Team NZ: Mhairi-Bronté Duncan, Will Sheard, Courtney Smith and Dave Watt
Missed opportunity at World Mixed
Mixed
26 Oct 2023 – Team New Zealand are ruing missed opportunities after the World Mixed Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Dave Watt, Courtney Smith, Will Sheard and Mhairi-Bronté Duncan shared the early lead in their pool after winning their first three games. But that was as good as it got for the Kiwis as they dropped their next five, including a couple of games that went to the last stone.
The evenness of the pool was demonstrated on the leaderboard. Australia was one of four teams to finish with a 4-4 win-loss record, and still claimed the third and final playoff spot from the group on a countback of head-to-head results amongst the tied teams.
Skip Dave Watt took his side's result on the chin. "I am pissed off at myself for curling poorly," he said after the tournament. "It was an exciting pool to be in and we had the best chance to reach the playoffs after beating Australia, Slovenia and Hungary."
In the playoffs, Sweden claimed the gold medal from Spain, and Canada beat Norway for the bronze medal. The Aussies were knocked out by Canada in the quarterfinals.
Immediately after the event, Courtney Smith headed off to join up with the NZ sides at the Pan Continental Championships in Canada. This tournament starts on 29 October, and the top five Men's and Women's teams will qualify for their respective World Championships. Later, she and playing partner Anton Hood will represent NZ at December's World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event in Dumfries, Scotland.
NZ Results
| Pool B Results | Pool Standings | W | L | Qual | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NZ | 7 | - | 5 | Australia | 1 | Canada | 8 | 0 | Q | |
| NZ | 5 | - | 4 | Hungary | 2 | Chinese Taipei | 5 | 3 | Q | |
| NZ | 14 | - | 4 | Slovenia | 3 | Australia | 4 | 4 | Q | |
| NZ | 4 | - | 5 | Chinese Taipei | 4 | Slovenia | 4 | 4 | ||
| NZ | 6 | - | 7 | Lithuania | 5 | Poland | 4 | 4 | ||
| NZ | 3 | - | 6 | Canada | 6 | Hungary | 4 | 4 | ||
| NZ | 7 | - | 11 | Finland | 7 | New Zealand | 3 | 5 | ||
| NZ | 5 | - | 10 | Poland | 8 | Lithuania | 2 | 6 | ||
| 9 | Finland | 2 | 6 | |||||||
| Q = Qualified for playoffs | ||||||||||
Tournament Preview
7 Oct 2023 – New Zealand's Mixed team is in Aberdeen, Scotland and raring to go in the opening tournament of the 2023/4 international season.
Dave Watt, Courtney Smith, Will Sheard and Mhairi-Bronté Duncan earned their place in the World Mixed Championship field with an undefeated run to win the NZ Championship in June.
"We had a lot of fun at the NZ Mixed in Auckland," said Mhairi. "And the excitement for this World Mixed has grown since then. Our goal after Auckland was to 'bat at least 500' here – to win at least half our games, which they had to explain to me!"
"We're looking forward to the challenge of qualifying top three in our pool, which would give us a spot in the playoffs."
Team NZ after a warm-up game v Ukraine