Scots respond in style at Curling Europeans

Team Paterson held sway throughout the contest, holding a four-stone advantage heading into the ninth end, and duly prevented their opponents from mounting an improbable comeback.

Leaders Sweden made it seven wins from seven as they brushed aside Norway 7-2 and sealed qualification in the process as they look, once again, to finish the pools with a perfect record after going 9-0 last year. Losing ground behind Scotland in the chase for the knockouts were Italy and Switzerland, both of whom were dealt defeats in the evening session.

The former were dramatically edged out by Denmark in a dramatic extra end after Italy had forced the decider with a three-point tenth, while Switzerland lost out 5-4 to Germany. And rounding things off, the Netherlands hit double figures as they thrashed Russia 12-4.

Four teams are now tied at the top of the standings in the women's competition after a dramatic afternoon session. Scotland, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland all sit locked at the summit after all four notched their fifth wins of the competition.

Reigning champions Sweden dispatched Estonia 7-3 in confident style, while Switzerland edged out Denmark 6-4. Russia beat Latvia 8-5, and Scotland were made to come from behind as they eventually toppled Germany 10-5. Elsewhere, the Czech Republic squeezed past Norway 6-5.

Scotland got themselves back on track for the knockout stages at the men's European Curling Championship with a convincing victory over Germany.

The game was evenly poised at 2-2 after five ends but Team Paterson took two in the sixth end and then stole three in the seventh to record a 7-2 win, the perfect response to the 6-5 loss to Denmark in the previous match.

That moves their record to 4-2, which is good enough for joint second along with Italy – who dispatched lowly England 8-2 – and Switzerland, after they were surprisingly beaten 9-4 by Norway.

Denmark and the Netherlands both sit at 2-4 after the Dutch took a 7-6, extra-end victory but the runaway group leaders are Sweden.

Team Edin were 8-1 up after just three ends against Russia and eventually cruised to a 9-2 triumph – taking their record to a perfect six wins from six.

Meanwhile, in the women's event, hosts Sweden inflicted a first defeat on Scotland as a strong finish saw them cruise to an 11-4 triumph.

Team Muirhead led 4-3 through seven ends but the Swedes picked up four in the eighth end and then another four against the hammer in the ninth to record a big win.

Swedish second Agnes Knochenhauer said: "It was a good game, an even game from the start. We worked our way into the game slowly and played a great second half and came away with a win."

That victory created a four-way tie at the top with five games gone as Russia beat Czech Republic 7-3 and Switzerland hammered Norway 11-3 – the Swiss, Russians, Scots and Swedes now all with records of 4-1.

Denmark recorded their second win of the week by downing Latvia 8-4, while Germany did likewise by edging past Estonia 7-6 following an extra end.