New Zealand Curling

NZ Curling Champions 2014

13 Jul 2014 – Sean Becker won his 7th NZ Men's Championship when he skipped his side of Scott Becker, Rupert Jones and Brett Sargon through the National Championship undefeated at Naseby last weekend.

They beat Dan Mustapic's side 6-3 in the deciding match on Sunday morning to earn Becker his first title since 2011.

Wendy Becker successfully defended her 2013 Women's title, skipping Liz Matthews, Cass Becker and Kathy-Jo Dobson to a 9-8 win over Chelsea Farley's team.

Men's Championship

Six Men's teams contested the title, and Team Sean Becker was forced to earn its clean sheet through the round robin. They were taken to an extra end by Kenny Thomson in the opening game of the tournament, and then hung on for a one point win against Peter Becker in their second match.

Simon's Smoothies

5 Jul 2014 – “Simon’s Smoothies” had the best possible lead-in to the National Junior championship with a clear win in the recent McLarens Tournament at MCI Naseby. Simon Neilson skipped brother Matthew, Ben Smith and Hunter Walker to 4 wins and so become the youngest team to claim the title.

Runners up with 3 wins were Peter’s Perfectionists (skip Peter Becker), while Rudd’s Rascals (skip Ken Gillespie) finished on 2 wins.

L-R: Josh Dallow, Iain Craig, Holly Gosse and Tash Dallow

4 Jun 2014 – Iain Craig and his team made it three in a row when they won the NZ Mixed Fours Curling Championship at Auckland's Paradice rink on Queen's Birthday. The side of Craig, Tash Dallow, Josh Dallow and Holly Gosse were undefeated in winning the first national title of the 2014 season.

They recorded a comfortable 8-2 win in the gold medal match against the 2011 winners Liz Matthews, Kenny Williamson, Pauline Farra and Ian Ford.

24 May 2014 – The May World Curling Federation newsletter from President Kate Caithness covers World Curling's news, tournament, progress and updates from the last few months.

The newsletter also features New Zealand's recent WCF Olympic Celebration Tour featuring Cheryl Bernard and Terry Meek, and a round-up of post-Olympic activities from other countries.

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.

29 Mar 2014 – Experienced triumphed at the MCI Open Doubles, the opening event of the 2014 New Zealand curling season last weekend. Peter and Wendy Becker went through their pool undefeated, and then won a tight final 6-5 against Peter de Boer and Jessica Smith.

Speaking the day after their win Peter said, "Yes, we had a pretty good run and a bit of luck. But most of the talk this morning has been the aches and pains and tiredness!"

For the Beckers this was an ideal warm-up for their respective World Senior Championships in April, where Peter will skip the NZ Men's side while Wendy will play with the Women's team. And it adds to a full mantelpiece, after Peter's team for Scotland won not only the 2013 NZ Senior Men's title but the Open championship as well.

16 Mar 2014 – Auckland, Dunedin and Maniototo Curling ran a series of well-attended clinics in early March, hosted by 2010 Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard and her husband Terry Meek. Cheryl and her team won Olympic silver in Vancouver four years ago, while Terry is a leading coach and 2009 World Men's gold medallist.

The various sessions for club and media, public and schools were a part of the World Curling Federation's Olympic Celebration Tour. Very enthusiastic current and potential curlers attended, the latter enjoying a wonderful introduction to our sport.

Auckland Curling's Facebook page has plenty of pictures from the three sessions there.

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.