NZ Teams & Events

Defending champions Sean Becker and Bridget Becker retained their stranglehold on the New Zealand Curling Championship titles when their teams won their respective Men's and Women's titles in Naseby this weekend.

Sean has now skipped the Men's champions every year since 2007, and Bridget's winning sequence has continued unbroken since the first separate Women's championship in 2005.

NZ Mixed Fours

Pre-tournament favourites Kenny Thomson, Brydie Donald, Lorne DePape and Marisa Jones confirmed their class to win the 2010 New Zealand Mixed Fours championship in Auckland last weekend.

They were the only unbeaten team going into the final against Team Hill (Len Hill, Christine Bewick, Len McSaveney, Beth Gibbs) and took charge late in the match to record a 6-3 victory.

L-R: 2010 World Mixed Doubles Curling silver medallists Sean Becker, Bridget Becker and coach Scott Becker. Photo © WCF / Goran Roxin

25 Apr 2010 – The New Zealand team of Sean Becker and Bridget Becker has won the silver medal at the 2010 World Mixed Doubles Championship in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The unbeaten Russian team beat the Kiwis 9-7 in a thriller, the final going to an extra end after the scores were tied after the regulation eight ends.

The second placing to the siblings from Central Otago's Ranfurly Curling Club represents a milestone for NZ Curling. It is the first medal of any colour won by a New Zealand team at a World Curling Championship.

I hope that all of New Zealand's curling community were able to watch some of the excellent coverage we saw of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, learn by watching the world's best in action, and capture some of the emotion of the Games.

New Zealand Curling has to start planning now if we want to have two teams at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. And so do our next Olympic curling athletes.

The New Zealand men will come home from the Karuizawa International Curling Championships in Japan with a 4th placing after an eventful last couple of days.

They played two tiebreakers on Saturday evening to earn their spot in the medal rounds but were beaten in their semi-final and the bronze medal game on Sunday.

L to R: Sharon Morrison (coach), Michael Smith, Sam Miller, Lachlan Browne, Mat Weir, Kris Miller

New Zealand's Junior Men's team have won the bronze medal at the 2010 Pacific Junior Curling Championships in Nayoro, Japan. This is only the second podium finish by the NZ Men in this event, mirroring last year's third placing.

NZ and Japan, second equal after the qualifying rounds, met in the semi-final with the Japanese taking the game comfortably 9-3.

Japan went on to play top qualifier China, who won the gold medal in a low-scoring 3-2 final.

The NZ Women were neck-and-neck with their Korean opponents for much of their bronze medal match at the 2009 Pacific Curling Championships in Karuizawa, Japan today, but Korea took control at the end to record an 8-5 victory.

In a repeat of the 2008 result at Naseby, the Chinese teams won both the Men's and Women's gold medals.

The NZCA Executive has adopted a programme drafted by Sharon Morrison, National Coach, for the ongoing development of curling athletes. The ultimate aim is to improve the results at international level so that podium finishes become the norm rather than the exception.

Ten teams contested the New Zealand Secondary School Curling Champs in Auckland on 3rd and 4th October 2009.  The level of playing skills and strategies seen throughout the competition was very high which is a direct reflection on the Auckland Curling Club's coaching program and on their very successful schools competition.