British sides keep hopes alive with vital wins
Team GB women need to beat Italy on Friday
These are strained days at the curling arena, where the chances of the two British teams are teetering like a bus full of bullion that’s backed over the lip of a cliff.
Both the men and women ended up in a position where they need to win every game they play and hope other results go their way to have any chance of making the semi-finals. Curling is one of the very few sports left being contested at the Winter Olympics in which the British fancy their chances, and Team GB’s hopes of getting anywhere near their medal target will turn on the curl of the stones in the next few days.
Hang on a minute lads, anyone got a bright idea? “Play better,” the British skip Bruce Mouat told his team. The Brits had three matches between them on Wednesday. It started just before nine in the morning with the first instalment of a double bill against USA – the women, then the men playing them – and was finished just before nine in the evening, with the conclusion of the women’s match against Japan. Team GB needed to win all three of them, and they did, in 12 hours of excruciating slow‑mo sport, as tense as the seat of a skip’s pants as they slide down the ice to deliver the hammer.
