ParalympicsGB’s curlers know they must win their last three round-robin matches to stand a realistic chance of qualifying for the competition’s semi-finals, but their 6-3 defeat to Canada which left them on a record of three wins and three losses was over-shadowed by a worrying accident as their second David Melrose had a fall from his chair.
The British team had made a promising start to the match, stealing shots at both the first and second ends, then forcing their opponents to a single at the third to lead 2-1 at that stage.
The momentum shifted after Melrose suffered his injury and had to be stretchered out of the arena, however and, after an extended midway break as he underwent treatment, the Canadians took control in the second half of the match, registering the first multiple score of the match with a two at the sixth end, then stealing another two at the seventh, before running their opponents out of stones at the last.
“It did affect us as we are all a close knit bunch and it is never easy to see anybody you care about being taken away on a stretcher so it was tough,” skip Hugh Nibloe said afterwards.
“I thought we did ok when we came out in the fifth, but we let things slip in six and seven and it was a mountain to climb in the eighth so it gave us too much to do. 
“The first half of the game was nip and tuck and I felt at half time we had a good chance, so it is disappointing but most importantly we hope that David is well and that is the key thing that has to come out of the game.
“I know that there were a few times during the game that my mind slipped hoping he was ok and I am absolutely sure that the other three in the team will have felt the exact same and so it was those little slips, little breaks in concentration that maybe cost us a little bit but we don’t want to take it away from Canada they did play well and they did punish our mistakes.
“Coming off the ice to be told David was well was the best news, so I would rather come off the ice and hear that David is well rather than come off the ice with a win hearing that he is not, so hearing he is in a good condition I have a smile on my face now.”
British Curling’s Executive Performance Director Nigel Holl offered a further update, paying tribute to both the players for the way they coped with what had happened and to the support teams in Beijing’s Ice Cube.
“It was very unfortunate that just at the third end Dave caught the rubber running down the side of the sheet and just fell out of his chair, partly onto the ice, partly onto the surround, landing on what looked like his shoulder,” Holl explained.
“The good news is that Dave is in excellent medical hands. We have a top team of medics out here. He’s been taken for further assessment and is probably going to get an X-ray and some scans, but all’s good.
“The team are missing him, but they deserve big credit for the way they handled the situation. Those on the ice in managing to continue playing a very high quality game against a very good Canadian team and also the off ice team who got things sorted to ensure that Dave is in a good place.
“There was also some excellent medical help from the Canadians and the Americans. The Paralympic family coming together was really good. We’ve got great confidence in the medical support here in China and the people from ParalympicsGB and our team around him, so we’ll update later on.
“Having made his Paralympics debut in good style yesterday, Gary Smith is more than capable of coming in and covering Dave and we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got three games to play, three games to win and then we’ll see where the maths gets us after that.”
Now facing a challenge in having to win their remaining matches against Korea today, then hosts China and Latvia on the last day of the round-robin tomorrow to keep it there, their skip said that determination to do Melrose proud would only add to their motivation.
“It is easy now we have to win our three games, no ifs, whats, maybes, we have got to come out and we have got to perform, we have got to win,” said Nibloe.
“With David back we will hopefully do something for him, make sure we put on a performance for him and give him something to smile about tonight. 
“I think it is key that we go back, get rested in time to come out again and face Korea tonight and we know that if we play well we can win the game so we will give our all and see where it takes us.”
Winning those last three matches would be their only chance of avoiding having to rely on tie-breaks with head-to-heads against teams on identical win-loss records or Draw Shot Challenge.
“We don’t want to be in that position, getting into head to heads and things like that,” said Nibloe.
“There could be a lot of teams involved so it is key for us to make sure it is in our hands and make sure we win our three games and tomorrow afternoon we can sit here with three wins and hopefully looking forward to a game on Friday. I think that is what we have to focus on.”
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
10 March
GB – China
GB – Latvia
11 March
Semi finals
Bronze medal game
12 March
Gold medal game
Images: ParalympicsGB
