ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair curlers staged a strong comeback to win every end in the second half of their match against table-topping Sweden, but they had left themselves slightly too much to do after trailing 6-0 at the break in Beijing’s Ice Cube.
It was another topsy-turvy day for the British team who once again produced a powerful performance in the morning in beating Estonia, but after a lengthy break between matches, were unable to follow that up and is reflected in a record of three wins and three losses heading into the closing stages.
The Swedes looked every bit the form team of the competition so far as they started with the hammer, then steadily took control after blanking the opening end, scoring a three at the second, stealing a two at the third, then another at the fourth to generate that six shot advantage. 
In a bid to shift the momentum, GB head coach Sheila Swan brought alternate Gary Smith off the bench at that stage and, coming in for skip Hugh Nibloe and playing third stones, he made a fine debut, helping the team get on the scoreboard at the next end, then pick up steals at the next three as they took the match to the final stone, forcing Swedish skip Viljo Pettersson-Dahl to play a takeout to secure the win.
“Shug was struggling and I was struggling as well,” vice skip Gregor Ewan said afterwards in explaining the change.
“Whether it was me that went off and Gary came on, or Shug goes off and Gary comes on, it’s just that change of dynamics to give us a wee bit of a lift, a wee bit of fresh blood to try to find something and we managed to find enough to win four ends. It’s not a win, but at least we were trying.
“The whole team are all good pals. I’ve known Gary a few years now and I’m just chuffed for him to make his Paralympic debut.
“He played four ends and he played really, damned well there. He was putting me to shame.
“He’s up on the bench and he can do that… draw, draw, draw, which means we can rely on him to step in at any time.”
Ewan admitted to some frustration at the team’s inability to back up their good performances, which means they will need a strong finish to their round-robin campaign as they head into the last four matches.
“We seem to be able to lift ourselves then fall flat again. Sheila keeps trying different things, but we just can’t seem to get a run of wins,” he said. 
“We’ve got sports psychologists through the Sportscotland Institute of Sport who are good at helping us and we’ve been working on a lot of that to try to find the combination that’ll work for us.
“If I could put my finger on it I would say that was what we need to fix and we could move on. There’s something there that doesn’t flow sometimes with us and we don’t know why, but this is one of the most supportive teams we’ve ever had.”
He acknowledged that they have had particular problems when the schedule has presented them with morning and evening games, with a large gap in between times, so is hoping that a change to that, when they will play in successive sessions on each of the last two round-robin days, will make a change to that as they look forward to meeting Canada and Korea tomorrow, then host China and Latvia on the final day.
“I’m hoping tomorrow that we can have a long lie then come back refreshed and reinvigorated, because I know from past experience that the long break in the middle of the day doesn’t help us,” he said.
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 3-7
8 March
GB – Estonia 10-5
GB – Sweden 4-6
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
