NZ Games Playoffs

The curling competition of the first NZ Winter Games now heads into the playoffs.

China’s Olympic men’s team continues to struggle, just as they did at the Ford Worlds in Moncton. Their 4-3 record sees them limping into a tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot. They will meet youthful Jerod Roland of the USA, also 4-3, on Friday morning [Adam Nathan photo above by ODT/Getty Images].

Earlier in the week, the Chinese had lost to Canada by an 7-6 count. The Canadians finished in last place with a 1-6 record, in their first international competition... but they hadn’t really played a national, either.

According to Snow, the Canadians are an invitation team made up of four petroleum engineers from the Calgary area, three of whom have played together for some 25 years and have strong connections with New Zealand curlers.

The squad will no doubt remain jazzed over their experience, and particularly the win over China. “Finally our team started curling like we did back home,” said skip Cliff Butchko, “And if you are going to beat a team then (China) was the one to beat. It’s extremely special.”

Japan (6-1) awaits the tiebreaker winner in one semifinal, while second-ranked Korea (5-2) will lock horns with the Aussies (also 5-2) in the other semi. You can follow the Australian curling blog for extra tidbits.

On the women’s side, things appear more ordinary within the small field. The Aussie women threw a scare into the top-ranked Chinese before falling 10-8, which now pits Bingyu Wang’s crew against New Zealand in one semi, while Japan battles Korea in the other.

NZ Winter Games

The New Zealand Winter Games are underway today through August 30, with multiple nations from the Pacific region – plus a few others – competing in this new international sport competition.

The inclusion of curling – plus the proximity to February’s upcoming Olympic Winter Games– makes this of interest.

Five days of live curling competition – with three draws a day – will be broadcast on Sky Television in New Zealand. And Kiwi curler (by way of Canada) Hans Frauenlob has been tabbed for colour commentary duties.

“By my reckoning that’s 28 hours of live curling,” Frauenlob told The Curling News. “I’m going to need throat lozenges.”

Incidentally, Frauenlob received his “Olympic Number” this year, along with his teammates from New Zealand’s 2006 Olympic curling squad. These stories (here and here) explain the program, in which Kiwi Olympians are “numbered” according to the first Olympic Games in which they competed, and alphabetically within that team, and receive a ring commemorating their achievement.

Frauenlob is number 986.

On the ice, powerhouse women’s teams include defending world champions China, skipped by Bingyu Wang and 2007 world semifinalists Japan, skipped by Moe Meguro. They are challenged by teams from New Zealand (Bridget Becker), Australia (Kim Forge) and Korea (Min-A Park).

On the men’s side, Japan’s youthful Yusuke Morozumi is one to watch, as is 21-year-old U.S. skip Jerod Roland, who has been named captain of the entire U.S. team. China’s Fengchun Wang is a definite gold-medal threat, while Korea is represented by Min-Chan Kim, Australia is helmed by veteran Hugh Millikin, and Karel Kubeska’s Czech Republic is there, too.

Two other men’s teams of note: Canada is represented by Calgary’s Cliff Butchko, who commands a team of forty-somethings from the Huntington Hills Curling Club. It’s the first international appearance for the squad, which has been described as a decent Superleague foursome. We’ll watch these rookies with interest!

[UPDATED: a story on the Canadians has just been posted here]

Finally, the host team is skipped by Dan Mustapic, another expat Canadian and a former teammate of longtime national team skip Sean Becker, who was rejected for the Games by a selection panel earlier this month. You can read all about that controversial decision here.

An Aussie Thing

China grabbed double gold at the recent Pacific Curling Championships in Beijing, and were quite impressive in the process. Also grabbing spots in next spring’s 2008 World Championships were Japan’s women and Australia’s men, the latter seen here visiting the Great Wall.

The hand gesture is “an Aussie thing,” according to last-rocker Ian Palangio (at centre, with what seems to be a Movember moustache), meaning “it’s all good”... but Palangio had refused to tell The Curling News the meaning of the gesture until after his team had qualified for Grand Forks – superstition, of course, given that the photo was taken early in the PCC competition!

A report on the PCC is located here, and it sounds like things got quite scary between the Aussies and the Kiwis, in their best-of-three semi-final series.

“Indeed,” confirmed Palangio. “The series against New Zealand was extremely competitive. They have a strong young lineup that will continue to get better in the coming years.

“We’re still pinching ourselves that we won in such dramatic fashion. Watching the last stone of the 11th end in the second semi, we were mentally moving on to get ready to play a third semi-final. Unfortunately Sean Becker’s last shot over curled a little and hit the guard to give us the win.”

FOX Australia even ran a story on the boys’ Beijing efforts... not bad, lads.

Big Brother Curling

Question of the day: which TV show is credited – or perhaps blamed? – with being the first “Reality” show? Survivor? The Real World? This forgotten oldie?

Big Brother must rank up there, and now the veteran CBS timewaster has become the first to send their contestants curling, as it happened back on week two of this eighth edition.

A modified version of curling, you would think? Definitely (photo courtesy CBS). You can watch the full segment here.

Ah, YouTube. What would we do without you?

For certain, it would be a lot tougher to find things like this clip from New Zealand’s recent outdoor curling spiel (not to forget this one of the Kiwis lunching) ... and this look at the tricky ice conditions the Aussies face on a daily basis ... plus these peeks (one and two) at the World Curling Federation’s Level 1 Technical course in Füssen, Germany (that’s Canadian Brian Rice doing the lecturing) ... and this TV news glimpse of arena curling in Omaha, Nebraska... nor would we easily find vid from Atlantic Canada’s famed Whitecap summer curling camp, available at this user’s page.

Anything else going on? Well ...

• Turns out it was an Ottawa curling ice technician who brought down Canada’s most wanted man this week ...

• Another young curler has died in a tragic accident, this time in Tillsonburg, Ontario ...

• Remember the big hoo-haw over Scotland’s – sorry, Great Britain’s – team selection process for the last Olympics? British Curling has now announced the plan for 2010 ...

• Here’s yet another TV report (including video) of the outdoor Kiwi curlfest ...

• Don’t miss Pfeif on The Curling Show, he’s always a great guest ...

• Team Jennifer Jones has a new sponsor, and it’s a current CCA partner. Former sponsor Whirlpool, which has been a dynamic supporter of women’s sport – including curling – for years, is now reported to be scaling down their involvement ...

• Wisconsin’s Pardeeville Curling Club president has received a well-deserved state honour
(defending U.S. women’s champion skip Deb McCormick is the club VP, by the way) ...

• TSN was quick to pick up our exclusive from July 25 ...

• and finally, there’s a big sale underway at Ishida Sports, including Mizuno carling pants!