New Zealand Curling

The Auckland Secondary School curling champions for 2009 have been decided. Kelston Boys High School, Epsom Girls Grammar and Long Bay College will be taking home the silverware for the boys, girls and mixed competitions respectively.

The Kelston team of Brett Sargon, Matthew Clemett, Dean D’Cruz, Tyrone Rapana, Nathan Mahoney and Madhukar Narain went through the season undefeated, scoring six wins and two draws for 14 points. Just a point behind were Long Bay College’s Team Steele who had pipped the Kelston team in a tiebreaker at the North Island championships a fortnight earlier. Massey High School’s Team Lawrence came in third.

The top Epsom Girls team – Chelsea Farley, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Tessa Farley and Emily Whelan – were clear winners in their section, winning all of their seven games. Their closest rivals, Henderson High Taylor and Epsom Girls Kwon, both finished the season with a 5-2 win-loss record. Henderson secured second place overall by virtue of winning the head to head match against Team Kwon.

The Mixed competition was run in conjunction with the Boys’. Long Bay’s experienced four of Katie Bauer, Garion Long, Christine Bridle and Morgan Long were clear winners with 11 points, adding the Auckland championship to the North Island title they won earlier in the month. They finished well ahead of Birkenhead College Patel on six points and Massey High Powlesland with five.

NZ Curling’s North Island Youth Development manager Liz Matthews was delighted with the competition. “We’ve seen some excellent games through the season,” she said.

“Particularly pleasing was the rapid improvement in the play of the new teams. Sides that were novices in May were giving the more experienced players a real run for their money just a few months later.”

“There’s no doubt we have plenty of raw talent here – possibly even future Olympians,” she continued. “But what our young athletes desperately need to improve their game is good quality curling ice and more ice time. Auckland Curling is a partner in a project to build a dedicated curling rink alongside a new pool at Oratia’s Waterhole in West Auckland, and this must go ahead if their potential is to be realised.”

The Auckland school curling season will finish with a social tournament for all teams and prizegiving at Paradice Avondale next Thursday evening, 24 September. The final event in the national Secondary School curling calendar will be the New Zealand championships on 3-4 October, also at Paradice Avondale.

Results

• Final round scores
• Final standings

Earlier articles

• 28 Aug 2009 – Auckland Schools competition still open
• 24 Jul 2009 – Maximum exposure for Auckland Schools curling