NZ Teams & Events News

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.

2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games. Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

8 Apr 2020 - Over the last six months, the NZCA Exec has undertaken a full review of our selection policies and processes. The updated document can be found on our website here.

It has been decided to form a Selection Committee that will oversee both the processes for selection and ultimately the selection decisions themselves.

As updated on 16 July, the make-up of the committee is:

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 coming International season, 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 was Thursday 7th May.

Specifically, the teams to be selected for 2020-21 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.