New Zealand Curling

Team NZ v Finland. Photo © WCF / Steve Seixeiro

10 Dec 2021 – New Zealand's Mixed Doubles team have been unsuccessful in their bid for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, losing their six pool games at the last-chance qualifying tournament in the Netherlands this week.

Despite being unable to train together in the three months before they left for Europe, Mhairi-Bronté Duncan and Brett Sargon had high hopes of emulating the 2006 NZ Men's team who qualified for the Turin Games.

Ultimately though, they were undone by their lack of time on the ice together.

"We're really grateful for all of the support we received," said Sargon after their last game. "It's safe to say that we're very disappointed, but this has highlighted the learnings if we are to make that next step."

Junior Women champions L-R: Grace Apuwai-Bishop (skip), Savannah Cumming, Temika Apuwai-Bishop, Lucy Neilson. Photo © Janyne Fletcher

22 Oct 2021 –Seven teams contested a tightly fought NZ Junior Championship over the last weekend of October at MCI Naseby. The opening game set the tone for the rest of the tournament when the eventual Men's winners stole an extra end win.

In the true Spirit of Curling, each team was made up of a range of ages and abilities with more experienced curlers spread out among the younger players.

This made for a great competition with some very close games that were down to the last stone. All competitors should feel proud of their efforts and skills demonstrated over the weekend.

8 Oct 2021 – After a season of frustration with Covid-related delays, the South Island Secondary School Championships were held on the weekend of 2-3 October.

The competitors responded with a fantastic weekend of curling, demonstrating some great skill levels, and the growth shown over the weekend was outstanding.

Unfortunately, both the North Island and NZ tournament were canceled by Covid Delta lockdowns. The Auckland Schools league was also abandoned, leaving this event as the only school competition to be completed this year.

China beat NZ in the bronze medal match at the 2019 Pacific-Asia Championship. This year's event will be the last. Photo © WCF / Tom Rowland

15 Sep 2021 – "The biggest opportunity for New Zealand Men's and Women's national curling teams in years" is how Lorne DePape, one of two NZ representatives to the World Curling Federation, describes the introduction of the new Pan-Continental Curling Championship to the international calendar in the northern 2022-2023 season.

A minimum of five Men's and five Women's teams from this new event will qualify directly for their respective World Championships. It replaces the annual Pacific-Asia Championship that New Zealand currently plays in, and the annual Americas Challenge.

Anton Hood and Courtney Smith were one of twelve teams who lined up to qualify

2 Aug 2021 – The next step in the quest for New Zealand to send a Mixed Doubles curling team to the Beijing Winter Olympics took place at Naseby last weekend, with a qualifying tournament to find the four teams who will contest the NZ Championship. The national champions will have the chance to represent New Zealand in the last-chance Olympic qualifying event and at the 2022 World Championship.

The twelve teams contesting the Qualifier were split into two pools, and the two pool winners would be the first teams to qualify for September's NZ Championship.

Mhairi-Bronté Duncan and Brett Sargon became the first to reach that goal, winning their first four games to take an unassailable lead in their pool with a game to spare.

30 Jun 2021 – Last week saw the last match in the first section of the Bowlers League indoor crampit competition at MCI, along with the final round of the Contractors Cup Hack Indoor competition.

On the adjoining outdoor Maniototo Ice Rink the first round of the Hore Cup was held, followed on Sunday by the Brown Trophy – traditionally the first match of the season for the four Naseby clubs.

The Dowse Trophy knockout competition has been put back a week, and will now start on Thursday 8 July at 7.00 pm.

Poolburn and Lauder sides after the final

28 Jun 2021 – After a very full day's curling at Alexandra's IceInLine outdoor rink last week, Poolburn 1 just headed Lauder 1 to win the Idaburn Curling Council's Macrae Trophy for 2021.

Idaburn's clubs had played a round-robin over the previous few weeks, and on Finals day the top eight teams lined up early for the first knockout round on what was an enjoyable day with plenty of banter, refreshments and good ice.

14 Jun 2021 – Sean Becker skipped his team of Warren Dobson, Hamish Walker, Jayden Apuwai-Bishop and Rob McSkimming to the gold medal at the 2021 NZ Championships to win his 11th title.

However, he was pipped by his sister Bridget who led Natalie Thurlow, Holly Thompson, Jen Stewart and Ruby Kinney to a clean sweep of the Women's round robin as she recorded her 12th championship win.

With just three Women's teams entered, the sides played a double round-robin. Bridget Becker recorded a tight 7-6 extra-end win over Team Courtney Smith in their first meeting of the weekend, but had more comfortable margins in their remaining games to claim the gold with a clean sweep.

NZ Mixed Curling champions 2021

9 Jun 2021 – Garion Long, Zoe Harman, Brett Sargon and Rebecca Long are the NZ Mixed Curling champions for 2021 after the title was contested at Paradice Avondale over Queen’s Birthday Weekend.

They headed off Lorne DePape, Tess Farley, William Sheard and Ariel Weber 9-3 in the final on Monday evening.

Eight teams contested the event, starting in two pools of four. The two semi-finalists from Pool A, Team Long and Team Dean Fotti, were known after just two of the three rounds when they both won their opening games.