ParalympicsGB’s curlers ended their Paralympic campaign on a defiant note in Beijing’s Ice Cube as they defeated Latvia 8-4.
Having gone into the final day knowing their chances of reaching the semi-finals had gone, they had already performed well against hosts China, the reigning World and defending Olympic champions, leading against them at the halfway stage before ultimately succumbing to a 6-3 defeat as their opponents became the first team to qualify for the play-offs. 
They then dominated their clash with the Latvians, showing pride in performance as skip Hugh Nibloe, vice skip Gregor Ewan, who was playing last stones, Gary Smith, who came off the bench to replace the injured David Melrose at second and lead Meggan Dawson-Farrell put in one of their best collective performances of the week, stealing a shot at the first end of their encounter, then another three at the second against opponents who still had a chance of reaching the semis when the match got underway.
A second three at the fourth end put them 7-1 up at the midway break and another steal at the fifth pretty much wrapped things up before the Latvians put a slightly better complexion on the scoreboard from their perspective by claiming a single at the sixth, then a steal of two at the seventh before being run out of stones at the last.
“We made shots from the start and put them under pressure straight away,” said skip Hugh Nibloe.
“Gregor made those shots at the start that put them under pressure and we managed to get a couple of steals.”
He reckoned that had been a key difference to several of their previous matches in a week that saw them finish with four wins and six losses.
“We’ve been slow starting in a lot of games and then you’re struggling and trying to score big and having to take a few risks. When you get up in the game you can take less risks and make easier shots,” Nibloe observed.
“I think that’s what we’re capable of and going forward that’s something we’ll have to learn from.
“We try to do that in every game, but we’ve learned that it’s so important that we go back to the warm-up and treat it as the first end for us.
“We’ve got to make sure we warm up right and get our practise right and that leads into the game rather than just starting cold in the first end.
“We managed to nail that today and got it right, so it’s definitely something everybody’s experienced and can learn from and we know going forward that that’s the minimum standard we need at competitions going forward.”
With Dawson-Farrell, Melrose and Smith all taking part in their first Paralympics, Nibloe believes that the best is still to come from this current squad. 
“Over the last few years we lost Angie Malone, Aileen Neilson and Bob McPherson who were stalwarts in the team and Paralympians with huge experience, so thankfully we’ve got David, Gary and Meggan in and they’re all keen to learn and they’ve all come on so much in the last year,” said their skip.
“I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them all because they’ve got an opportunity to get there and get to the very top. Plenty of hard work and I’m sure that after the experience of this Games they will be striving hard to make another one.”
As the only woman in the team, Dawson-Farrell had previous multisport experience having been a track athlete for Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and she revelled in the Paralympic experience.
“The difference was the fact that I was part of a team,” she said.
“Previously my sport was on my own, whereas here I was part of a bigger squad and it was an incredible experience.
“This gives us great confidence. We know we can do it. We didn’t crumble under pressure at all, we came out with the win and we now have the opportunity to go away and work on things and come out even stronger the next time.
“Being quite young in the sport is really good. I have a lot of years still to go and I can’t wait to see where this will take me.”
While there was natural disappointment in the camp after the team had made a promising start to the week in winning two of its first three matches, British Curling’s Executive Performance Director Nigel Holl registered some satisfaction with the way the team had pulled together on and off the ice.
“I am proud of the team, the athletes, the staff here in Beijing and those back in Scotland, sportscotland and British Curling staff who work with these athletes day-in, day-out,” he said.
“It was a cracking effort. I’m disappointed with where we finished and the fact that we got into many games, but couldn’t finish them off. They were playing well consistently for half a game and then not able to hold that consistency, so I can’t run away from that sense of disappointment. 
“We probably finished in the table roughly where we deserved to, probably slight lower than where we predicted we might have been coming in. But you get here, you win a couple of games and you start thinking you can go on a run that can get you into medal contention and we thought that for a bit during the week.”
He noted that they had to deal with additional adversity later in the competition when Melrose suffered a shoulder injury and had to be stretchered out of the arena, as well as in advance of the event when Charlotte McKenna, who had originally been selected for the team, had to withdraw on medical grounds due to injury.
“We have had the injury to Dave, which disrupted things in the last couple of days. It’s obviously good news in terms of his condition. He’s probably got a fairly extended period of rehabilitation to come, but he’s good,” said Holl.
“Coach Sheila has had to ring the changes. Gary Smith started the week as our alternate, then finished it as a starting player and has done really well, given that he was a late selection. I’m really proud of him for that, while our thoughts go back to Charlie at home as well, missing out to injury.”
In looking to the future, however, the man who oversaw the introduction of the innovative nine player squad system for the women’s squad in the Olympic programme, which resulted in gold medal success last month, said that further change can now be anticipated in the wheelchair programme.
“What’s been clear this year and at this event is that we aren’t consistent enough,” he said.
“We play some very good shots but we also play some less good shots and that probably summarises every end.
“You can’t get away with that at this level. We’re seeing the Chinas, the Swedens, perhaps a step above everybody else here. They are consistent, they are not making as many mistakes and if they make mistakes they are mistakes that err in their favour, rather than killing them.
“We’ve got to work on that, so we’ve got to have a proper, sensible, considered review, reflection and plan the way forward and we will do that for British Curling, but also with our investors and partners UK Sport and Sportscotland.
“I feel good support from UK Sport in addressing these challenges, identifying them, which I think we can do fairly easily, but then addressing them as we move forward. 
“My gut says we need to do some things differently in order to do that. Change is coming and change will be necessary if we’re going to move ourselves into the top echelons of this field and I believe we can do that and I’m very committed to making sure that we do.
“However, big credit is due to our coaching team Sheila Swan and Kenny More and our medical team Jo Jackson and Craig. They’ve put the hours in, they’ve brought their expertise, they’ve committed everything here to the athletes and to our ambitions.
“It hasn’t delivered what we hoped it might, but that doesn’t stop me being very proud of everyone’s efforts.”
ParalympicsGB team:
Gregor Ewan
Hugh Nibloe (skip)
David Melrose
Meggan Dawson-Farrell
Gary Smith (alternate)
Schedule and Results: https://worldcurling.org/events/pwg2022?pageType=schedule
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 3-6
GB – Korea 6-8
10 March
GB – China 3-6
GB – Latvia 8-4
11 March
Semi finals
Bronze medal game
12 March
Gold medal game
Images: ParalympicsGB
