New Zealand Curling

Top international curling returns to Naseby

"The Curler" will greet the teams in Naseby. Photo © NZCA

5 Dec 2018 – The most significant international curling tournament ever held in New Zealand will take place in Naseby, Central Otago next month.

The World Qualification Event, jointly hosted by the New Zealand Curling Association and the Australian Curling Federation, will run at Naseby's Maniototo Curling International rink from 18 to 23 January.

Eight Men's and eight Women's national teams will take part. The top two in each competition will qualify for the remaining two places in their respective 2019 World Championship.

"We're delighted with the chance to host a range of teams from around the world," said NZ Curling Chairman Sam Inder, "many of them for the first time."

"The 2019 Men's and Women's World Championships are the first chance for teams to put themselves in the frame for the 2022 Winter Olympics," he continued. "So the World Championship spots up for grabs here will be keenly contested. The stakes are high and we'll see some great competition."

Kiwis upbeat despite bronze medal loss

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.

Bar set high at World Mixed

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!"

Stonehenge clean up in Auckland

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.

Kavanagh takes NZ Secondary School honours

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.

Mustapic extends Seniors streak

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.

EGGS, Long Bay and Lynfield take North Island honours

EGGS v Long Bay. Photo NZCA / Liz Matthews

6 Sep 2018 – Epsom Girls Grammar Knock Out struck form at the business end of the tournament to win their North Island Secondary Schools Championship at Paradice Avondale this week.

In round robin play the side finished fourth of the five teams to claim the last semifinal berth.

But Jasman Vir Kaur, Katrina Shepard, Sava Youssef and Shreya Nair peaked at the right time to beat their schoolmates EGGS Squad Curl Out 5-2 in their semi, and then claim the gold medal 9-3 over Long Bay Silver in the final.

Winter Games NZ podium

L-R: Korey Dropkin and Sarah Anderson (USA, bronze), Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones (Canada, gold) and Fraser Kingan and Jayne Stirling (Scotland, silver). Photo Neil Kerr / Winter Games NZ

Canada claim Winter Games gold

Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones (Canada) at the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ 2018

30 Aug 2018 – Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones claimed the gold medal for Canada in the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ Mixed Doubles curling tournament in Naseby this afternoon.

They beat Scotland’s Jayne Stirling and Fraser Kingan 9-5 in the final.

The tournament was also the first event of the northern season’s World Curling Tour, and was the first WCT event to ever be held in the southern hemisphere.

Canada and Scotland to play for gold

Semifinal action at the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ 2018

30 Aug 2018 – Scotland and Canada won this morning’s semi-finals at the Audi quattro Winter Games Mixed Doubles curling tournament in Naseby and will face off in the gold medal match this afternoon.

Scotland beat Norway in a high scoring game. The Scots took four points in the third end, and then a crucial steal of two in the next when Maia and Magnus Ramsfjell could find no way to the button for Norway.

When their last shot in the seventh end wrecked on a guard, the teams shook hands with the score at 12-7.