Darren Moulding

Darren Moulding (born December 2, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian curler from Coaldale, Alberta and curls out of the Lethbridge Curling Club. He is a former Canadian and World Junior Curling Champion, a Canadian Mixed Champion, and represented Alberta in the 2017 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.[1] The announcement was just in time four 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.

Mixed career

Moulding won the 2014 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship skipping Team Alberta, which also consisted of his sister[2] Heather Jensen, Brent Hamilton and 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

Darren and Anna-Marie have one child. Moulding is employed as an icemaker at the Lacombe Curling Club and owns Pinpoint Roofing.[3]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.sportsnet.ca/curling/pat-simmons-parts-ways-team-bottcher/
  2. ↑ http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Moulding+aims+continue+magical+curling+season+SACA+playdowns+this+weekend+Calgary/9392376/story.html
  3. ↑ 2017 Brier Media Guide: Team Alberta
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