With her squad almost back to full fitness British Curling Head Paralympic Coach Sheila Swan is calling for a step up in performance as they head to Estonia to compete with some of the world’s best teams this weekend.
A Scotland quartet which boasts substantial world championship and Paralympic experience will face five rival international teams – Korea, Poland, Spain, Finland and hosts Estonia – at the seventh running of the Tallinn Wheelchair International which takes place from October 25 to 27. 
Hugh Nibloe, who has been two Paralympics and seven world championships, winning a silver and two bronze medals, skips the team, 2022 Paralympian Gary Smith is the vice skip, 2014 Sochi Paralympic bronze medallist Robert McPherson, who has also won world championship silver and bronze medals will play second, while Jo Butterfield, a Paralympic gold medallist in athletics in 2016 before switching to curling and winning a world championship bronze on her debut in that event in 2023, plays lead.
“We are looking forward to returning to Tallinn, where we haven’t competed since January 2022,” said Swan.
“It is a small field, but there is no shortage of quality and it will be good to test ourselves against Korea again after some of our players met them at the Stirling International earlier this month and against teams who will be preparing for the upcoming World Wheelchair B Curling Championships.
“Everyone involved with the squad would acknowledge that our results so far this season have been disappointing and that we need to start performing better as we continue to build towards the Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina next season.
“No-one is making any excuse for those performances and while injury and illness has hampered our preparation for some events, we are now able to field a highly experienced team with multiple Paralympic and world championships appearances under their belts, so we are looking forward to seeing what they can put together this weekend ahead of selection for further events in November and December.”
Scotland Team
4 - Hugh Nibloe (Skip)
3 – Gary Smith (Vice skip)
2 – Robert McPherson
L – Jo Butterfield
Results - CurlingZone.
Live Coverage from Curling Tallinn Youtube channel.
Images: PPA/Graeme Hart
