British Curling’s wheelchair team have been narrowly beaten by one of the host nation’s representatives in their opening game at the Euro Super League in Jonkoping.
A six player squad made the trip across the North Sea for the event, but it was the quartet which represented Scotland at this season’s World Championships which took to the ice in the opening match.
They had performed steadily at those World Championships in reaching the knock out stages, but had lost heavily in both the round-robin and play-offs to a Swedish team that would go on to contest the final. That meant setting out against one of the two teams that the host nation is fielding at this event was an early opportunity to gauge progress and after trailing early on they fought back to tie things up at 8-8 after seven ends before the hosts scored a single with their final stone for the win.
While the personnel was familiar, British Curling’s Paralympics Head Coach Sheila Swan is looking to use this event to try out combinations while also ensuring that there is cover for contingencies. World Championships vice skip Gregor Ewan consequently switched positions with regular skip Hugh Nibloe and he seized the opportunity to urge the team to keep pushing to bring more out of themselves.
“It was a bit of a surprise when I was told I was going to be skipping the team, but I wanted the skip brush because I am always looking to better myself,” he said. 
“We can play better than that, though… I know we can play better than that. There were too many loose stones.”
With just a few months to go before the Paralympics in Beijing and selection for that competition looming, this event has been identified as a vital opportunity for the squad.
“Because of COVID and the last two years of lockdown it has been hard to get the experience we need. We have been getting practice on ice where we are able to throw stones, but it is different when nerves come into it and you know it is a critical shot,” said Ewan.
“It is about the team putting ourselves under pressure to make better shots and that will happen through this competition, but at the same time I don’t want to come here to go home having finished last. I want to go home winning this or in the top three positions at least. That is what I am aiming for.”
One game per draw will be live streamed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lq8iGAYigk
Their full schedule is:
Friday December 10:
0800 GB v Sweden 1 – 8-9 
1300 GB v Korea
Saturday December 11
0800 GB v Sweden 2
1300 GB v Russia
Sunday December 12
0800 GB v Norway
1300 Play-Offs
Team
Hugh Nibloe
Gregor Ewan
Meggan Dawson-Farrell
David Melrose
Charlotte McKenna
Stuart Pimblett
Images: WCF/ Alina Pavlyuchik
