NZ Teams & Events News

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 2020-2021 curling season.

Whilst the Coronavirus has generated much uncertainty around both our domestic season in 2020 and the International season of 2020-2021, we feel that by running this process now we will be able to move quickly should restrictions lift and allow for NZ representative teams to travel overseas.

The deadline for self-nomination has been extended to Thursday 7th May.

Specifically, the teams to be selected are:

2018 Winter Games NZ Mixed Doubles winners Jennifer Jones and Brett Laing. Photo © WGNZ / Neil Kerr

13 Mar 2020 – New Zealand Curling was advised last month that the Winter Games NZ would no longer include curling.

"The Winter Games NZ Board cited lack of funding as the main reason," said NZ Curling Chairman Sam Inder. "They will now concentrate their resources on the Snow Sports in Queenstown and Wanaka."

"We've enjoyed the relationship we've had with the Games since it started in 2009," he continued, "but we understand their position. Needless to say though, we're disappointed and the loss of this premier international event is a major blow for NZ Curling."

Team NZ in their opening match vs Russia. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

24 Feb 2020 – New Zealand's Junior Men will drop back down to the World Junior "B" Championships following the 2020 World Junior Championships in Russia.

With only the top 6 of the 10 competing teams automatically qualifying for the following year's event, NZ's 8th placing in Krasnoyarsk means their two-year tenure at the "A" event is over.

The Kiwi side bolted from the gates in the early pool rounds and sat tied at the top of the leaderboard after four games with a 3W-1L record. After their third win, skip Matt Neilson spoke to WCF media intern Olivia Crook-Simiana.

NZ's 2020 YOG team in their quarter-final vs Germany. Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

27 Jan 2020 – Hunter Walker, Zoe Harman, Will Becker and Lucy Neilson took 4th place at the 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games Mixed Curling competition, by far the best result by a New Zealand side at the event.

The opening week of competition was a Mixed (Fours) event. They opened their pool games with an 8-4 win against Slovenia before recording a last-stone victory against France 6-4.

With scores tied at four-all going into the last end the New Zealand Team of Zoe Harman, Lucy Neilson, Hunter Walker and Will Becker held their cool.

"It was a bit stressful, if we didn't win that end there would've been another end in a tiebreaker situation," said Harman.

The Kiwis had another last stone win over Turkey 7-6, before yet another nailbiter where they headed Norway 6-5 in an extra end to qualify for the playoff rounds with a game to spare.

Thumbs up for a great tournament. Photo © Team Facebook page

19 Dec 2019 – Although disappointed by their last-stone, 5-4 quarterfinal loss to Denmark, the New Zealand Women's team were proud of their performance at the World Junior B championships in Finland this week.

They started their week with an encouraging first round win against Germany but then dropped three consecutive pool games, two of those on the last stone to Australia and Denmark respectively.

Needing to win both remaining matches on the last day of pool play to have any hope of playoff qualification, the Kiwis had a comprehensive win in the morning session and then faced Scotland in a winner-takes-all match for the last playoff spot.

Lausanne team member Zoe Harman at the 2019 NZ Curling Championships. Photo © NZCA / Janyne Fletcher

22 Nov 2019 – Four curling athletes have been selected by the NZ Olympic Committee to the New Zealand Team for the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Hunter Walker, Will Becker, Lucy Neilson, and Zoe Harman will compete at the Games from January 9th to 22nd in the Palladium de Champéry, Switzerland.

Captain Hunter Walker says he's thrilled to be selected and loves the strategy involved in the sport.

"It's very physical so you've got to be really fit to play which is part of the fun. It's also great to compete internationally and make friendships all over the world."

New Zealand played China in the bronze medal game. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

10 Nov 2019 – The home side China beat New Zealand 9-4 in the Men's playoff for third at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championship 2019 in Shenzhen yesterday. This earned Team China the bronze medal, and with it an entry to the Qualifying Event for next year's World Men's Championship.

The Kiwis found themselves chasing the game early, after a missed runback gave Chinese skip Qiang Zou the chance to draw for a big 4-point lead in the first end.

"Unfortunately we didn't play like we should have in this game," said NZ skip Scott Becker. "We showed some of what we could do, but against professional teams you cannot afford so many misses."

Team NZ vs Czech Republic. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

21 Oct 2019 – The New Zealand team were disappointed but not disheartened following their 2 win - 5 loss record at the World Mixed Championship 2019 in Scotland.

"We didn't quite get the results we wanted," said Benjamin Frew. "But we had an amazing time nonetheless. I don't have enough words to describe how amazing competing here was."

"I think we all learned a lot," added Kieran Ford. "It was a great event to be part of, and a great atmosphere."

These two joined Mhairi-Bronte Duncan and skip Thivya Jeyaranjan in their first tournament together at the Curl Aberbeen-hosted event.

NZCOE participant Mhairi-Bronté Duncan in Stockholm. Photo: Mhairi-Bronté Duncan

9 Oct 2019 – The NZCOE (New Zealand Curling Overseas Experience) is a new initiative from NZ Curling.

It is designed to provide our aspiring athletes with the opportunity to spend an extended period overseas, developing their skills and understanding of the game.

"We anticipate that by being fully immersed in a curling community in Canada or Europe, our athletes will both improve their ability, and importantly, return to New Zealand as strong advocates and teachers of our wonderful sport," explained Peter de Boer, NZ Curling's National Coach.