A win over reigning Paralympic champions China has left Scotland poised to make the play-offs after another day of contrasting fortunes at the Kuntai World Wheelchair Curling Championships at The Ice Cube in Beijing. 
The Scottish quartet of Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, David Melrose and Meggan Dawson-Farrell performed well throughout what had always looked like being their toughest day of the round-robin stages facing the teams that were occupying the top two spots in the standings after the previous four days.
Up against the RCF in their opening match they challenged the defending champions hard through the first half, before scoring a three immediately after the halfway break to edge into a 4-3 lead and while their opponents then scored a two, then a three at the next two ends to run out 8-4 winners, there was some satisfaction with their competitiveness.
“We were all up for the game against RCF and I think we gave them a good game and a wee bit of a fleg, but you can’t win them all,” vice skip Gregor Ewan said afterwards.
The way they played clearly boosted confidence as they prepared for the meeting with the Chinese, who had lost just one of their previous eight matches and had thrashed Italy 10-2 in that morning session.
It proved to be a tight, low-scoring battle, decided on fine margins, with a steal at the fourth end edging China 2-1 ahead at halfway, only for the Scots to respond by levelling the match at the sixth end, then claiming a decisive steal of their own at the seventh end to claim the 3-2 victory.
“Ahead of the game against China a lot of talking was done within the team, discussing how we move forward,” said Ewan. 
“We went out and tried our best to support each other. It wasn’t maybe the prettiest game we’ve played, but a win’s a win.”
He noted that those meetings with the world’s leading teams had been additionally beneficial as ParalympicsGB prepares for the Winter Paralympics at the same venue later this season.
“Teams change and we haven’t seen these teams for a long time because of COVID, so it was great to get back on ice with China and RCF to see what they’re actually like and how they’ve moved on and what strategies they’re working on,” he said.
“However, we’ve also got to focus on ourselves without worrying about what anyone else is doing and we’re supporting each other really well, supporting each other as a team. There’s more to come from this team.”
The Scots go into the final day of round-robin matches - meeting Slovakia and the USA - with a record of six wins and three losses, just behind the RCF and China who now share top spot with seven wins and two defeats.
Scotland Team, 
Hugh Nibloe
Gregor Ewan
David Melrose
Meggan Dawson Farrell
Charlotte McKenna (alternate)
Results 6W – 3L
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
Scotland v RCF 4-8
Scotland v China 3-2
Results: https://worldcurling.org/events/wwhcc2021?pageType=results
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Photos: © WCF/Alina Pavlyuchik
