New Zealand Curling

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

L-R: Iain Craig, Lorne DePape, Dan Mustapic, Hans Frauenlob. Photo: Gillian Craig / NZCA

14 Sep 2015 – Hans Frauenlob and his team of Dan Mustapic, Lorne DePape and Iain Craig defended their 2014 NZ Senior Men's title when they won gold at the 2015 Championship in Naseby last weekend.

The 2015 World Senior Men's bronze medallists beat last year's runners up Peter Becker, Richard Morgan, Nelson Ede and John Sanders 9-4 in Sunday's final.

27 Aug 2015 – Canada 1 beat USA 5-4 in a thrilling final to win the gold medal in the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ 2015 Mixed Doubles Curling Tournament in Naseby, New Zealand today.

The USA took home the silver medal, and Finland won the bronze medal game 7-4 over Japan.