NZ Teams & Events News

NZ Curling President Liz Matthews with champions Brett Sargon, Holly Thompson, Shay Bijoux and Kieran Ford. Photo © NZ Curling / Lorne DePape.

9 Jun 2022 – Brett Sargon, Holly Thompson, Kieran Ford and Shay Bijoux won the 2022 NZ Mixed Championship in style over Queen's Birthday Weekend, winning all of their five games handsomely.

The record ten teams started their pool games on Sunday afternoon, with the draw worked around the limited ice time available to the Auckland Curling Club organisers.

It was the third-round contest between the two top-ranked sides in Pool A, Team Sargon and Team Benjamin Frew. that ultimately decided which of them would contest the final.

Sportsmanship Award winners, Darcy Nevill and Eirin Mesloe. Photo © WCF / Cheyenne Boone.

25 May 2022 – The New Zealand Juniors Men's team didn't bring home any medals with them from the recent World Junior Championships in Sweden, and in fact finished at the foot of the table.

However, NZ's Darcy Nevill did receive the recognition of his fellow competitors who voted him and Norway women’s skip, Eirin Mesloe, as best exemplifying the spirit of curling throughout the tournament.

They were presented with the event's Sportsmanship Awards by Chief Umpire Joaquim Reimertz at the closing ceremony.

New Zealand v Estonia. Photo © WCF / Celine Stucki

30 Apr 2022 – The World Mixed Doubles and World Seniors Championships in Geneva this week were not a happy hunting ground for the two Kiwi teams.

Dave Watt's NZ Senior Men won two of their six games, with the highlight being an extra-end 6-5 victory over pool runners-up Scotland.

But there was no success for the Mixed Doubles side of Natalie Thurlow and Warren Dobson, who finished at the bottom of their 10-team pool.

"We just weren't accurate enough, consistently enough," said Dobson. "We felt we were improving as the week went on, but our last few games were against the top finishers in our pool so the scorelines didn't look any better."

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

To all Competitive Curlers and administrators

NZ Curling is looking for self-nominations for

• Selection for NZ Teams
• Team Coaches
• Selectors and Scouts

Teams

The NZCA Executive encourages athletes to self-nominate to be considered for selection for several international events through the 2022-2023 Curling Season. Secondary School Teachers, please pass on this information to any students interested. The Junior (U21) self-nomination may be of particular interest to some. Covid19 has generated much uncertainty around our domestic and international seasons during 2021. However, with restrictions lifting, we can now support NZ representative ;teams to travel overseas.

Click here to self-nominate. The deadline for self-nomination is Friday 15th April.

Specifically, the events where teams will be selected are

3 Feb 2022 – The Beijing Winter Olympics are under way!

Sadly no NZ curlers qualified for Beijing, but we'll still have literally hundreds of hours of top-class curling to feast our eyes on for the next 17 days.

The Mixed Doubles competition is on now, with the finals on February 8th. The Men's and Women's fours then get underway and run through until the last day of the Games on February 20th.

How can I watch the Games?
Prime TV have some free-to-air coverage. Or you can choose from virtually every session of every sport with a Sky Sport Winter Olympic Games pass.

Where are the news and results?
Check out the World Curling and the Winter Olympic Games official sites

Where can I try curling?
There are three dedicated curling rinks in New Zealand – in Dunedin, Naseby, and Alexandra. Auckland Curling has hired Paradice Avondale for "Have a Go" sessions on 26 February and 5, 13, 20 March (bookings essential). All venues require My Vaccine Pass.

Team NZ v Finland. Photo © WCF / Steve Seixeiro

10 Dec 2021 – New Zealand's Mixed Doubles team have been unsuccessful in their bid for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, losing their six pool games at the last-chance qualifying tournament in the Netherlands this week.

Despite being unable to train together in the three months before they left for Europe, Mhairi-Bronté Duncan and Brett Sargon had high hopes of emulating the 2006 NZ Men's team who qualified for the Turin Games.

Ultimately though, they were undone by their lack of time on the ice together.

"We're really grateful for all of the support we received," said Sargon after their last game. "It's safe to say that we're very disappointed, but this has highlighted the learnings if we are to make that next step."

Junior Women champions L-R: Grace Apuwai-Bishop (skip), Savannah Cumming, Temika Apuwai-Bishop, Lucy Neilson. Photo © Janyne Fletcher

22 Oct 2021 –Seven teams contested a tightly fought NZ Junior Championship over the last weekend of October at MCI Naseby. The opening game set the tone for the rest of the tournament when the eventual Men's winners stole an extra end win.

In the true Spirit of Curling, each team was made up of a range of ages and abilities with more experienced curlers spread out among the younger players.

This made for a great competition with some very close games that were down to the last stone. All competitors should feel proud of their efforts and skills demonstrated over the weekend.

China beat NZ in the bronze medal match at the 2019 Pacific-Asia Championship. This year's event will be the last. Photo © WCF / Tom Rowland

15 Sep 2021 – "The biggest opportunity for New Zealand Men's and Women's national curling teams in years" is how Lorne DePape, one of two NZ representatives to the World Curling Federation, describes the introduction of the new Pan-Continental Curling Championship to the international calendar in the northern 2022-2023 season.

A minimum of five Men's and five Women's teams from this new event will qualify directly for their respective World Championships. It replaces the annual Pacific-Asia Championship that New Zealand currently plays in, and the annual Americas Challenge.

Anton Hood and Courtney Smith were one of twelve teams who lined up to qualify

2 Aug 2021 – The next step in the quest for New Zealand to send a Mixed Doubles curling team to the Beijing Winter Olympics took place at Naseby last weekend, with a qualifying tournament to find the four teams who will contest the NZ Championship. The national champions will have the chance to represent New Zealand in the last-chance Olympic qualifying event and at the 2022 World Championship.

The twelve teams contesting the Qualifier were split into two pools, and the two pool winners would be the first teams to qualify for September's NZ Championship.

Mhairi-Bronté Duncan and Brett Sargon became the first to reach that goal, winning their first four games to take an unassailable lead in their pool with a game to spare.