Winter Olympics: surreal turns into the familiar for British curlers in Beijing

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Beijing Games 2022! Let me hear your voice!” And so to the Ice Cube for the mixed curling for an intriguing first day of action at these XXIV Winter Olympics. Before the opening stone was cast, a Chinese military band of bagpipers dressed in kilts blasted out Scotland the Brave, while a dancing panda mascot pulled shapes. But the surreal soon turned into the reassuringly familiar as the British gold-medal favourites, Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, secured an opening night victory over Sweden.

Unlike at the Tokyo Summer Games last year, a select band of around 200 spectators were also on hand to watch this most slow-burning of sports – although whether the crowd was quietly enthralled, or merely bored, was unclear until they exploded into sustained cheers after China won a sudden-death match over Switzerland.

Don’t be surprised if a similar switch gets flicked in Britain over the coming fortnight, just as it did when Rhona Martin inspired Team GB’s women to curling gold in Salt Lake City 20 years ago. Britain’s men and mixed doubles teams are world champions, and the women recently won the European title. True, it is early days. But there is a notable confidence that a three-pronged attack on the medal table is not out of the question.

“We will be trying to improve on that but it is a great start,” Mouat said, after a match that was not nearly as comfortable as the 9-5 scoreline suggests. “We know Sweden will be at the top of the table at the end of the week so we are really chuffed with how we played.”

Mouat also conceded that hearing the bagpipers put a spring in his step, adding: “We saw them outside the venue a couple of days ago so we knew they were here and were excited. They