Mixed results leave GB sixth
Britain’s curlers lost to Italy but beat Japan comfortably in the final two matches of the round-robin tournament on Thursday March 18.
The results leave GB sixth in the final rankings.
Two matches this week against the USA and Sweden went to the last stone of the tiebreaker end, leading Team Manager Tom Pendreigh to comment: “It is a great disappointment not to be in the mix. There were two games which, had we won just one of them, we would have been there. We lost both by the narrowest of margins, just a few millimetres either way on the final stone would have made the difference. In a week-long competition you do need a bit of luck and we were unlucky in both those games.”
Speaking of the team’s performance throughout the competition Pendreigh said: “The biggest disappointment is the feeling that we had so much more to give and although we saw glimpses of it, we never really showed consistently what we are capable of.
Pendreigh praised the overall of development of the sport since the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games when wheelchair curling made its debut. “We’ve seen a marked improvement in all of the teams that we were competing against [since Turin]. The standard internationally has risen and it is important that GB keep on trying to match and beat those standards.
The team will now turn their attention to the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.
“In terms of looking forward to Sochi we are really fortunate in finding someone like Aileen, who has great skills, intelligence and is keen to learn. It augers well for the future. Some of the experienced members of the team have indicated that they are happy to carry on as well and we have a number of athletes in development that we are aiming to fasttrack through. This is all dependent on funding and we hope that we are given the chance to continue to invest in the sport of wheelchair curling to make sure we give our best performances in Sochi.”
In the final match of the tournament, Britain played Japan. The British team changed their line-up for the final match, bringing alternate Jim Sellar into the team. Skip Michael McCreadie did not play and instead Aileen Neilson skipped the team – the first time a woman has skipped the Paralympic curling team.
GB took an immediate 2-0 lead, which they extended to 3-0 and then 4-0 in the next two ends. They had an excellent fourth end, winning another two points, but Japan struck back to win two points in the fifth. Britain rallied and put in another strong performance in the sixth to score four and go 10-3 ahead and although Japan won the seventh GB had done enough to ensure victory 10-4.
Earlier in the day GB’s curlers played Italy. Italy took an early lead, going 3-0 up in the first end. GB won the second and Italy the third to put the score at 4-1, then the Italians won the fourth to extend their lead to 5-1. In the fifth GB scored a point but Italy came straight back to win the sixth end and by then the points gap was too wide for Britain to close. Even though GB won the seventh end, the team eventually lost 3-6.