Ice-cool Gregor Ewan called on Britain’s wheelchair curlers to keep calm and stick together after a crushing Paralympic defeat against Slovakia in Beijing.
The British team dispatched Switzerland 15-1 in the first game of a busy Monday but were brought plummeting back down to earth by the savvy Slovaks at the Ice Cube.
Hugh Nibloe’s rink were sunk 7-3 as they suffered their second defeat in four matches to leave their round robin chances hanging in the balance.
Sochi 2014 bronze medallist Ewan, 50, is competing at his third Paralympics and believes staying united and sticking to the formula can get the British team back on track.
He said: “Curling is a team game.
“We can’t start picking at other, saying ‘you did this or you did that.’ I missed shots, Hugh missed shots, David [Melrose] missed shots, Meggan [Dawson-Farrell] missed shots.
“We’ve just got to go and have a good sleep, a good breakfast and come back tomorrow with a lot of positivity and battle into the next game.
“It’s swings and roundabouts in curling – sometimes you’ll play really well and still lose, while sometimes you’ll be victorious.
“I can’t take that away from them – Slovakia played really well and didn’t miss much.”
Skip Nibloe looking for Team GB to bounce back
Britain lost to Norway in their opening Paralympic encounter but recovered to down the USA 10-6 under the Saturday night lights.
They were due to play Russia on Sunday but enjoyed a rare day off after the International Paralympics Committee’s dramatic late U-turn to ban the nation’s athletes from the Games.
It didn’t take them long to re-find their fluency as they smashed the Swiss 15-1, but a Monday evening defeat against the Slovakians sets up a crunch day of action on Tuesday.
Estonia and Sweden lie in wait and skip Nibloe hopes channelling the best of their inter-team diversity can fire them back to winning ways.
“We’ve still got levels we can move up to,” said the 40-year-old, whose rink are able to train full-time, access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support thanks to vital National Lottery funding.
“Gregor is the cheerleader and is all happy clappy, while I’m more tactical, work out best strategy and can help inspire the team with good shots.
“Tonight was not a good performance but it’s one to work on – I’m still confident we can be there at the end of the week.”
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