ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair curlers reversed their opening day’s experience, but finished with the same outcome as they ended the third day of competition with an even record of wins and losses in Beijing’s Ice Cube.
Having bounced back from a loss to Norway in their first match of the tournament to level their account with a defeat of the USA in their second, they returned to action following a rest day in impressive fashion to register a 15-1 victory over Switzerland.
A second win on the day against Slovakia would have put them in a strong position approaching the halfway stage of the round-robin section of the competition, but they struggled to replicate the morning’s form and finished with a 7-3 defeat. 
“We’re probably not where we wanted to be,” said skip Hugh Nibloe.
“We would have wanted to be three and one at least, but we know we’re still in with a chance and there’s a long way to go. We’ve got to learn from the losses, come back tomorrow and get two wins is the plan.”
The teams had forced one another to take singles at the opening two ends, before the Slovakians claimed the first multiple score by capitalising on a missed double takeout attempt by Nibloe to set up a straightforward chance for their skip Peter Zatko after he and Gregor Ewan, the vice skip who plays last stones for the British team, exchanged take-outs.
They then doubled their advantage to 5-1 at the midway break with a steal of two when Ewan’s attempt to draw to the button with two Slovakian stones sitting well protected in the four foot, came up short.
That was a decisive blow and they patiently maintained their advantage in the second half, which resulted in a series of forces, leaving the experienced members of the British team to analyse what they need to do to get their campaign back on track ahead of meetings with Estonia and Sweden on day four.
“We made key shots against Switzerland and unfortunately against Slovakia we didn’t,” said Nibloe.
“That’s curling sometimes, but we haven’t suddenly become a bad team in one game and it’s important to come back tomorrow and make sure we’re making those key shots and forcing them to make the tough shots.
“It's important to put that game to bed, come back and play the way we did this morning and we know we can do that. We’ve still got levels we can move up and gears we can go into.
“Gregor’s the cheerleader in the team, the loud, happy, clappy one. I guess I’m more the tactical one, trying to work out the best strategy, so I’m hoping with some good calls and then if I can make a couple of good shots it helps inspire the team, that’s what I’m looking to do, lead by performance.
“That showed tonight. It wasn’t a good performance from myself and wasn’t a good performance from the team, so that’s something I’ve got to work on. I’m still confident that we can be there at the end of the week.” 
Ewan similarly shouldered his share of blame for the defeat to Slovakia, while also paying tribute to the way their opponents performed.
“I can’t take it away from them, they played really well,” said the vice skip.
“We took them into a hitting game and they hit and hit and hit and didn’t miss much. They maybe missed five shots in total and we were missing too many ourselves with half-shots that were hitting and rolling out, where they were hitting and sticking which is always going to punish you.
“We were very close in that game and we were clawing back slowly, but a couple of crucial shots, draws that I missed when we could have scored twos, would have made it a wee bit easier, but we’ve got to stick together. We all missed shots, but we need to have a good sleep, come back tomorrow with a wee bit of positivity and batter into the next game.
“You can’t think too far in front and you can’t think about what’s gone. There’s nothing we can do about those results now. We just have to look at it and say we’re going to play better and move on.”
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
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
