Sean Becker has skipped the winning curling team at the New Zealand Open championships for the last three years. But he has a new team this year and it will test his skills.
Last year he had the team that contested the Pacific championships backing him up but Warren Kearney and Warren Dobson are not available for the championships at the Dunedin Ice Stadium this weekend. Kris Miller is playing for another team.
Becker's brother, Scott, will be playing third and the promising Phil Dowling is lead. He represented New Zealand in Japan last year.
But Becker was still trying to recruit the fourth member of his team at the Maniototo Ice Rink at Naseby last night.
"The competition is getting tougher," Sean Becker said.
"There are some promising juniors coming through the ranks."
The main competition will come from the Auckland team skipped by Alan Langille. The team includes experienced international Lorne de Pape at third and Roy McKinnon and Hayman Keeler.
A team that could cause an upset is the New Zealand seniors team of David Greer, Nelson Ede, Ross Morgan and Peter Becker that finished sixth at the world senior championships at St Paul, United States, in April.
It was the best perform-ance by the New Zealand seniors team at a world champion-ships.
"We reached the quarterfinals and were beaten by the United States that went on to win the silver medal," Peter Becker said.
Peter Becker skipped the New Zealand team to the Pacific championships from 1991 to 1997. His son took charge after that and was skip of the New Zealand team at the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006.
The Auckland team skipped by former Scottish curler Peter de Bore could also figure.
Three members of last year's winning Maniototo team are back and should win the women's title again.
This year the team is skipped by international Brydie Donald and includes internationals Marisa Jones and Natalie Campbell. Last year's skip, Bridget Becker, is not available.
The women's seniors team skipped by Wendy Becker could cause an upset. It includes former international Helen Greer, Christine Diack and Carolyn Cooney.
The New Zealand open club tournament is one of the prestige events on the New Zealand curling calendar. It was first held in 1994 and uses the international hack technique to deliver the stone. It is named after Keith Wendorf, an international coach, who introduced the international style of curling to New Zealand in 1993.
The championships begin at the Dunedin Ice Stadium at 5pm tomorrow.
