A solid all-round performance saw Britain’s wheelchair curlers make another fine start to the day as they beat Estonia 10-5 with an end to spare to improve their record to three wins and two losses at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing.
After forcing their opponents to take just a single at the opening end, they gained the upper hand at a messy second end as, with a wall of stones lying in front of the house, British skip Hugh Nibloe and vice skip Gregor Ewan picked their way through it more effectively, raising three of their stones into counting positions to take a firm grip of the match.
Two brilliant deliveries by ParalympicsGB second David Melrose, the first a millimetre perfect takeout and the second a draw behind a centre guard to lie perfectly covered, then heaped the pressure onto the opposition and after Ewan’s precise takeout left his team lying two, Estonian skip Andrei Kotmae’s attempt at a saving draw ran through the house, leaving his team 5-1 down. 
A three for the Estonians at the fourth end closed things up to 5-4 at the midway break, but with lead Meggan Dawson-Farrell setting the tone on the resumption by nailing a takeout to lie behind a centre guard with her second stone, her teammates gradually gained the upper hand before an exchange of draws saw Ewan out-play Kotmae to claim the four that all but secured the win.
A steal at the sixth underlined their superiority and after being forced at the seventh, the Estonians accepted the defeat.
After his best performance of the event, Melrose thanked coach Sheila Swan for helping him get back on track, saying: “I felt a bit more comfortable today. I’ve just tried to relax and play the shots the way Sheila keeps telling us, remember the processes and hopefully the game comes together.”
That win now sets up their clash later in the day with this season’s World Championship finalists Sweden who are familiar foes.
“We’ve played them quite a lot of times and I think it’ll be a close game. We’ve just got to hit all our shots,” said Melrose.
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
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: Getty Images
