowed
• a "20 questions" general knowledge test
• a corner to corner draw across the rink

A different member from each team had to complete each event, and 1-8 penalty points were allocated to each team with the winner getting one point, the second best competitor getting two points, and so on.

The overall winner of the Summer Classic Spiel was the team with the lowest number of accumulated points from the curling and the other four competitions. John Cambell's four also took out the overall title with 15 aggregated points, followed closely by Dan Mustapic (16 points) and Peter Becker (19 points).