Mixed team curlers on the hunt for that winning feeling after defeat to Italy

Hugh Nibloe feels ParalympicsGB’s mixed team wheelchair curlers can now play without pressure after experiencing another disappointing defeat to Italy in the round robin.

Team Nibloe fell 8-6 as they continued to struggle to take advantage when in the ascendancy.

It is a steep learning curve for a relatively new team, but one they will put into practice in their remaining Games as they retain an outside chance of semi-final qualification.

“We’re going to come out and we’re going to do the very best we can. The pressure has left us now,” rallied Nibloe.

“There are positives out of every game, we’ve not been destroyed like other teams have been. So, we’ve got positives to take we’ve just got to string them together for eight ends.

“It’s an inexperienced team and some of these guys have more Paralympics in them so let’s see what it feels like to win again.”

Once again, the Brits had opportunities to experience that winning feeling in a back-and-forth encounter.

They led 3-1 after the first two ends but let the Italians back into the game to find themselves 5-3 down at half-time after the host nation took a three-point end of their own in the fourth.

It buoyed a vocal home crowd which in turn had its own effect on the Italian players who were out to reward the crowd in attendance at Cortina Curling Centre.

But Team Nibloe fought back to level proceedings in the fifth end before making a tactical switch that saw Graeme Stewart replace Austin McKenzie ahead of the sixth.

The Italians would rally again, however, with another three-point end and this time it was a deficit that proved too deep for the Brits.

A 1-0 win in the seventh gave hope of a comeback but the Italians had the hammer for the eighth and skilfully blanked the final end to secure victory.

“It was really disappointing. I thought we had a good start but then we gave them a three end. The whole crowd went crazy and it seemed to energise them a lot,” reflected Nibloe.

“They started playing better after that and we just couldn’t raise our game.”

It has become a consistent theme of the ParalympicsGB’s team that they struggle to see out matches when it matters, having fallen to a series of tantalisingly close defeats to Canada, South Korea and Sweden.

Italy presented a strong chance to turn those losses around, but it was a task too far.

“Italy demonstrated it in that last end of how you finish it off, a nice clean end, keeping everything clear and things like that. We weren’t able to do that when we were in that position,” explained Nibloe.

“It’s something we’re going to have to go back and learn and be better at.”