Darren Moulding

Darren Moulding
Curler
Born (1982-12-02) December 2, 1982
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Team
Curling club Saville Community SC,
Edmonton, AB
Skip Brendan Bottcher
Third Darren Moulding
Second Brad Thiessen
Lead Karrick Martin
Career
Brier appearances 2 (2017, 2018)
Top CTRS ranking 5th (2017–18)

Darren Moulding (born December 2, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian curler from Lacombe, Alberta[1] and curls out of the Saville Sports Centre and the Lacombe Curling Club.[2] He is a former Canadian Junior Silver Medallist, a Canadian Mixed Champion, and represented Alberta in the 2017 and 2018 Brier Canadian championship.

Junior career

Moulding skipped the Alberta team at both the 2000 and 2003 Canadian Junior Curling Championships. At the 2000 Juniors, he led his team of Thomas Usselman, Ryan Inaba and Matt Taylor to a 5-7 record, missing the playoffs. At the 2003 Juniors, he led his rink of Brock Virtue, Taylor and Nicolas Virtue to a silver medal finish. The team finished the round robin with an 8-4 record, the proceeded to win the tiebreaker match and the semifinal before losing to Saskatchewan (skipped by Steve Laycock) in the final.

Men's career

After juniors, Moulding formed his own team to play on the World Curling Tour. He played in his first Grand Slam of Curling event when he was invited to play third for Steve Laycock at the 2006 Masters of Curling, where they failed to qualify for the playoffs. Moulding found little success skipping on the tour, failing to win a single event before he joined the Steve Petryk rink in 2009. He played one full season with Petryk, finding little success with him either. Moulding began skipping his own team again in 2010, but did not play in many events for the next few seasons.

In 2013, Moulding joined the Matthew Blandford rink has his third. That season, Moulding won his first career tour event, when the rink won the McKee Homes Fall Curling Classic. The next season, the team played in Moulding's second career Slam event, the 2014 National, where they won two games. Later in the season, Moulding was invited to play for his former junior teammate Brock Virtue's team at the Black Diamond / High River Cash event, which they won. For the 2015-16 season, Virtue joined the Blandford rink as skip, moving Moulding to play second. The team would not win any events. Virtue left the rink at the end of the season.

In 2017, Moulding was asked to join the Brendan Bottcher rink mid-season, replacing Pat Simmons (at third) who was suffering from an injury.[3] The announcement was just in time for Moulding to play in the 2017 Meridian Canadian Open Grand Slam event. The new lineup found immediate success, making the quarterfinals of the event. The next month, the team would win the 2017 Boston Pizza Cup, the Alberta men's provincial championship. The win would be Moulding's first provincial title, sending him to his first ever Tim Hortons Brier. At the Brier, the team finished with a 3-8 record, missing the playoffs. Moulding and Team Botcher qualified for the 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials (held from December 2 to 10 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario) by winning one of the two pre-trials spots at the Home Hardware Road to the Roar Pre-Trials on November 6 to 12 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.[4]

Team Bottcher qualified as Team Alberta for the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier, held from March 3 to 11, 2018 at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan. The team had n 6-1 round robin record, and had to fight through the 3 vs. 4 game beating Brad Jacobs (Northern Ontario) and John Epping (Ontario) in the semifinals in the playoffs to make it to the final, where they would lose to Brad Gushue of Team Canada 6 to 4.[5]

Mixed career

Moulding won the 2014 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship skipping Team Alberta, which also consisted of his sister[6] Heather Jensen, Brent Hamilton and his then wife Anna-Marie Moulding. The team finished the round robin tied for first with a 9-2 record. They then went on to defeat Ontario (skipped by Cory Heggestad) in the final.

Personal life

Moulding has one child. He is employed as an icemaker at the Lacombe Curling Club and Bentley Curling Club[7] and owns Pinpoint Roofing.[8]

References

  1. 2018 Brier Media Guide
  2. "Curling Scores on Curling.ca". curling.ca. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  3. "Pat Simmons parts ways with Team Bottcher - Sportsnet.ca". sportsnet.ca. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  4. "World Curling Tour - Powered by CurlingZone". www.worldcurl.com. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  5. "Team Alberta to face Team Canada in Tim Hortons Brier final – 2018 Tim Hortons Brier". www.curling.ca. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  6. Hagen, ,Jefferson. "Moulding aims to continue magical curling season at SACA mens playdowns this weekend in Calgary". calgaryherald.com. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  7. 2017 Home Hardware RTTR Media Guide
  8. 2017 Brier Media Guide: Team Alberta
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