As they returned to action after a rest day, ParalympicsGB stepped up a gear to dominate their Swiss opponents in racking up a 15-1 victory on the third day of action in Beijing’s Ice Cube.
The tone was set early on with a brilliant double takeout from their skip Hugh Nibloe which turned the opening end around as, facing a dangerous looking situation, he fired a stone through a narrow port to make a double takeout and leave his team lying two. 
Playing skip stones, Gregor Ewan then promoted a third British stone into the house and a mistake from Swiss skip Laurent Kneubuehl then gifted them a fourth to make it an ideal start.
When Kneubuehl then got unlucky at the next, removing his own team’s shot stone as he promoted a guard into the house, Ewan capitalised to bury the British stone that was already lying shot behind cover and secure a steal.
As the accuracy of Nibloe and Ewan turned up the pressure, Swiss third Francoise Jaquerod, a double gold medallist in Alpine skiing at the 1988 Paralympics, then handed the ParalympicsGB the upper hand at the third end when she removed her team’s only shot in the house with an attempt to clear and further mistakes by Kneubuehl, as both his deliveries crashed on guards, meant the contest was effectively over after three ends.
Another British steal at the fourth took them into the midway break 11-0 up and after the Swiss finally got on the scoreboard at the fifth, further good setting up work by Nibloe allowed Ewan to wrap things up at the next as his takeout secured the four which brought the concession.
“The important thing was getting the win,” said Nibloe.
“The scoreboard maybe flattered us just a little bit it was just one or two shots here and there but we punished Switzerland when we got the chance which was really important.”
He was pleased to have taken that crucial opportunity at the opening end to shift the momentum his side’s way, but congratulated Ewan for the way he took advantage.
“Luckily they left me a port and we went from two up to two down and Gregor finished the end off,” he said.
“Their skip didn’t make his two shots and Gregor made his and we managed to get a four and that just sets the game up so I was really happy with that after the first end and we kept focused for the rest of the game.”
Nibloe’s telling contribution was acknowledged by teammate David Melrose as he suggested that there is still room for the team to get better. 
“That was good, a couple of slack shots from me but generally pretty good and improving all the time so I am looking forward to the next game coming up against Slovakia,” said Melrose, who forms the front half of the team with lead Meggan Dawson-Farrell.
“Hugh performed big style. His weight was tremendous and he seemed to be doing that for fun which was quite challenging with the ice.”
Team analyst Kenny More reckoned that an adjustment to their preparations had benefited the quartet.
“We asked them to treat the warm up as the first end to try and create the intensity to go into that first end stronger than we have so far in the first two games and I think the players responded to that,” he observed.
“We got a bunch of good shots in those opening ends that created a bit of pressure on their skip and they had a few catastrophic errors that gave us big ends, but it was our intensity that created that situation.”
ParalympicsGB team:
Gregor Ewan
Hugh Nibloe (skip)
David Melrose
Meggan Dawson-Farrell
Gary Smith (alternate)
5 March
GB – Norway 5-7
GB – USA 10-6
7 March
GB – Switzerland 15-1
GB – Slovakia
8 March
GB – Estonia
GB – Sweden
9 March
GB – Canada
GB – Korea
10 March
GB – China
GB – Latvia
11 March
Semi finals
Bronze medal game
12 March
Gold medal game
Images: ParalympicsGB
