NZ Teams & Events

Waverley Taylor and Kenny Thomson

2 May 2014 – New Zealand curlers found wins hard to come by at the recent 2014 World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Championships in Dumfries, Scotland.

The Mixed Doubles side of Kenny Thomson and Waverley Taylor won two of their seven pool games to finish 6th in their pool and 21st of the record 34 nations competing.

They were not helped by Waverley Taylor having to play the full tournament with a heavily strapped ankle after she badly sprained it while travelling to Scotland.

1 Feb 2014 – New Zealand has no curling team competing in Sochi.

Countries qualify for the Olympics directly or indirectly via the Men's and Women's World Championships. The NZ Men's fifth place at the 2012 World Championships earned them 8 points but they did not qualify for the 2013 event, so finished ninth overall in the Olympic qualification table. The top seven secured an automatic place in the Sochi line-up with hosts Russia. The remaining places went to the top two teams at December's last-chance Olympic Qualifying Event where the Kiwis finished fifth.

The New Zealand Men's team have competed at one Winter Olympics, in Turin in 2006.

No NZ Women's side has qualified for a World Championship, so they have never had the opportunity to earn Olympic qualifying points.

• 2014 Winter Olympic Curling website has comprehensive coverage

Photo © WCF / Richard Gray

16 Dec 2013 – Olympic dreams for New Zealand Curling teams will have to go on hold for another four years.

The national Men's side have come up short in their attempt at the last qualifying tournament in Fussen, Germany, to secure a place at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

Needing to win their last two round robin matches overnight and hope for a favourable result elsewhere, they obtained their first objective with a strong 8-4 win over France.

The Kiwis scored 3 in the fifth end to take a 5-3 lead at the break, and another score of 3 in the ninth end sealed the result.

New Zealand then came up against joint leaders the Czech Republic in their last round robin game.

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.