NZ Teams & Events News

11 Apr 2013 – The pathway to 2014 Winter Olympic qualification has been confirmed for the New Zealand Men's Curling team. They will compete at an 8-team Olympic Qualifying Event event in Füssen, Germany in December, and the top two nations from that event will earn the final two berths at Sochi next year.

Ten teams will compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next February. The Russian hosts are automatic entrants, as are the seven teams with the most qualifying points from the 2012 and just-completed 2013 World Men's championships - Canada, Sweden, Scotland (for Great Britain), Norway, Denmark, China and Switzerland.

NZ Junior Men L-R: Liz Matthews (coach), Garion Long, Luke Steele, Liam Dowling, Brett Sargon, Willie Miller

17 Jan 2013 – The New Zealand Junior Men's curling team will be returning home from the Pacific-Asia Championships with bronze medals, equalling the best-ever finish by a Kiwi side at this under-21 event. Their 5 win - 4 loss record included one win against Korea and two each against Japan and Australia.

But the Korean side eventually proved their undoing, beating the NZ side 7-3 in their semi-final. China went on to beat Korea for the gold medal.

25 Nov 2012 – It was China's day at the finals of the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in Naseby today. Their defending champions in the the men's and women's competitions both won their gold medal matches.

Women's silver went to Japan, and the young Korean side took the bronze medal. Japan were also the men's silver medalists, while Australia won the bronze medal match.

Hans Frauenlob

30 Sep 2012 – Three months ago Hans Frauenlob skipped his team to a win over the national side in the final of the NZ Open Men's Championship, and a month ago he teamed up with Natalie Thurlow to win the NZ Mixed Doubles title.

Last weekend Frauenlob's side of Lorne DePape, Al Langille and Pat Cooney successfully defended their national Senior Men's title. This secured a unique treble in New Zealand Curling history for the 2006 Winter Olympian.

They faced some stern competition on the way to their second championship. Dan Mustapic and his side of Charlie McLeod, John Campbell and Neville Phillips beat Frauenlob in the round robin and lined up against him in the final.

3 Sep 2012 – Two months after skipping his side to an upset win over the defending champions at the NZ Men's championship, Hans Frauenlob has done it again.

The 2006 Olympian and his playing partner Natalie Thurlow won the 2012 NZ Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in the weekend, beating 2011 winners Bridget Becker and Sean Becker 7-5 in a tight final.

19 Jul 2012 – The National Selectors have named the New Zealand National and Junior (Under-21) sides for the 2012 / 2013 season.

This was a much-anticipated announcement following the shock loss of the 2011/2 Men's team to the NZ Senior Men's side in the National Championships earlier in the month. The NZ Men had finished 5th at the World Men's Championship in Switzerland just 3 months earlier.

2 Jul 2012 – Peter de Boer's New Zealand representative side finished 5th at the World Men's Curling Championship in April this year. They were unbeaten through pool play at the NZ Championships over the weekend, and hot favourites as they went onto the ice for the final.

But the current NZ Senior Men's champion side of Hans Frauenlob, most of them 2006 Winter Olympians, had other ideas as they lined up in Naseby on Sunday afternoon.

L-R: Winners Josh Dallow, Iain Craig, Tessa Farley, Holly Gosse

5 Jun 2012 – The first national title of the season has been decided.

Iain Craig and his team of Tessa Farley, Josh Dallow and Holly Gosse won the 2012 NZ Mixed Fours Championship in Auckland on Queen’s Birthday Weekend.

Team Craig beat the top qualifiers Kieran Ford, Eleanor Adviento, Brett Sargon and Kelsi Heath in an engaging final at the Paradice Avondale rink.

29 Apr 2012 – Switzerland have continued their remarkable record at World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships. The Swiss team of Martin Rios and Nadine Lehmann beat Sweden's Per Noreen and Camilla Johansson 7-6 in the 2012 gold medal game to win their country's fourth championship title in the five year history of the event.

Claudia Toth and Christian Roth won the first ever WCF curling championship medal for Austria, winning the bronze medal game 12-7 against the USA pair Cristin and Brady Clark.

Earlier, New Zealand's Natalie Thurlow and John Campbell just failed to reach the playoff rounds, finishing fourth in their pool with 4 wins and 4 losses and 10th overall.