Women’s team “pulled a Gushue” for gold

Sean Becker and Jessica Smith have skipped four-player teams to the 2022 New Zealand men’s and women’s curling titles.

Except one was actually a three-player team.

Smith’s win was remarkable as they lost the experienced Bridget Becker from their squad to illness after the opening game. Smith, Holly Thompson and Natalie Thurlow played the remainder of the championship with three players, winning every game along the way.

Canadian curling fans witnessed something similar back in March when Brad Gushue third Mark Nichols went down with COVID-19 during the Brier, and the 2022 Beijing Olympians played shorthanded the rest of the way and stormed to another national title.

Five women’s teams and eight men’s foursomes—the biggest field in 12 years—played a full round robin, with the top four from each championship then qualifying for the playoffs.

The New Zealand nationals were once again hosted at MCI Naseby, the first dedicated curling facility in the planet’s southern hemisphere.

Teams Smith and Grace Apuwai-Bishop were both unbeaten when they met in the last women’s draw. Smith won the game in textbook fashion by scoring multiples with last rock and restricting their opponent to singles, winning the contest 10-4. Team Eleanor Adviento finished with a 2-2 record, and Team Michelle Bong claimed the remaining playoff spot with their last-round win over Team Joanna Olszewski.

Adviento hit top gear in their semifinal over Apuwai-Bishop, and were ahead 10-2 when handshakes were offered. Smith faced a tough challenge from Bong in the other semi, eventually running their opponents out of stones in the last end with the score at 6-4.

The women’s final saw a flurry of points in the opening ends and the teams were tied at 4-4 after three ends of play. Team Smith then slowly gained the upper hand, and their victory was sealed in the seventh frame with a steal of three points when a hit from their opponent saw the shooter roll out. Smith claimed the gold medal by a final 11-6 scoreline.

Silver went to Adviento, Thivya Turner, Tess Farley and Ariel Webber while Team Michelle Bong (with Ruby Kinney, Olivia Russell and Lucy Neilson) captured the bronze medal match 8-4 over Team Apuwai-Bishop.

On the men’s side, Team Anton Hood were undefeated through the round robin and appeared the team to beat. Peter de Boer’s foursome dropped just the one game to Hood, while Team Benjamin Frew and Team Sean Becker both qualified for the semifinals with 4-3 won/loss records.

Peter de Boer faced Benjamin Frew in the semifinal and made the most of his scoring opportunities, registering three triples on the way to an 11-4 win. Team Becker had played their way into top form through the earlier games, and their accuracy gave them a 3-1 lead over Hood by the fourth end break. They stole two in the fifth and that proved too much for Hood to recover from as Becker booked his place in the final by a 6-3 count.

The men’s championship final lived up to expectations as a tight and exciting match. Team de Boer scored a three in the fourth end to take a 3-2 lead into the break. Team Becker hit back immediately after with a double to take a lead that they didn’t relinquish, and Becker scored the single he needed in the last frame to win the match 6-4 and claim the gold medals for himself, Warren Dobson, Scott Becker, James Becker and Dean McAuley.

The veteran Sean Becker has now won this event 12 times, while it was a ninth win for both Dobson and Scott Becker.

The Becker curling family patriarch, Peter Becker, was recently named an inductee to the World Curling Hall of Fame.

Peter de Boer, Warren Kearney, Simon Neilson and Phil Dowling took the silver medals.

Team Frew jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the bronze medal match against Hood. But Hood, Ben Smith, Brett Sargon and Hunter Walker rediscovered the precision they had shown through the round-robin to score two, and then a remarkable series of steals to secure the bronze medal 9-5.

Holly Thompson and Brett Sargon were the popular recipients of the Wendy Becker Trophy for Sportsmanship, voted on by the competitors at the tournament.

This event was the last chance for the national selectors to view the players contending for the 2022 NZ men’s and women’s teams. The sides to represent New Zealand at the inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championship later this year will be announced in the next few weeks.

The Pan Continental replaces both the World Curling Federation’s Pacific-Asia Championship and the Americas Challenge.