Published: Tuesday, 8th December, 2009 4:37pm

Scottish champs defend Euro title

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DEFENDING champions Scotland are bang on course to retain their title after David Murdoch's team won their fifth game out of six in the Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Aberdeen on Tuesday.

They defeated a German team skipped by Andi Kapp 10-7 in their sixth game of the Championships.

A backs-to-the-wall performance saw the Scots, playing in the A Division, come back from 7-3 down after the Germans scored a four in the sixth to score all four closing ends and seal an impressive victory.

And they were given an added boost with the news that the only previously unbeaten side Norway lost for the first time, going down 7-5 to France in a tight contest.

In other day four action, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic 10-5, Switzerland ran out 13-4 winners against Italy and Denmark were resounding 9-3 winners against Finland.

Scotland, France, Norway and Sweden lead the way with five wins and one defeat with the next closest side a long way back with three wins and three defeats.

Murdoch's men had got off to a great start in the major event on Saturday with a 3-2 victory against Sweden and continued to impress with a 5-2 triumph against France's Thomas Dufour.

Their only defeat so far came on Sunday when they went down 3-2 to the Czech Republic but they bounced back with a comprehensive six-end 15-1 victory against Finland.

On Day three the Scots romped to a 6-3 triumph against Denmark's Ulrik Schmidt.

In the Women's event Russia's Liudmila Privivkova was undefeated after five rounds at the end of play on Monday night.

After trailing for most of the game she defeated Scotland's Eve Muirhead by 6-3 before going on to win 9-5 against Norway's Marianne Rorvik.

Next best were Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland with four victories and just one defeat while 19-year-old Muirhead had won two and lost three after five rounds of action.

The Scottish skip suffered a disappointing defeat against Italy in her opening match. Muirhead gave up a five in the fifth end when her last stone wrecked and then had her final stone in the sixth end removed for a hog-line offence to hand Italy's Giorgia Apollinio a steal of three in a game that Italy eventually won by 11-6.

The teenage Scottish skip, however, battled back with a 5-2 win against Germany's Andrea Schlopp on the second day