2017 Auckland Champions Cleansweep. Photo Beth Gibbs

27 Sep 2017 – Cleansweep made it back-to-back titles, and 3 in the last 4 years when they beat Rockers in Auckland Curling's 2017 Premier League final last Sunday.

In the semi-finals a fortnight earlier, Cleansweep had beaten John Allen's Diamonds while Rockers headed round robin winners Stonehenge, skipped by Garion Long.

A succession of single point ends in this week's final was broken with a 3 in the sixth end to Rockers. But Cleansweep (Chelsea Farley, Ryan Lewis, Tessa Farley, Kate Smirnova, Lisa Wu and Marie Tsai) then replied with a decisive 5-pointer, and went on to steal the last to win 9-5.

Dan Mustapic, Hans Frauenlob, Dave Watt and Iain Craig

12 Sep 2017 – They looked a little rusty without recent game time at the start of last weekend's New Zealand Seniors Curling Championship in Naseby. But by the end of the tournament Dan Mustapic's side were looking pretty sharp.

Mustapic, Hans Frauenlob, Dave Watt and Iain Craig needed to score two in the last end of their opening game to secure a single point win over Team Peter Becker.

After that they looked much more assured, and shook hands early in their remaining games to go through the tournament unbeaten.

Harri Lill and Marie Turmann with the Winter Games NZ trophy. Photo © WGNZ / Peter Meecham

30 Aug 2017 – Estonia are the 2017 Audi quattro Winter Games NZ Mixed Doubles curling gold medallists after a 7-6 win in this afternoon’s final against defending champions Canada.

The Estonians started strongly to hold a 5-1 lead at the halfway point, only to see their advantage evaporate after the seventh end.

Mixed Doubles has a mantra that ‘no lead is safe’, and Canada made a valiant attempt to defend their 2015 title. They scored in the next three ends go ahead 6-5 as the final end started.

The Canadian pair attempted to take out all of the Estonian stones with their final shots to prevent them scoring two, but there was still a single rock remaining as Marie Turmann lined up the last stone for Estonia.

Photo / Video © Newshub

30 Aug 2017 – The small Central Otago settlement of Naseby has been abuzz this week with the Winter Games curling competition in town. Some of the world's best are using our backyard to hone their skills ahead of next year's Olympics in South Korea.

David Di Somma / Newshub

Click to watch the video for the full Newshub story.

Switzerland's Palladium de Champéry, venue for the 2017 World Mixed Championship

20 Aug 2017 – New Zealand's representative teams for our first three WCF international championships of the 2017-2018 season have been confirmed.

The following teams will compete in the World Mixed Championship (Switzerland), Pacific-Asia Championships (Australia) and the World Junior B Championships (Finland):

World champions Martin Rios and Jenny Perret, Switzerland. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

18 Aug 2017 – The current World Champions, a smattering of other top-10 sides and two previous Winter Games gold medallists should ensure some thrilling curling at this month’s Audi quattro Winter Games NZ Mixed Doubles tournament.

“This is the best field ever to take to the ice outside a World Championship”, said Sam Inder, Winter Games Curling Manager.

“With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, six of the eight nations in the Mixed Doubles at PyeongChang are sending teams to the Winter Games.”

“The current World Champions from Switzerland, Martin Rios and Jenny Perret, have to be among the favourites,” he continued, “as do the Norwegian team who have had five top 10 finishes in the last five years."

Bridget Becker. Photo © NZCA

15 Aug 2017 – It may have been 5 years since Bridget Becker and brother Sean last competed together, but you wouldn’t have thought so after they comfortably won the NZ Mixed Doubles Curling Championship last weekend.

Their teamwork may have been understandably a little rusty early on, with a second round loss to the eventual bronze medallists Eleanor Adviento and Brett Sargon. But they found their form quickly and improved throughout the tournament to finish the round robin with a 5-1 win-loss record.

Courtney Smith and Anton Hood played consistently well through the round robin, dropping just their opening round match to the Beckers to also finish on 5-1.

Presentation after the Idaburn Trophy's 2017 match. Photo © Lottie Hedley / lottiehedleyphotography.com

13 Aug 2017 – With warm weather signalling the imminent end of the outdoor curling season, a call went out to play the “North-South” one-day match for the Idaburn Trophy last Friday, 11 August.

Icemaker Jock Scott felt that while the ice conditions would be somewhat on the trying side, the ice would probably just about hold out long enough for a day’s curling on Naseby’s Outdoor Ice Rink.

Five teams each from the Naseby and Idaburn Curling Councils started the first of two scheduled 21 end games at 9am. Sluggish ice, and later pools of water, meant that the games progressed quickly – although curlers’ arms were already aching when the first game was completed.