Leslie reports from Moscow:"This evening at the Le Gruyere European Championships, David Murdoch, Glen Muirhead, Ross Paterson and Richard Woods took on Ritvars Gulbis's Latvia. This was a game that you would expect Murdoch to win but the Latvians had showed several times this week that they are no pushovers.
Latvia won the Last Stone Draw but it was David who took first blood with a steal of one when Gulbis hit and rolled out against two shots. Second end was blanked before Gulbis took his single in the third, drawing into the four foot.
Fourth and David came up just short for a two with his final stone draw and then Gulbis again drew for a single in the fifth making the score 2-2 going into the break.
In the sixth, David drew for two but in the seventh the Latvians lay well and Gulbis came back with a two with a last stone draw. Lying first and third in the eighth, Murdoch hit the sole Latvian stone in the house for a three and a 7-4 lead. The Scots made a steal of one in the ninth and at 8-4 Gulbis conceded.
With Norway losing to Sweden and Germany losing to winless Italy, these two teams join Scotland on four wins. Tomorrow is another day but David has still to play Sweden who, with Denmark, are currently sitting on six wins.
Scores: Sweden 9 Norway 8 (extra end), Denmark 8 Germany 6, France 7 Czech Republic 2, Italy 9 Switzerland 4, Scotland 8 Latvia 4.
Standings: 6/1 Denmark, Sweden, 4/3 Germany, Norway, Scotland 3/4 Czech Republic, Switzerland, 2/5 France, Latvia, 1/6 Italy.
Mike Haggerty's reports for the Royal Club are here.
All the results, standings, and statistics are here.
John Brown has the story of what's happening in the B divisions, here.
Top photo is an unusual shot by Leslie Ingram-Brown, which catches WCF photographer Richard Gray at work! See Richard's photos on the WCF website here.
