Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles.

The Otago Girls’ senior team, ‘Curling Fries’ competed in the South Island Secondary Schools' Curling competition at the weekend. This team, consisting of Ailie Muldrew, Emma Campbell, Ella Williams and Rachael Pitts went into the competition as third in New Zealand from last year’s Nationals, so there were big expectations for us to do well.

Our first game was on Friday night, when we played Kavanagh College, and we won this game, which gave us confidence for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, our first game was against Columba College. We beat them 12 to 0 which was exciting. We went on to play a very tight game with St Hilda’s and came away with a 6 to 5 win. For the last game of the day, we played against a very tough Maniototo team. These girls were pretty slick and we managed to hold them back for a couple of ends but they beat us. The next morning we played the best game of the tournament against Kavanagh 2 and won 11 to 4.

We finished the tournament in second place overall, so we are the second highest ranked team in the South Island. We have been very fortunate to have Mhairi Bronte Duncan as our coach this year. Mhairi is an ex- OGHS girl and is a member of the New Zealand Curling team. She is off to Sweden this year, so we feel pretty lucky to have her training us. It was awesome to have her advice and wisdom over the weekend. We were also very lucky to have the support from our Teacher in Charge, Ms Nielson who helped organise our team and has supported us throughout the year. Later this year we will be attending Nationals in Naseby and looking to place highly once again. Keep an eye on us!