Scotland’s wheelchair curlers will meet Sweden in the bronze medal match at their World Championships in Canada after losing out 5-2 to the hosts in their semi-final.
While Canada had gone into the match as strong favourites with home advantage and having had a superior round-robin record, there was nothing to separate the teams as they reached the midway break having scored just a point apiece after the match started with two blanked ends.
However, the Canadians pulled clear with a two at the fifth end and a steal of two at the next proved decisive, before they held Scotland to one at the seventh, then ran them out of stones at the last.
“Today didn’t go quite to plan but it was never going to be an easy game,” Scotland’s lead Jo Butterfield acknowledged.
“Canada showed us earlier in the week that they are a strong team, they are a very disciplined team and they don’t make many mistakes, but we were told that we needed to go out from the start and actually for quite a good part of that game we went toe-to-toe with them.”
Having suffered a heavy 8-1 defeat to Canada in their round-robin encounter, it was a performance which, like their play-off defeat of Korea who had beaten them in the opening match of the event, demonstrated the rate at which the Scottish team of Gregor Ewan, Hugh Nibloe, Gary Logan, Meggan Dawson Farrell and Butterfield is developing together. 
“We really did match them shot for shot,” said Butterfield.
“It wasn’t really until the fifth and sixth where they started to capitalise and maybe we started to miss a few shots and their execution was just slightly better than ours.
“It is hard and it hurts but we have lots of positives to take from this.
“The strength and the experience in that team and to know that we gave them a much better game, we rallied round and we dug deep and we gave a better performance than we did in the round robin stages and it was a much tighter game.”
The challenge now is to recover from that disappointment as they head into a meeting with the Swedes, this time seeking to secure there is no reversal of their previous match at this event, which Scotland won 10-1.
“I think we need to step up for the game again and need to really believe in ourselves going into the bronze medal match,” said Butterfield.
“It is not over. We still have an awful lot to fight for and I know that I am ready to do that and I trust that my team are also ready to do that.
“It’s early on in the Paralympic cycle and it is the first time we have all played together, so I am proud of how we have progressed this week and I think we have shocked a few people.
“On a personal level, I think I have even shocked myself. I went out there believing that I could and I think that made a difference in my own game, things were a little bit sharper.
“So we need to go again in that bronze medal game believing that we can execute our own performance, believing that we can take our opportunities and if we do that I think we have a great chance of coming home with some metal.”
She is also aware that after a week that has offered considerable encouragement for the British Curling programme, this is now the last chance of returning home with something tangible after English pair, Rosemary Lenton and Stewart Pimblett, suffered an agonising 11-10 defeat to the USA in their play-off tie in the World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles event that is also taking place in Richmond, Vancouver this week.
“We have had a lot of success but also a lot of nearlys so far in this competition, with England getting to the play-off stages in the mixed doubles and narrowly missing out and Scotland just missing out on the play-offs in that event,” said Butterfield.
“So we are the last team standing for Great Britain and we are going to go out there and try and do Scotland proud and do everything we can to bring home that medal for Scotland and Great Britain as well.
“Control the controlables is something that I focus on.
“I don’t know how Sweden are going to come out and play, we have no control over that, but if we go out as individuals and a team and perform at our best then that is all we can control.
“If we do that then I will leave that arena happy and the result will take care of itself.
“So we are going to fight and we are going to give it our all and see what we get with that.”
Scotland Team Results
Day One
Scotland – Korea 4-6
Scotland – USA 4-7
Day Two
Scotland – Sweden 10-1
Scotland – Denmark 6-4
Day Three
Scotland – Latvia 3-6
Scotland – Czech Republic 9-3
Day Four
Scotland – Japan 6-2
Scotland – Canada 1-8
Day Five
Scotland – Norway 6-5
Scotland – China 2-9
Day Six
Scotland – Italy 6-9
Day Seven
Scotland – Korea 6-2
Day Eight – Semi Finals
Scotland – Canada 2-5
Day Nine – Bronze medal game
Scotland - Sweden
England Team Mixed Doubles Results
Day One
England – Italy 7-6
Day Two
England – Sweden 9-4
England – Latvia 4-8
Day Three
England – Korea 6-5
Day Four
England – Japan 6-4
Day Five
England – Canada 1-9
Day Six
England – Germany 8-4
Day Seven
England – Denmark 8-6
Day Eight
England – USA 10-11
Scotland Team Mixed Doubles Results
Day One
Scotland - Hungary 3-9
Day Two
Scotland - China 3-10
Day Three
Scotland – Slovakia 0-8
Scotland – Norway 6-11
Day Four
Scotland – Estonia 10-9
Day Five
Scotland – Switzerland 11-3
Day Six
Scotland – Finland 6-7
Day Seven
Scotland – USA 6-1
Scotland – Poland 9-8
The World Wheelchair Curling Championships and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Champs are being run in parallel at the Richmond Curling Centre in British Columbia (4-12 March).
The participating 12 teams in the World Wheelchair Curling Championships are hosts Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and United States.
The World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Champs participating teams are:
Group A: China, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and United States.
Group B: Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia and Sweden.
Please click here for more information from the World Curling Federation
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Scotland Mixed Doubles Team:
Charlotte McKenna
David Melrose
England Mixed Doubles Team
Rosemary Lenton
Stewart Pimblett
Scotland Team:
Jo Butterfield (MBE)
Meggan Dawson-Farrell
Gregor Ewan
Gary Logan
Hugh Nibloe
Image: WCF/Cheyenne Boone
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