New Zealand Curling

Matthew Neilson at the 2019 World Junior B Championship. Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

12 Feb 2019 – The New Zealand Junior Men's curling team are acclimatising and practising in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada ahead of the World Junior Championships which start in nearby Liverpool this Saturday, 16 February.

They will make history when they play Italy in their first game, being the first Kiwi side to play at a full World Junior Championship.

Matthew Neilson, Anton Hood, Ben Smith, Hunter Walker, and Jayden Apuwai-Bishop earned their entry by winning the gold medal at last month's World Junior B Championship, beating China in the semi-final and then Italy in the final.

These three teams will meet hosts Canada and six other pre-qualified sides in Liverpool.

Team China after their playoff win to qualify for the LGT World Women's Curling Championship 2019. Photo © WCF / Clare Toia-Bailey

23 Jan 2019 – China and Finland claimed the final two places at the LGT Women’s World Curling Championship 2019 when they won their playoff games at the World Qualification Event in Naseby today.

At the same time, Korea and the Netherlands earned their entry for the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Championship 2019.

Eight teams of each gender had started the 6-day tournament, and when the round robin ended yesterday the top three from each had qualified for today’s two playoff sessions.

Top qualifiers Finland met China in the first Women’s playoff.

NZ Men played the Netherlands in their final game. Photo © WCF / Clare Toia-Bailey

22 Jan 2019 – Korea, England and the Netherlands will contest the Men’s playoffs at the World Curling Qualification Event in Naseby tomorrow. The New Zealand hosts were eliminated by millimetres after a countback.

The winners of the two playoff games will complete the field for the 2019 Men’s World Curling Championship in Canada.

At the same time, Finland, China and Hungary will play off for the remaining two places in the lineup at the Women’s World Championship in Denmark.

The Women’s playoff contenders were known after their second-to-last round robin session, but it took both final sessions for the Men before the playoff lineup was known. England and Korea went into the morning session unbeaten, but they were beaten there by New Zealand and the Netherlands respectively, the other top-three contenders.

L-R: Peter Becker (coach), Jayden Apuwai-Bishop (Alternate), Hunter Walker (Lead), Ben Smith (3rd), Anton Hood (vice-skip, 4th), Matthew Neilson (skip, 2nd). Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

11 Jan 2019 - New Zealand Curling history was made in Lohja, Finland overnight when the NZ Men's side won the gold medal at the World Junior B championships.

With the medal came an entry to the full World Junior Championships in Canada next month – the first by any Kiwi side.

The team of Matthew Neilson, Anton Hood, Ben Smith, Hunter Walker, and Jayden Apuwai-Bishop beat Italy 8-4 in the final.

They qualified from their pool with a 5-2 win-loss record. They then defeated Russia 6-4 in their quarter-final, and stole an extra end to pip China 6-5 in the semi to earn their shot at the gold.

Handshakes for Warren Dobson and JeongJae Lee after the bronze medal game. Photo © WCF / Tom Rowland

12 Nov 2018 – They say it's a game of millimetres, and that was never more true than in the Men's bronze medal match at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships 2018 in Gangneung, Korea

A feathered guard late in the game was all that stood between New Zealand and their first Pacific-Asia medal since 2011.

Some outstanding shot-making from the Kiwis had Korea on the back foot. An in-off to remove Korea's shot stone in the fifth end scored them a pair, and then a surgical removal to take three in the eighth end earned them a 3-point lead going into the ninth.

But the match turned when NZ's final shot of the ninth end to remove at least one of two Korean counters feathered that guard. 

Team NZ in action against the hosts in Canada. Photo © WCF / Jeffrey Au

21 Oct 2018 – The bar was set high at the World Mixed Championship in Kelowna, BC, Canada said Team New Zealand skip Dave Watt.

"We didn't play bad," he said after the competition where they finished with a 1 win - 6 loss record. "We just got no breaks."

"Team Canada [the eventual gold medalists] told us that they played their best game against us up to that point," he continued. "Same with Slovenia – and Austria got up for us too."

"Against Norway we played well too – but did get some breaks!"

Team Stonehenge, 2018 Auckland Champions. Photo Earl Irving

17 Oct 2018 – The Stonehenge team of Garion Long, Benjamin Frew, Kieran Grieve and Rebecca Treacy are the 2018 Auckland Curling champions after a 9-2 win over last year's winners, Cleansweep, in last Sunday's Premier League final.

The side also won the Auckland's Round Robin trophy and the Big End award.

In the semi-finals a week earlier, Chelsea Farley's Cleansweep had beaten Iain Craig's Rockers, while Stonehenge headed off the fast-improving Penguins skipped by Sasha Golborodko.

Girls winners Kavanagh College L-R: Grace Apuwai-Bishop, Temika Apuwai-Bishop, Elizabeth Audas and Emily Armstrong. Photo Janyne Fletcher

1 Oct 2018 – Kavanagh College took the major honours in last weekend's NZ Secondary Schools Championship, taking home the Girls and Boys trophies.

The Kavanagh Girls side of Grace Apuwai-Bishop, Temika Apuwai-Bishop, Elizabeth Audas and Emily Armstrong-Sagvari were unstoppable on their march to their title.

Remarkably, they did not concede a single point throughout their four pool games. Maniototo Area School came closer than anyone in their semi-final, restricting Kavanagh to a 6-1 margin.

An emphatic 12-1 victory over Otago Girls #1 in the final sealed an outstanding tournament for the Kavanagh Girls.

Man's champions Iain Craig, Lorne DePape, Dave Watt and Dan Mustapic. Photo © NZCA

18 Sep 2018 – Team Dan Mustapic won their fifth straight NZ Senior Men's Championship undefeated last weekend, but they needed to warm into their task.

Mustapic found himself facing six counters as he lined up his last shot in the first game of the tournament against Ewan Kirk's Naseby side.

The game then went to an extra end after an attempted Mustapic takeout in the eighth end clipped a guard.

Their second match against Pete Becker was also close through the first five ends, before a three-pointer in the 6th broke the deadlock.