3 April 2024
Turning heads: New Zealand Curlers – The Movie?!
The curling world is getting used to seeing New Zealand curlers on ice at major championships, but the time may well be coming where we will all have to get used to seeing – “New Zealand curlers – the movie!”
It is well known that after their appearances in last season’s Pan Continental and world championships, three members of the New Zealand men’s team – skip Anton Hood, Ben Smith and Brett Sargon – took the bold decision to re-locate to Canada with the prime purpose of improving their curling abilities and becoming more competitive at elite level.
As Anton explains, “We needed to get more exposure to competition and ice-time. Canada and then Calgary was an easy option for us because of how much competition there was. We knew we needed to move somewhere with a bit more curling and that’s how we ended up in Calgary.”
As it happened, after a Facebook plea put out by World Curling Board member Kim Forge, the three New Zealanders ended up living and helping out in a Seniors’ Home in Calgary. It gave them a base as they pursued their curling dreams and Anton even ended up working at the Calgary Curling Club.
The story of the extremes they are embracing as they pursue their sporting dreams has caught the imagination of many – to the extent that the New York Times published an in-depth feature article about the mutual inter-generational benefits to the curlers and the residents of the Chartwell Colonel Belcher Retirement Residence, springing from their time there.
And that article, among other publicity spotlights, has resulted in the most unexpected of consequences.
Peter de Boer, who is the team’s coaching advisor and is acting as alternate this week, explains, “After the New York Times article we had multiple approaches from people in New Zealand and the States to take up the story of three young New Zealanders taking on the world – curling in a different country to try to achieve their sporting goals. And doing that by saving money, being clever and ending up in this warm, loving environment [at the seniors’ home]. Put all that together and, all of a sudden, you’ve got a story, and we seemed to spark interest.”
Peter went on, “So we’ve spent a couple of months negotiating a deal, which we now have, and we have a team who are now writing a script and will hopefully sell a deal to people who might buy it. So that’s something for the next twelve months.”
Peter also puts his finger on what well make this story such an attraction for the general public.
“These guys are an inspiration. They’re doing things that most people wouldn’t do. They’re putting their careers and lives on hold, and putting their curling dreams at the top of the list. For people who come from a country where curling is not a big sport and they don’t get any funding, I think that’s inspiring.”
Meanwhile, returning to the action in Schaffhausen, where at the time of writing New Zealand have yet to win, Anton says, “It’s kind of hard when you don’t have any wins in the column to say it’s helped, but I think what it has done, although the results don’t show it, is that it has made us more confident to be out there.
“Last year we were struggling with the experience. I feel like we deserve to be here now. We were very competitive at the Pan Continentals and don’t forget, we’re still very young in our curling careers.”
And thinking more about the lack of wins, he adds, “It’s tough, but we believe in the process. We understand that strategically and technically, we’re a wee bit further behind lots of these teams because of the programmes that lots of these countries have.”
Looking to the future, the New Zealanders, as the lowest-ranked qualifiers in each of the last two Pan Continental Championships, may well have an additional challenge as they pursue their world and Olympic dreams – in the form of China, who will be in next season’s A-Division at the Pan Continental event – another strong contender for world championship qualification.
While Anton says he hasn’t thought about the prospect of China much – “We’re trying to win games here”, Peter has another take on that challenge.
“I think we’re a direct threat to China. In 2022 we didn’t beat any of the teams seeded above us, we didn’t get to the tenth end against any of them. Last year, we beat Korea, and beat all the other teams comfortably that we needed to beat and competed well in two of the three games against the top teams.
“We’ve got learning to do, but we have to stick to the processes and make every moment matter. If we start thinking about China now, then it’s wrong.”
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