Scotland boosted their play-off chances in their opening match of the third day’s play at the World Wheelchair Championships in Stevenston when they ended Korea’s unbeaten run with a comprehensive 7-1 win.
It was a powerful performance from Hugh Nibloe, Gary Smith, Austin McKenzie and Jo Butterfield as they stole twos at each of the opening two ends to take charge of the match and never gave their opponents a way back in. 
While they subsequently suffered a disappointing 9-4 defeat to Sweden in their second match of the day, their skip consequently felt they could take confidence from that performance into the rest of the week.
“Beating Korea was really good, with a great performance, everybody playing really well, putting them under pressure, making them make shots and thankfully for us they missed theirs and we made ours,” said Nibloe.
“It was a bit of chalk and cheese compared with Sweden tonight where we just didn’t really hit the ice running and struggled a bit.
“However, we kept fighting and the scoreline’s probably a bit worse than the actual game was.
“It came down to a shot here and there, but it’s important that we don’t dwell on that and when we look at the week’s results, we’re sitting at three wins and two losses.
“I think we might have taken that at the start of the week when we’re looking at a dog eat dog competition with everybody beating everybody, so it’s going to be important for us to get back on the horse quickly like we did today after the USA game last night.
“We have to give it our all and hopefully we can come out with two wins tomorrow.”
It was a similar topsy-turvy day for their British Curling colleagues, albeit the England team did things the other way around, Stuart Pimblett, Jason Kean, Julian Mattison and Karen Aspey going down 6-1 to China after putting the Paralympic champions under pressure in the first half of their encounter, before they then produced a fine 6-4 win over Italy. 
With England now on two wins and three losses, that sets up a fascinating encounter in their second matches of day four when they face one another after both take on Canada earlier in the day.
The World Championships four player team event runs from March 1-8 and will be followed by the Mixed Doubles from March 11-16.
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Feature games are as follows:
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 1-6
Scotland – Korea 7-1
Scotland – Sweden 5-9
England – Italy 6-4
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
