New Zealand Curling

The NZ Curling Association has confirmed the selectors' recommendations for the New Zealand Open and Under-21 teams for the 2011/2012 season.

They feature some new names, and the Open teams will have some line-up changes between next month's NZ Winter Games and November's Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in China.

Only Sean Becker and Kenny Thomson return from last year's NZ Men's team. The two new faces in the squad both learnt their craft in Scotland. Peter de Boer skipped the runner-up side at the recent Nationals, and will play at both upcoming tournaments. Iain Craig will don New Zealand colours for the first time at the Winter Games in Naseby.

They are joined by Scott Becker, back in the country after his OE, and Phil Dowling who played at the 2009 Karuizawa tournament.

With Bridget Becker unavailable, Brydie Donald will skip the NZ Women's side for the first time. Chelsea Farley and Thivya Jeyaranjan, skip and vice-skip respectively of the Junior Women's team, will debut for the Open side at the PACCs.

Two of New Zealand's 2012 Youth Winter Olympic side, Kelsi Heath and Eleanor Adviento, have been named in the Junior Women's team for both the Winter Games and the Pacific Asia Junior Championships in Korea. The Junior Men's side is unchanged from last year.

The full sides, with playing order to be confirmed, are: