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29 June 2016 – The New Zealand Curling Association and NZ Olympic Committee's selection panel have confirmed the nomination procedure for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
This will apply to the Winter Olympic events of Mixed Doubles and Men's and Women's Fours.
It is available to read and download here.
A pre-requisite for New Zealand's participation in any of these events is successful qualification.
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| NZ Mixed winners Thiya Jeyaranjan, Brett Sargon, Eleanor Adviento and Kieran Ford. Photo © NZCA / Chelsea Farley |
8 Jun 2016 – The "Maroon Four" team of Brett Sargon (skip), Eleanor Adviento (vice), Kieran Ford (2nd) and Thivya Jeyaranjan (lead) were comprehensive winners of the 2016 New Zealand Mixed Curling Championship.
They finished the Queen's Birthday weekend tournament at Paradice Avondale with a perfect 5-0 record.
The six teams entered played in two crossover pools of three, with all teams in one pool playing the sides in the other.
Sargon's Maroon Four and Liz Matthews' team topped Pool A, with both sides winning all 3 matches against their Pool B opponents. Peter de Boer and Garion Long recorded a win apiece in Pool B to qualify for semi-finals.
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| New Zealand were beaten by Canada in the Mixed Doubles Round of 16. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray |
23 Apr 2016 – The run for New Zealand's Mixed Doubles and Senior Men came to an end early in the playoff rounds of their respective World Championships in Sweden.
Bridget and Scott Becker finished second in their Mixed Doubles pool with a 5-1 win-loss record. They then drew Canada in the Round of 16 (eighth-final) game, and were well beaten 12-2 by the Canadians, who barely missed a shot in the match.
With Olympic Qualifying points allocated down to 12th place they then had a B-side knockout match against Norway, and went down 8-3 to finish the event tied for 13th.
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| Winners Katja Kiiskinen (centre) and Sean Becker (right) with plate winners Kim Forge (top) and Jay Merchant (left). Photo © Katja Kiiskinen |
20 Mar 2016 – It was no surprise to see the experienced internationals of Sean Becker (New Zealand) and Katya Kiiskinen (Finland) win the season-opening MCI Doubles in Naseby.
But their opponents in the final would not have been the bookmaker's favourites at the start of the weekend.
The Junior pairing of Anton Hood and Youth Olympian Courtney Smith finished second in their group behind the eventual winners. They were not fazed lining up against 2015 NZ Champions Bridget Becker and Scott Becker in their semi-final, winning in an extra end
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| Courtney Smith in NZ's match vs China. Photo © WCF / Richard Gray |
28 Feb 2016 – Although New Zealand’s Youth Olympic curlers may not have brought any medals home from Lillehammer with them, they still performed with distinction against teams of a very high standard said coach Peter Becker.
Their 1 win - 6 loss record saw them finish in 13th place overall in the Mixed Fours event. "It was a satisfactory result,” he said. “But with more strategic experience they could have won other games too."
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| NZ skip Eleanor Adviento in their quarter-final v Estonia. Photo © WCF / Juha Pääjärvi & Janne Ojanperä |
11 Jan 2016 – New Zealand Women finished their World Junior B Championship campaign tied for fifth of the 21 teams following their 5-4 loss to Estonia in the quarter-finals.
They completed their tournament in Lohja, Finland with a 4-3 win-loss record.
Their other two losses were also by a single point – to Russia and Japan, the eventual gold and silver medallists.
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| L-R Scott Becker, Brett Sargon, Peter de Boer and Sean Becker in Almaty. Photo © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik |
15 Nov 2015 – No medals will be coming home with the New Zealand teams from the recent Pacific-Asia Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The Kiwi men placed fourth overall in the eight team competition – the largest field in the competition's history – while the NZ women finished at the tail of their five team field.
For the New Zealand men it could not have been any closer though, with a one point loss to Japan in their semi-final and then another one point loss to the Chinese in the bronze medal game.
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24 Oct 2015 – The Stonehenge side of Garion Long, Ben Frew, Kieran Grieve and Matt Hohaia won Auckland Curling's Premier League final last weekend.
They beat the House Crashers team of Kenny Williamson and Anthony Derrick, with spares Emily Whelan and Claire Suen filling in for regulars Allan Barclay and Logan Barclay.
The final went to an extra end when House Crashers stole 3 in the eighth end to level the scores at 10-10, but Stonehenge won the deciding end for their second trophy of the season. The side had won the round robin trophy two weeks earlier.
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| 2015 Girls champions Otago Girls High School, L-R: Michelle Bong, Diana Yeritsyan, Emma Sutherland, Mhairi-Bronté Duncan, Heloise Fitzpatrick |
29 Sep 2015 – The Otago Girls High School curling team of Emma Sutherland, Mhairi-Bronté Duncan, Heloise Fitzpatrick, Diana Yeritsyan and Michelle Bong backed up their 2014 NZ Secondary Schools Curling Championship title with a 9-6 win in the final of this year's event in Auckland
Silver went to the novice Epsom Girls Grammar side of Renee Zhang, Toshiko Frederiksens, Sanchita Vyas and Shreya Raniga, the top qualifiers after a 3-1 win-loss record in the round robin.
OGHS had completed the round robin with the same 2-2 record as EGGS Sophie and Maniototo Area School, but qualified for the final by virtue of a marginally superior average draw shot distance. Their 144.5 cm was only just ahead of the 144.8 cm recorded by the EGGS team.
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| Photo © WCF / Céline Stucki |
21 Sep 2015 – The New Zealand side of Dave Watt, Thivya Jeyaranjan, Kieran Ford and Waverley Taylor did not reach the standard they had hoped for at this month's inaugural World Mixed Curling Championship in Berne, Switzerland.
They won three of their eight pool games to finish 6th in their nine team group and 22nd overall in the field of 36 international sides.
They were far from despondent though after the tournament.
