NZ Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships

• Entries open on Monday, 6 April 2026 and close on Sunday, 3 May 2026. Teams must enter on time to secure their place in the competition.
• Teams must be available to play from 8:30 am, Wednesday, 1 July 2026.
• The finals will be held on Sunday, 5 July 2026. The final round of the draw will likely begin at approximately 3:30 pm, with prize-giving to follow.
• The tournament draw will be confirmed approximately one week after entries close, or as advised.
• Teams are advised not to book flights until the draw has been confirmed. NZCA takes no responsibility for travel booked outside the advised tournament dates.

Payment Information

• Entry Fee: $500 per team
• Account:  The New Zealand Curling Association  03-1733-0116697-000
• Please include your team name and “NZ Men” or “NZ Women” as a reference.
• Invoices are available on request.
• The skip (or a nominated team member) is responsible for prompt payment to NZCA and must ensure payment is completed before the tournament commences, or they may be unable to take the ice.

Eligibility & Conditions:

• All entrants must be affiliated with a club. Please contact the NZCA  for more details. This does not apply to Secondary School students.
• Player eligibility and playing conditions are governed by NZCA Tournament Procedures and World Curling (WC) Rules.
• Teams must start with four players unless prior approval is granted by the Chief Umpire/ NZCA Tournaments Committee. Otherwise, teams will default each game until they can start with four players.
• All team members should be informed of tournament details.
• NZCA is unable to accommodate individual requests regarding game times.

Team Uniforms: NZCA encourages teams to wear matching tops or uniforms so that team members are easily identifiable.

Pre-Competition Practice:

• No team may practice with NZCA competition stones prior to a National Curling Championship.
• No competitor may use Maniototo Adventure Park (MAP) sponsorship ice for one week leading up to the event.
• To allow time for ice preparation, no team may practice on the ice later than 3 hours before the commencement of the tournament, or as advised in the tournament rules accompanying the draw.

• To enter, Click here

Tournament Communications: 

For all tournament queries, please email NZCA at support@curling.org.nz

Game Information and Timing

• A team meeting will be held at 6.45 pm for the teams in the first round, with a subsequent team meeting for those teams in the second round at 9.45am on Thursday, 26th June. A final team meeting will be held at 1.45 pm on Thursday, 26th June for the remaining teams.
• It is preferable to have all team members present; however, if this is not possible, at least one member of the team is to be present.
• Seven men’s teams are entered, along with five women’s teams.
• All games will be played under WC rules, including the no-tick rule.
• Teams are to consist of five members maximum (four team members and one alternate). Changes to team line-ups must be made by the end of the team meeting; otherwise, teams must remain as listed on the NZCA Website.
• Teams are to start the Championship with four players as per WC rules.
• First practice will commence at the scheduled start time stated on the draw.
• The teams listed first, have first practice and play with dark handles (red).
• Over the round-robin, each women’s team will have two first practices and two second practices, while the men have three of each.
• Each team will have a six-minute pregame practice, followed by Last Stone Draws (LSDs)
• Time clocks will be used to keep the flow of the games with the timer counting down.
• Teams are unable to commence another end once the time clock has reached zero.
• All games have eight ends, with a minimum of six ends to be played.
• A four-minute break will be held after the fourth end.
• Extra ends will be played if scores are tied after the eighth end.
• Electronic devices such as phones, smartwatches, and AirPods/headphones are not permitted in the field of play.

Last Stone Draws (LSD) and Draw Shot Challenge (DSC)

• Each team is to deliver draw shots, the first clockwise and the second counter-clockwise.
• The draw shots are to be shared among all the players.
• The LSDs will determine which team has hammer on the first end and will assist with team rankings.
• Teams who deliver the draw shots incorrectly e.g., the wrong handle will receive 199.6 for that particular draw.

Pre-Tournament Practice Ice

• In the week of an NZCA Tournament, no NZ Representative will have sponsored ice hire from Maniototo Adventure Park (MAP) during business hours.
• Pre-tournament practice is to be booked and paid for directly with MAP. The entry fee does not cover practice ice.
• No ice bookings can be made after 5pm on Tuesday 24th June to allow for ice preparation. With the exception of the ice-maker requesting a player to throw stones to assist with ice preparation.
• No team is allowed to practice with the NZCA Competition Stones prior to a tournament as per NZCA Competition Stone Guidelines.
• Teams who progress through to the semi-finals will be offered a practice if they don’t have a game on that day.

Team Ranking Procedure

• After the round-robin(s) teams will be ranked for the semi-finals with the WCF ranking procedure (C9) used to separate teams on the same win-loss record.
• The following criteria (in order) will be used to rank the teams at the completion of the round-robin (one group):
  (i) Teams will be ranked according to their win/loss record.
  (ii) If two teams are tied, the team that won their round-robin game will be ranked higher.
  (iii) Where three or more teams are tied, the record of the games between the tied teams shall provide the ranking (should this procedure provide a ranking for some teams but not all, then the record of the games between the remaining teams that are still tied shall determine the ranking).
  (iv) For all remaining teams, whose ranking cannot be determined by I, ii, or iii, ranking is determined using the Draw Shot Challenge (DSC). The DSC is the average distance of all the individual Last Stone Draw stones, which were delivered by a team during the round-robin.

Playoffs:

• The top-ranked team will go directly into the final.
• The second-ranked team will play the third-ranked team to determine other finalists
• The finals is a best of three with the game played between the two finalists during the round robin counting as game one.

Wendy Becker Sportsmanship Award

• The 'Wendy Becker Sportsmanship Award' will be presented this weekend. Each skip will get a voting paper to hand out to their team members. Over the course of the weekend, you will get to vote for one person in your division (men/women). Make sure you vote over the weekend.
• Criteria: By Deed and action in the course of their performance best exemplified the traditional Curling Values of skill, honesty, fair play, friendship and sportsmanship'.