It was a full four days of curling for the 14 teams in the NZ Mixed Doubles Qualifier in Naseby from Thursday through Sunday (June 29 - July 2), with familiar Maniototo names topping the list.

Local brother and sister pair Sean and Bridget Becker (both of Maniototo) topped their pool and, despite losing one of their games, beat the undefeated lead team of the other pool, Mhairi-Bronté Duncan (Dunedin) and Brett Sargon (Auckland), by having a closer draw shot.

NZ Curling Association secretary Lauren Becker said the teams were split into two pools, with the top two teams in each pool qualifying, and the third and fourth teams playing thirds and fourths in the opposing pool for the last two spots. The quality of play was high throughout.

“A lot of people in the top six teams are in the New Zealand teams,” she said. 

“In that group, we have some youths who were curling against New Zealand’s best.

“One thing that shines is still the spirit of curling. Our youth teams love playing those teams and those teams love helping out the youths.”

Mhairi-Bronté Duncan (Dunedin) and Brett Sargon (Auckland) will also go on to the NZ Mixed Doubles Championship in Naseby from August 9-13.

The top six teams will compete in the NZ Mixed Doubles Championship in Naseby from August 9-13.

“From that, we will have our top team who will represent New Zealand at the World Mixed Doubles event in Europe in December,” Lauren said.

Bridget said that she had played in mixed doubles with Sean since about 2011, when they travelled together to Finland to compete for New Zealand, but had also partnered with another brother Scott.

The Becker family is well-known within the curling community, with Bridget’s father Peter the only New Zealander to be inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame for his outstanding contributions to the sport, both on-ice and off. 

Bridget said she feels no pressure from the family name.

“Any team that performs quite well and quite consistently for a long time has a target on their backs,” she said. 

“I don’t feel I have pressure on myself as a Becker, but I do like to win so I probably put pressure on my partners because of that.”

The snow over the weekend caused an hour’s delay to play on Sunday morning, with some Dunedin players also having an unexpected overnight stay because of the road conditions.

Bridget said she lives in Patearoa so the extra hour on Sunday morning was very welcome.

“The roads between Patearoa and Naseby were absolutely terrible,” she said. 

“They decided on the delay the night before. Some people were up to 45-50 minutes drive away.

“We didn’t want to disadvantage anyone so they had to pull out of competition.”

The teams to qualify for the NZ Mixed Doubles Championship in August are: Bridget Becker and Sean Becker (Maniototo), Mhairi-Bronté Duncan (Dunedin) and Brett Sargon (Auckland), Jess Smith and Ben Smith (siblings from Maniototo), Cortney Smith and Anton Hood (Maniototo), Natalie Thurlow (Becks) and Warren Dobson (Maniototo), and Rachael Pitts (Dunedin) and Sam Flanagan (Maniototo).