Paralympic gold medallist Jo Butterfield will lead a Scotland wheelchair curling team into action for the first time at this weekend’s Euro Super League in Stirling (17-19 January).
The event will feature two teams from the host nation, as well as their British Curling colleagues from England and Italy, Sweden and Norway and will be the last opportunity for all of the Paralympic programme athletes to make their cases for selection at the forthcoming World Wheelchair Championships.
For Butterfield, whose ultimate ambition since switching sports from athletics to curling has been to become the first athlete to claim gold medals at both summer and winter Paralympics, the opportunity to skip one of the Scotland teams is a thrilling one as she works closely with teammates Gordon Alexander, Graeme Stewart and Robert McPherson, as well as alternate Rich Osborn. 
“It is the first time that I have been given the skip role for a competition and I am not going to lie it is slightly terrifying and it still feels like I am new to the sport but it is also very exciting,” she said.
“I have been working really hard this year to try and improve my technical knowledge and that has been one of my key goals and it is time to give that a test.
“It’s a different kind of responsibility and a different kind of pressure and one that very much takes me out of my comfort zone, but I secretly love that.
“I am a firm believer in that when you step out of your comfort zone that is when you learn and grow the most and that is what the ESL is all about, learning, so I am looking to grab that with both hands.
“Ultimately I might be skip, but we have four heads on the ice and our strength will lie in all four of us working together.”
With little more than a year to go to the Paralympics she noted that there is awareness throughout the British Curling squad of the need to make an impression.
“Now we are into the New Year we are into the business end of the season and it is only about six weeks until the Worlds and so it makes this international really crucial,” said Butterfield.
“It is a big part of our final preparations and since the start of this year there has been a really positive atmosphere in training and I think everyone has come back in with all guns blazing.
“There has been a lot of hard work and a positive and determined mindset and I think we need to take that into this weekend.
“This is our chance to put that into action when it counts and show our opposition that they have to watch out for us and we are not here just to make up the numbers. 
“This is the last competition and our last opportunity to shine before selection next week and that does definitely add a bit of pressure.
“We will all be trying to raise our game and make the selectors job really hard.
“That makes this competition even more exciting and it will make be of the highest quality and I am looking forward to getting started.”
The other Scotland quartet will be led by Hugh Nibloe, as he lines up alongside Charlotte McKenna, Gary Smith and Austin McKenzie, with Keith Gray selected as their alternate.
However, the highly experienced skip noted that the England quartet of Stewart Pimblett, Karen Aspey, Julian Mattison and Jason Kean as well as alternate George Potts are also making strong cases for themselves in adding considerable strength in depth to the squad.
“It has been great having the England team in our squad this season, and they did incredibly well to go to the B Championships and get promoted to the Worlds and I hope we played a part along the way as their training mates, but I think it is fair to say that there is now a friendly divide in the NCA”, joked Nibloe.
“But that result should give them plenty of momentum going to the Worlds, so for the next six to eight weeks we are Scotland and England but it will be good to come together again in April with all four teams hopefully having done well in the team and mixed doubles championships and unite again as one squad.
“Of course we will be vying for selection for the ParalympicsGB squad for Milan Cortina, but first and foremost it is about those Worlds coming up and getting that qualification place for 2026.”
He believes this weekend’s competition offers ideal preparation for the Worlds.
“It’s a good mix this weekend with Norway the World Champions coming and Sweden who I think finished fourth last season and Italy who are obviously hosting the Paralympics next year and they are looking to build towards that, as well as England who have just qualified for the Worlds along with our own two teams,” said Nibloe.
“So it is going to be a really good warm up event for the World Championships and having plenty of new blood in the squad, it is a good opportunity to expose them to this environment as they might be in the mix and it is good for them to get into the rhythm of things and get the value of that experience.”
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart
