SCOTS BOUNCE BACK WELL TO STAY ON COURSE FOR PLAY-OFFS

Scotland recovered impressively from a disappointing performance in their opening match of day four at the Kuntai World Championships to claim a win over Latvia that kept them in contention for a place in the play-offs.

Having started the day in a share of top spot, they were bitterly disappointed by the way they played in losing 9-2 in just six ends to a Swedish team that had only narrowly beaten the Latvians earlier in the day and vice skip Gregor Ewan admitted that it had not been good enough.

“We have played Sweden a few times this season and we have had the better of them a couple of times but they are a good strong team and that game was very hard. As a team of four not one of us actually turned up to play them. We played so bad it was unbelievable,” he said.

Ewan explained that a pep talk from Paralympic Head Coach Sheila Swan had contributed to turning things around in the break between matches before they then won by an even bigger margin, conceding a single shot at the opening end, then dominating proceedings to build a decisive 10-1 advantage after six ends.

“We came out of the game against Sweden, back to the team room and Sheila was not too happy with us,” he said.

“We knew that we had to be better than we were this morning and I am glad to say that everyone produced in that Latvia game.”

Reflecting on the day overall Ewan reckoned there were valuable lessons to be taken from the contrasting performances ahead of what promises to be a challenging run as they meet defending champions the RCF and reigning Paralympic champions China on day five, before they round things off against Slovakia and the USA on the final day of round-robin matches.

“Hopefully with the different teams though the week we have coming up we can play more like the way we played against Latvia and support each other and that will help us get further as the event progresses,” said Ewan.

Scotland Team,
Hugh Nibloe
Gregor Ewan
David Melrose
Meggan Dawson Farrell
Charlotte McKenna (alternate)

Results
Scotland v Norway 6-4
Scotland v Italy 10-4
Scotland v Korea 6-8
Scotland v Canada 7-4
Scotland v Switzerland 11-7
Scotland v Sweden 2-9
Scotland v Latvia 10-1

Results