England recovered from a potentially devastating defeat at the hands of defending champions Norway to claim their first victory at the World Wheelchair Championships in Stevenston and did so in style with a 10-1 defeat of the USA.
After suffering a narrow loss to Latvia in their opening game Stewart Pimblett, Jason Kean, Julian Mattison and Karen Aspey had played superbly in their second game of the first day at the Auchenharvie Leisure Centre, only to miss out at an extra end to the Norwegians.
That could have knocked the team that claimed the last qualifying place for this event when they won the bronze medal match at the World B Championships earlier in the season. 
However, in their only game of the second day, they took charge from the outset, stealing a shot at the opening end, forcing their opponents at the second, registering a two at the third, then stealing three more twos at the next three on their way to an emphatic win.
“I am proud of how we have shown character today, because we needed to,” said skip Pimblett.
“There was a lot of soul searching after yesterday’s performances but that was great team performance from start to finish and I am really excited about the rest of the week.”
It was a result which boosted belief in a squad which also includes alternate Jean Guild and Pimblett believes they can now make a major impact on the event.
“I think the three lions have woken up now and we are going to try and roar throughout the week and we have got (Paralympic champions) China in the morning, but we are looking forward to that challenge and to play some of the best teams in the world and let’s see if we deserve to be here. We think we do, but time will tell,” he said
“I think we were confident before we came here this week, we were just very disappointed yesterday but we still believed in ourselves.
“Maybe it was just the occasion yesterday but we knew we would just take it one stone at a time, one end at a time and one game at a time and we are going to do everything we can to try and get the five/six wins we need to do well.
”We want to play well and at the level we have to play at in order to compete with these great teams.”
Other than hosts Italy, the England players are alone this week in not having the added pressure of seeking to secure qualifying points for next year’s Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina.
They are, though, all looking to prove they should contend for places in the team that will make that trip should Scotland, who have that responsibility to secure qualifying points for ParalympicsGB, get that job done this week. 
Having made the ideal start to their campaign with victory over China on the opening day, they followed that up on the morning of day two with a strong finish to beat Japan 7-5.
Their unbeaten run ended, however, when the USA produced an impressive bounce back of their own to beat the hosts 6-5 at an extra end in the day’s final round of matches.
Scotland face Korea and Sweden on day three, while England take on China and Italy.
The World Championships four player team event runs from March 1-8 and will be followed by the Mixed Doubles from March 11-16.
Please click here for results.
Watch LIVE streamed games on Curling Stadium Europe and The Curling Channel.
Feature games are as follows:
3rd March - Scotland v Korea - 14:30
4th March - Scotland v England - 19:30
5th March - Scotland v Italy - 14:30
6th March - England v Korea - 14:30
7th March - Qualifier - 10:00
7th March - Semi - 18:00
8th March - Bronze - 10:00
8th March - Gold - 14:30
Day One
Saturday 1 March
Scotland – China 3-2
England – Latvia 5-8
England – Norway (EE) 6-8
Day Two
Sunday 2 March
Scotland – Japan 7-5
England – USA 10-1
Scotland – USA (EE) 5-6
Day Three
Monday 3 March
England – China
Scotland – Korea
Scotland – Sweden
England - Italy
Day Four
Tuesday 4 March
England – Canada
Scotland – Canada
Scotland – England
Day Five
Wednesday 5 March
Scotland – Latvia
England – Sweden
Scotland – Italy
England - Slovakia
Day Six
Thursday 6 March
Scotland – Norway
England – Korea
Scotland – Slovakia
Day Seven
Friday 7 March
Qualification games – 10.00
Semi Finals – 18.00
Day Eight
Saturday 8 March
Bronze Medal Match – 10.00
Gold Medal Match – 14.30
Scotland Team
Hugh Nibloe (skip)
Gary Smith
Austin McKenzie (vice skip)
Jo Butterfield
Keith Gray (alternate)
Scotland Mixed Doubles Team
Hugh Nibloe (skip)
Charlotte McKenna
Coaches:
Head Coach: Sheila Swan
Team Coach: Niall Ryder
England Team
Stewart Pimblett skip
Karen Aspey
Julian Mattison
Jason Kean
Jean Guild (alternate)
England Mixed Doubles Team
Stewart Pimblett skip
Karen Aspey
Coaches:
Head Coach: Tony Lenton
Coach: Rosemary Lenton
Coach: Luke Carson
For more information on our Paralympic Pathway Programme and opportunities please email: Cheryl.lappin@britishcurling.org.uk
Images: @tdf_photography3
