Mixed team wheelchair curlers fall on wrong side of tight encounter

The mixed team wheelchair curling side certainly know how to take a game to their opponent, but too often have come out on the wrong side of tight encounters.

Their second match on Monday saw them fall to a one-point deficit once again as they lost 6-5 to Sweden in their evening round robin clash.

It followed a 7-6 defeat to South Korea that had come down to the last stone, and left them achingly close to two what could easily have been two victories on another day.

“It’s not the outcome that we came for. We’ve been in so many close games and now we just need to get over the line,” said Stewart Pimblett.

“I’m devastated if I’m honest. We played great up until the last end. But there were too many stones in our way to get to the four-foot, really.

“We have to pick ourselves up. We’re curling on the best stage there is.”

Close encounters are becoming a hallmark of Team Nibloe’s side and having also lost by a narrow margin to Canada on Sunday, their game against Sweden followed much the same pattern.

A one-point opening end from the Swedes was countered by a 2-0 win for GB, before Sweden blanked an end and then restored parity in the fourth to leave scores level at half time.

And the fifth end would proceed in the same fashion as Sweden took a 3-2 lead, but Team Nibloe began to turn the screw in the sixth, winning 3-0 to take a 5-3 lead.

It was one they would soon give up, however, as Sweden once more levelled proceedings in the seventh end before taking the needed one-point victory in the eighth to steal the win from GB at the end.

“It’s going to be a bad one looking back at other games we probably should have taken and didn’t so it’s a tough one but it’s a learning curve,” said team skip Hugh Nibloe.

“These guys have been great, it’s their first Paralympics so kudos to them for putting us in these games and putting us in the tight ones. We just need to learn to bring it home.”

Earlier GB had lost to Korea and were once again in contention to the final end.

But while they remained competitive throughout it was one stone that proved the difference between defeat and victory, that they were once more on the wrong side of.

They can, however, take lessons from the fine margins of defeat which provide a clear indication of just how close ParalympicsGB are to finding their stride.

“Canada, Korea, Sweden, they’re the best teams in the world. They’re all in medal matches at the World Championships last year and we’re running them that close,” added Nibloe.

“We know we’ve got that ability, we know we can take a game to them but if we can put ourselves in that position to win the rest of the games then we’ve really got to take it.

“We’ve really got to go into that last end or last two ends believing that we can do it, because we can.”