FÜSSEN – It was upsets galore in men's night action at the 2007 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

In one sweep of the brush, two gold-medal favourites had been defeated by tournament minnows, and only a last-gasp rally prevented another two front-runners from similar disaster.

Scotland's David Murdoch, a former European and World Champion, was defeated 6-4 by a rampaging Czech Republic squad skipped by Jiri Snitil. New to the Euro A Division this year, the Czechs have now won three games in a row after dropping their first four matches.

One sheet of ice away, France's Thomas Dufour overwhelmed three-time World Champion Peja Lindholm of Sweden 7-3. Dufour is also 3-4 after a poor start.

Front-runners Norway had to steal three consecutive ends to subdue Italy's Joel Retornaz, who held a shocking 4-1 lead after three ends of play. Retornaz missed a last-rock draw to force an extra end.

Denmark also got a scare, blowing a 4-1 lead to fall behind 5-4 to Finland's Kalle Kiiskinen after six ends. Danish skip Johnny Frederiksen eventually made a nervous draw to the four-foot rings to earn the win.

"What a crazy night," said Czech skip Snitil. "Every big team struggled and some of us little guys won."

The gleeful Czechs won last year's B Division to qualify for the 2007 A Division, but lost a challenge match against Denmark for the right to go to the Worlds.

"It feels great, but we're still fighting to stay in the A Division," said Snitil. "We don't want to go back to the B, we've been down there for seven years. 

"We weren't ready for Worlds last year," Snitil added. "Now we should be ready, if we get the chance. We're close."

In the other evening match, Switzerland's Toni Müller took out Germany's Andy Kapp 6-4 to share second place with Denmark at 5-2, two games back of Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, who is now 7-0.

Scotland ranks third at 4-3 while four teams are logjammed at 3-4: Czech Republic, France, Germany and Sweden.

Competition continues through to the Championship Finals on December 8, with live television and webstreamed coverage on Eurosport, NRK (Norway), Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com.