NZ Teams & Events News

NZ v Finland. Photo © WCF / Céline Stucki

23 May 2021 – New Zealand curlers Courtney Smith and Anton Hood have fallen just short at the country's first attempt to qualify for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

A last-stone loss in their pool game against the USA at the World Mixed Doubles Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland was the difference between fourth place in their pool (and with it a game for the seventh and final spot at Beijing), and their eventual placing of sixth in the pool and 12th overall in a field of 20.

Their participation at the Championship was only confirmed a few weeks before the Aberdeen event after the originally selected pair were unable to attend.

Team New Zealand at the 2019 Pacific Asia Championship. Photo © WCF / Tom Rowland

To all Competitive Curlers

The NZCA Exec encourages athletes to self-nominate in order to be considered for selection for several International events through the 2021-2022 curling season.

The Coronavirus, quarantine requirements, and the vaccine rollout timetable are still generating some uncertainty around the coming international season. However, running this process now will enable us to move quickly when restrictions lift and allow for NZ representative teams to travel overseas more easily.

Click here to self-nominate. The deadline for self-nomination is Friday 23rd April.

Specifically, the teams to be selected for 2021-22 are:

Tutorial for playcurling.com

23 Feb 2021 – Your chance to ease into the 2021 curling season without leaving the sofa: the first NZ Online Curling Championship!

Yes, it's still summer here (mostly...) but playcurling.com lets you practice your strategy and have a bit of fun. High-level e-sports skills are not required.

Sign up now and we'll create a draw where you'll play 1-on-1 against other curlers – and maybe potential new curlers – from around the country. We might even run some of the playoffs via a Zoom call.

Entries have closed. Once you've entered go to playcurling.com, scroll down to watch the 5-minute tutorial, and sign up for a bit of practice. Good e-curling!

Jess and Ben Smith. Photo © WGNZ / Iain McGregor

29 Nov 2020 – Maniototo siblings Jessica and Ben Smith earned the right to represent New Zealand at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship when they won the three-team National Trial this weekend.

It has been a long wait for the pair. This is the third time they have won that right, but for personal reasons they did not go in 2019, and this year's World tournament was a casualty of the pandemic.

The 2020 cancellation increased the importance of the 2021 World Championship as an Olympic qualifier, triggering a one-off change from the NZ Curling Association. They introducing this National Trial rather than the automatic selection of the New Zealand Championship winners as the national team.

Click to watch a full replay of the final on Sky Sport Next's YouTube channel

20 Sep 2020 – A live-streamed thriller of a final capped off an outstanding 2020 NZ Mixed Doubles Championship.

With the scores tied in the final end and their opponents' shot rock on the button and well guarded, Bridget Becker managed to curl the last stone of the game around the guard, tap it back, and stay in the four foot ring to earn the gold medal match 9-8 for herself and brother Sean.

It was a see-saw affair that saw their opponents Mhairi-Bronte Duncan and Brett Sargon start strongly, scoring four in the opening end. The Becker siblings then scored in the next six ends to lead 8-4 before another four-point haul to Duncan and Sargon in the penultimate end levelled the scores.

NZ Men at the 2020 World Junior Championships. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

2 Sep 2020 – The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced the World Curling Federation to cancel several events over the next few months.

Those that affect New Zealand curlers are November's Pacific-Asia Championships in Japan, and the January 2021 World Junior-B Championships in Finland.

The World Junior Championships in Beijing (18-28 February 2021) are currently still scheduled, and the NZ Junior Men's place in this event has been restored after the abandonment of the Junior-B event.

Whether they will be able to take up this chance is not yet certain.

The Anton Hood four, skipped by Peter de Boer, are the 2020 NZ Men's curling champions. Photo © Janyne Fletcher / NZCA

6 Aug 2020 – A perfect 6-0 record in the Women's double round-robin earned Bridget Becker, Nat Thurlow, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Eloise Pointon and Olivia Russell the title of 2020 NZ Women's curling champions last weekend, just a month after the MCI Naseby rink reopened following the Covid-19 shutdown.

It was a much tighter affair in the Men's competition, with four of the seven teams still in contention for a place in the final when the last round-robin session started on Sunday morning.

When Team Hamish Walker shook hands to concede their game to Dan Mustapic's side, the Garion Long four were assured of being one of the two finalists. Long went on to make doubly sure, topping the leaderboard with an extra end win over Peter Becker.

Courtney Smith at the 2019 NZ Championships. Photo © Janyne Fletcher / NZCA

16 Jul 2020 – Courtney Smith won her third consecutive NZ Championship as skip when she and Zoe Harman, Rachael Pitts and Anna Stuart won their best-of-three series against Grace Apuwai-Bishop's side in Naseby last weekend.

The Smith side won the opening encounter 10-6 on Friday evening. However Grace, with sister Temika, Emily Armstrong and Lucy Neilson were on top in the second game, scoring 3 in the sixth end to seal an emphatic 8-1 reversal.

This result forced a decider at noon on Sunday.

Consecutive steals before the fourth-end break gave Team Smith a 3-1 lead, and 3 points in the sixth end gave them control as they went on to win the game 7-4, and with it the gold medal.

Garion Long watches as Kieran Ford calls line in the final. Photo © NZCA

9 Jul 2020 – Garion Long, Rebecca Long and Benjamin Frew won a tense final of the NZ Mixed Championship at Paradice Avondale last weekend.

They stole singles through the first four ends of the final against Brett Sargon, Chelsea Farley and Kieran Ford to lead 4-0 at the break. On ice that all teams had trouble reading, the roles were reversed over the next three ends to level the scores coming home.

Ford's last-stone attempt at a double-raise to claim shot missed by millimetres, so the winners had the title 5-4 without needing to throw their final stone.