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By Mike Haggerty in Vancouver
Scotland 10, Norway 3.
Against the odds, Scotland gained a final ranking of fifth overall at the World Wheelchair Championship, thanks to an overwhelming 10-3 victory over Norway on Thursday evening in the first of a series of tie-breakers being staged in Vancouver over the next two days.
The Scots, now with their trusted line-up of Jim Sellar at lead, Tom Killin at second, Michael McCreadie skipping and throwing third stones, and Aileen Neilson throwing skip stones, started this game well, scoring two in the first end. They had a wobble after that when Norway took a single in the second end and then stole two in the third, but three shots in the fourth when Aileen Nielson had a good hit and roll, and then a single steal in the fifth set them back on the road to victory.
Norway blanked the sixth, but pressure play from the Scots told in the seventh end when, after building up the house, they were able to steal four for a 10-3 lead, and the Norwegians conceded.
This was the fourth successive victory for the Scots who, even as they celebrated their recovery from looking like they might finish far enough down the ranking to have to pre-qualify next time, must be rueing their bad start as they now spend the weekend watching others play-off for the medals.
Afterwards, a pleased McCreadie said, “It’s amazing what 36 hours does. You just saw the quality come through there. They couldn’t live with us in the end. We knew it was there, it just took a wee bit of eeking out”.
And reflecting on the campaign as a whole, he added, “what ifs? But you take the positives. We had a bad start. But to come fifth from ninth? You’ve got to be proud of that, and just move forward with all the momentum and take all that into the Paralympics next year”.
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