New Zealand Curling

Canada's Kalynn Park. Photo © www.wintergamesnz.kiwi

12 Jan 2018 – Audi quattro Winter Games NZ are delighted to announce that the 6th edition of the Games will be held from 24 August - 8 September 2018 in Otago.

We would like to invite all Mixed Doubles curling nations to the 2018 event, once again hosted at the Maniototo International Rink in Naseby.

This tournament will run in the first week of the games, 25 - 30 August.

Courtney Smith and Emma Sutherland in the bronze medal game vs Norway. Photo © WCF / Janne Ojanperä

11 Jan 2018 – The ultimate goal for New Zealand’s teams at the World Junior B Championships in Finland this week was to medal and so earn entry to the main event, the World Junior Championships 2018.

Although both sides narrowly missed out on achieving that goal, they are upbeat about their improvement and looking forward to going a step further next year.

The NZ Women – Jessica Smith, Holly Thompson, Emma Sutherland, Courtney Smith and Mhairi-Bronté Duncan, with coach Nelson Ede – came desperately close.

NZ men v Korea. Photo © WCF / Céline Stucki

10 Nov 2017 – The Korean men and women won their finals at the Pacific Asia Curling Championships 2017 in Erina, Australia yesterday, providing the 2018 Olympic hosts with the best possible boost before February's Games. 

The New Zealand sides just missed out on the opportunity to play in the medal rounds, both finishing fifth after the round robin stage.

The Kiwi women came closest, lying level with Hong Kong on 3 wins after the double round robin. The two sides shared the spoils in their two games, so played a sudden death Draw Shot Challenge after their last match to decide the playoff qualifier.

Dean Fotti, Thivya Jeyaranjan and Brittany Taylor, NZ v Spain. Photo WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik

17 Oct 2017 – New Zealand won two and lost five of their games at the World Mixed Curling Championship 2017 to finish 6th in their pool and 27th overall.

"The team played somewhat better than the results suggest," said coach Liz Matthews. "They had oportunities in at least three other games, but ultimately you have to take those chances."

The tournament was held at the Swiss high performance curling centre in postcard-perfect Champery, a venue the team agreed was outstanding in every way.

Team John McGlashan College. Photo © Jo Dowling

4 Oct 2017 – All three titles at the 2017 NZ Secondary Schools Curling Championships were decided by single point margins.

John McGlashan College held their nerve to score 3-pointers in the 4th and 5th ends to win the Boys' deciding match against Maniototo Area School 6-5.

Maniototo won the first in the best-of-three series 6-4. John McGlashan took the second 11-3, then conceded an early lead in the decider before storming back to win their school's first national title.

Kavanagh College scored a deuce in the last end of the Girls final to edge Epsom Girls Knock Out 6-5, and Birkenhead College hung on to beat Lynfield College 4-3 in the Mixed title decider.

2017 Auckland Champions Cleansweep. Photo Beth Gibbs

27 Sep 2017 – Cleansweep made it back-to-back titles, and 3 in the last 4 years when they beat Rockers in Auckland Curling's 2017 Premier League final last Sunday.

In the semi-finals a fortnight earlier, Cleansweep had beaten John Allen's Diamonds while Rockers headed round robin winners Stonehenge, skipped by Garion Long.

A succession of single point ends in this week's final was broken with a 3 in the sixth end to Rockers. But Cleansweep (Chelsea Farley, Ryan Lewis, Tessa Farley, Kate Smirnova, Lisa Wu and Marie Tsai) then replied with a decisive 5-pointer, and went on to steal the last to win 9-5.

Dan Mustapic, Hans Frauenlob, Dave Watt and Iain Craig

12 Sep 2017 – They looked a little rusty without recent game time at the start of last weekend's New Zealand Seniors Curling Championship in Naseby. But by the end of the tournament Dan Mustapic's side were looking pretty sharp.

Mustapic, Hans Frauenlob, Dave Watt and Iain Craig needed to score two in the last end of their opening game to secure a single point win over Team Peter Becker.

After that they looked much more assured, and shook hands early in their remaining games to go through the tournament unbeaten.

Harri Lill and Marie Turmann with the Winter Games NZ trophy. Photo © WGNZ / Peter Meecham

30 Aug 2017 – Estonia are the 2017 Audi quattro Winter Games NZ Mixed Doubles curling gold medallists after a 7-6 win in this afternoon’s final against defending champions Canada.

The Estonians started strongly to hold a 5-1 lead at the halfway point, only to see their advantage evaporate after the seventh end.

Mixed Doubles has a mantra that ‘no lead is safe’, and Canada made a valiant attempt to defend their 2015 title. They scored in the next three ends go ahead 6-5 as the final end started.

The Canadian pair attempted to take out all of the Estonian stones with their final shots to prevent them scoring two, but there was still a single rock remaining as Marie Turmann lined up the last stone for Estonia.