NZ Curling

The West Coast Curling Club has taken our game to new heights with heli-curling this year.

	West Coast Curling Club break for lunch at Lake Browning, high in the Southern Alps. Click for full sized image.

In what is believed to be a world first, they hire helicopters and fly up to frozen tarns high in the Southern Alps to play.

They have the choppers arranged, have identified a couple of ideal lakes but have just one problem – a lack of curling stones!

The club is looking to beg, buy or borrow any stones that might be sitting unused in a shed somewhere.

It was Auckland's Under-21 curlers who took the honours in the 2010 Auckland Mixed Doubles Curling Championship at Paradice Avondale last night.

Chelsea Farley and Keswick Pearson won the trophy with a perfect record, while Chelsea's sister Tessa and Kieran Ford took the runner-up spot. Another Auckland junior, Eleanor Adviento, teamed up with 2006 Olympian Lorne DePape to claim third.

The World Curling Federation has just released the 2010 WCF Rule Book.

To assist all curlers, there is also a version showing the differences between the 2008 and 2010 Rule Books.

World Curling Federation Kate Caithness has sent her August 2010 newsletter to all member associations. This comprehensive edition includes coverage of WCF personnel changes, recent competitions, camps and courses, and future events. Of particular interest are the WCF's current plans regarding the introduction of Mixed Doubles to the Winter Olympic Games.

Also from the WCF is their agreement with the Canadian Curling Association regarding the hosting of future World Championships.

All Black halfback Andy Ellis shows a very individual delivery style at Naseby last weekend. Photo: MasterCard® Roadshow

The MasterCard® All Blacks Roadshow came to Naseby last weekend to try the skill and subtleties of the roaring game.

Isaac Ross, Andy Ellis and Andrew Hore joined Buck Shelford as the ABs took on the locals at their own game. Buck, writing in the Roadshow blog, said, "It's quite a tricky sport, and it showed too as the locals won by heaps!"

The NZ Curling Association's August newsletter details the national tournaments still to be played this year, confirms the NZ Open and Senior teams for upcoming tournaments and summarises July's major outdoor events – The Bonspiel, the Idaburn Trophy and the Nicolson Trophy.

Even after the last stones had been played in the final round robin games at Auckland on Sunday 25 July, it was still unclear what the line-up would be when the 2010 Championship rounds started the following week.

The top three in each pool (plus one other) qualify for the A Division championship – but one pool had 3 teams tied for third place.

Alpine's top run of form this season continued today when they won the 2010 Macrae Trophy at Alexandra's Ice-In-Line rink.

The club's Number 2 team beat the other 7 finallists to win the the Idaburn Curling Council's major competition, and so added this trophy to the Snuff Box won earlier in the month when Alpine Curling Club won their first-ever National Bonspiel.

The New Zealand Open and Senior Men's and Women's curling teams for the 2010/11 season were confirmed at a Special Meeting of the NZ Curling Association's Executive on Friday 16 July.

NZCA Chairman Robert Rutherford advised that the Executive supported and endorsed the decisions of the Selectors. The Convenor of National Selectors, Darren Carson, then announced the following teams: