NZ Teams & Events News

20 Nov 2013 – The podium proved to be just out of reach for New Zealand's curlers at the 2013 Pacific-Asia Championships in Shanghai.

Both the Men's and Women's sides reached the Bronze medal match, but were beaten by Korea and Japan respectively.

Despite the disappointing finish for the Kiwi sides, both skips took some positives from the tournament.

1 Sep 2013 – With several experienced players unavailable, the New Zealand selectors have announced a new-look national Women's team for November's Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in China.

Chelsea Farley, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Tessa Farley and Waverley Taylor will be coached by Liz Matthews, who will also fill the 5th player role if required. The Farley sisters and Jeyaranjan first played for the national open side two years ago, and this is a rapid rise for Taylor who was named for the Junior Women's team just a few weeks ago.

14 Aug 2013 – Details for New Zealand's last chance to qualify for next year's Winter Olympic curling tournament have been confirmed. The OQE – Olympic Qualifying Event – will be held in Füssen, Germany from 10 to 15 December.

The New Zealand Men's side will face the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea and the USA, with the top two finishers securing the two remaining Olympic entries for Sochi, Russia.

7 Aug 2013 – 2012 NZ Mixed Doubles Curling champions Natalie Thurlow and Hans Frauenlob had to battle all the way before before emerging from last weekend's 2013 Championship with back-to-back titles.

The pair lost two of their five pool games to tie for second with last year's bronze medalists Kelsi Heath and Kieran Ford, but Thurlow and Frauenlob qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of their first round win over Heath and Ford.

The new pairing of Kenny Thomson from the New Zealand Men's side and 19-year-old Aucklander Waverley Taylor topped the pool with a perfect five from five.

Peter de Boer

24 Aug 2013 – New Zealand skip Peter de Boer has set himself one goal this year – to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Russia.

New Zealand is one of the eight teams that will compete in the Olympic qualifying event in Fussen, Germany, in December. NZ will play the USA, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Germany, Finland and Korea for the two available places in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

» Read the full ODT article...

22 Jul 2013 – Last week's Junior curling camp at the Maniototo curling International rink in Naseby was followed by the NZ Under-21 Curling Championships.

The Women's gold medal was won by Eleanor Adviento, Waverley Taylor, Brittany Taylor, Tessa Farley and Eloise Pointon. The Men's honours went to the hometown side of Andrew Scott, Simon Neilson, Josh Whyte, Rueben Pyle and Matthew Neilson.

15 Jul 2013 – Upsets and comebacks were the order of the first two days at the New Zealand Curling Championships in Dunedin this weekend.

NZ Senior Women's skip Wendy Becker led her team of Brydie Donald, Kelsi Heath and Kathy-Jo Dobson to a 9-1 win in the deciding game of their best-of-five final series. The silver medal went to the young Auckland four of Chelsea Farley, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Tessa Farley and Eleanor Adviento.

5 Jul 2013 – Iain Craig and his side successfully defended their 2012 NZ Mixed Fours title when they won the 2013 Championship at the Paradice Avondale rink during Queen's Birthday weekend.

Craig, with Brianne Koning (replacing Tessa Farley from 2012), Josh Dallow and Holly Gosse, were undefeated through pool play – albeit only just on occasion. They became more fluent at the end of the tournament though, and were convincing winners of the gold medal game.

24 Apr 2013 – The build-up to December's Winter Olympics qualifier for the New Zealand Men's curling team started in Japan last weekend at the Karuizawa International Championship.

Skip Peter de Boer described their fourth placing as "a slightly disappointing finish as we had every chance of winning the event. However we had 7 games against strong opposition giving us plenty to work on over the coming months."