Central residents have their fingers and toes crossed for the New Zealand women’s curling team which competes at the World Women’s Curling Championships (WWCC) for the first time this weekend.

Team Smith’s (Jess Smith is skip) first game is at 2am (NZ time) on March 19 against host nation Sweden. At 9pm they’ll face off against Turkey. 

The curlers have fundraised more than $28,000 for their $40,000 travel costs via a crowd funding campaign. 

The members of the kiwi team have strong ties with Central; they either live here currently or grew up here, including; Ruby Kinney (Hyde), Bridget Becker (Patearoa), Natalie Thurlow (Becks), Holly Thompson (Ranfurly), Jess Smith (Naseby), and women’s coach Nelson Ede (Naseby).

NZ women’s team (from left) Bridget Becker, Holly Thompson, Natalie Thurlow, and Jess Smith. Absent are Ruby Kinney and coach Nelson Ede

Women’s skip Jess Smith returned to international competition following successful cancer treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last year. 

Prior to the tournament the women have been practising in Kinross and Glasgow in Scotland.  

It is the 45th time the tournament has been held, and this is the first time such an event has been hosted at Sandviken’s 10,000 seat facility (approximately 190 km north of Stockholm). 

Thirteen teams will be vying for the title: Switzerland, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Germany, Norway, Japan, Korea, Canada, United States and New Zealand.

The games schedule (in NZ time) 

There will be 20 sessions of round-robin play during March 18-24. First and second from the top six teams proceed straight to the semi-finals. 

For teams ranked third to sixth, qualification games for the other semi spots will take place on March 25.

Semi-finals are on later that day (March 25) and the games where medals are up for grabs are the following day. 

For the playing schedule see the World Curling Federation website.

The World Men’s Curling Championship will be hosted in Ottawa, Canada in April. The Kiwi men have qualified for the first time in 11 years.