World Wheelchair Curling Championship: Scotland reach knockout stage
- Published
Jo Butterfield plays a shot supported by Gary Logan
Scotland have qualified for the knockout phase of the World Wheelchair Curling Championship despite losing their last round-robin game.
The team of Hugh Nibloe, Gregor Ewan, Gary Logan, Jo Butterfield and Meggan Dawson-Farrell knew victory against Italy would secure their passage.
But they lost 9-6 and had an anxious wait before other results went their way in Vancouver, Canada.
They will face South Korea in the knockout stages on Friday.
They lost 6-4 to South Korea in their opening game of the tournament on Saturday and went on to finish with five wins and six losses in their round-robin games.
Having squeezed in as the sixth and final qualifier from the round-robin stage, they know they will need to improve.
"Our first goal coming here with a new line-up was to avoid relegation and our next goal was to qualify for the play-offs, which we've achieved, so we've got to be positive," said Butterfield.
"We've played Korea a number of times this season and we've beaten them, so we know it's doable but we know it's imperative that we go out from the start all guns blazing.
"We cannot have that slow start, we cannot let them get on top of us and wait for the second half to start to play some shots.
"We need to dictate the play and play our game and execute our performances and if we do that, I'm confident we'll win, we all are"
In the mixed doubles event, England's Stewart Pimblett and Rosemary Lenton remain on course for the play-offs after beating Germany 8-6 and take on Denmark in their final round-robin match on Friday.
Lenton won Commonwealth bowls gold representing Scotland at last year's Games in Birmingham at the age of 72.
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