FÜSSEN – Scotland's David Murdoch upended previously undefeated Thomas Ulsrud of Norway 5-3 to win the 2007 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

Ulsrud's stunning 10-0 record meant little in the finale, as the veteran's young team struggled with early nerves. However, the level of play was high enough to show a tied score of 2-2 playing the sixth, until an Ulsrud miss opened the door for a free Scottish draw for two and a 4-2 lead.

Facing three Scottish counters in the seventh, the Oslo skip was a touch heavy and dropped a steal of one, clearing the way for Murdoch to play the traditional Scottish running – or hitting – style of play.

"It's a good day for Scotland,"said Murdoch, the former European and World champion who earned silver at last year's 2006 shootout in Basel.

"Silver for the ladies plus a gold here and it's not a bad day at all."

"We played strongly right from the get-go. I certainly had no intentions of losing that one." 

Murdoch's third man Graeme Connal was called into action this fall after second Ewan MacDonald underwent knee surgery. A longtime teammate of Tom Brewster, Connal hadn't appeared in Scottish colours since losing the Worlds final in 1995.

"It's been a while," said Connal. "You never forget the feelings though, this was a great win."

Scottish second Peter Smith is the most decorated of the Scottish curlers, and teamed with Connal to win the 1991 World championship in Winnipeg. Lead Euan Byers has teamed with skip Murdoch for much of his career.

Ulsrud's silver medal is the highest placing of his career, following bronze medals at the Worlds in 2006 and the Europeans in 2003. He and third Torger Nergard have a new front end in second Christoffer Svae and lead Havard Vad Petersson.

"If you told us two weeks ago we'd play in the final and lose, we'd probably take it," said Nergard.

"We just didn't play very well today." 

Denmark's Johnny Frederiksen won the bronze, capping a great week where he and his longtime teammates climbed the podium for the very first time. 

The top seven teams qualified for the Ford World Curling Championships in Vernon, Canada in March 2008. The eighth team, Czech Republic, won a Challenge series against the European B-Division champions, Ireland, to grab Europe's eighth and final Worlds berth.

The bottom two teams – Finland and Italy – will drop to next year's Euro B-Division, with Ireland and Spain, the B-Division runner-up, jumping to the 2008 A-Division.

The 2008 Le Gruyère European Curling Championships will be hosted December 6-13 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.

Nations earn points from the World championships to qualify for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, making the Le Gruyère European Championships – and its eight World berths – the most important European curling event of the season.

The deferred broadcast of the men's championship final can be seen from 07:30 to 09:00 GMT Sunday, on Eurosport.

FINAL STANDINGS (MEN)

Country                               Win/Loss Record          Result

SCOTLAND                            9-4                            Gold medal, Worlds qualification
NORWAY                              10-1                           Silver medal, Worlds qualification
DENMARK                             6-5                             Bronze medal, Worlds qualification
SWITZERLAND (Toni Müller)     6-4                            Worlds qualification
GERMANY (ANDY Kapp)           6-5                            Worlds qualification
SWEDEN (Peja Lindholm)         5-5                            Worlds qualification
FRANCE (Thomas Dufour)         4-5                            Worlds qualification
CZECH REPUBLIC (Jiri Snitil)     4-6                            Worlds qualification
FINLAND (Kalle Kiiskinen)        1-8                             2008 Euro B-Division
ITALY (Joel Retornaz)             0-9                            2008 Euro B-Division