Murdoch opens with victory

Murdoch beat Adrian Meikle of Wales 9-7 to start the mammoth nine-day event, but not before suffering a mind-boggling series of misadventures on the road to Basel.

A tornado scare meant a missed connection to London, then a cancelled flight, and a forced hotel stay after a five-hour lineup. When the squad finally arrived in Switzerland, only two of 24 luggage items made it with them. Then, their hotel reservations were invalid -- they had missed their original booking date -- which meant squeezing into revised accommodations with limited beds.

After a generous donation of curling brushes by the Swiss women's team, Murdoch's Welsh opponents stole two points in the very first end of their match.

"What a disaster," said Murdoch. “That's got to be the worst ever. But, we've all decided there's no way to go but up from here."

The 2003 European champion actually fell behind 3-0 before mounting his comeback. The Scots took two three-enders and a deuce over the next six ends to outgun Wales.

Host Switzerland survived a scary 10th end versus France, when a series of misses left French skip Thomas Dufour with an easy draw for three points and the win. Dufour missed, and Swiss skip Andreas Schwaller eventually threw a takeout for the extra-end win.

"Ducroz had some absolutely great shots," said a relieved Schwaller. "We played better overall but he made the shots he had to make. All except that 10th end."

New third Ralph Stockli, brought into the team lineup in a controversial last-minute move, said there was little difficulty in integrating himself into his new role.

"Andi is an easygoing guy, he's pretty quiet," said Stockli. "It will be fine that way.

"Third is completely different than skip. I'm supposed to communicate between the front end (sweepers) and the back end. It's nice, I like it."

In other action, Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi missed his last shot to fall 6-5 to Germany's Sebastian Stock, Ireland's Robin Gray upset Denmark's Johnny Frederiksen 5-4, and Sweden's Per Carlsen shaded Norway's Thomas Ulsrud 6-5 in an extra-end.

With over 50 teams from 30 nations competing in the championships, upsets are inevitable. But few would have predicted the Russian women's defeat of host Switzerland by a 12-6 score.

Swiss skip Mirjam Ott, a double Olympic silver medallist in both 2006 and 2002, dropped six points in the final end to lose to Russia's Ludmila Privivkova.

Privivkova is not without a curling resume, however. The defending world junior champion also skipped her squad to a fifth-place finish in Turin last February, and regularly competes on the World Curling Tour in Canada each fall.

The other women's early matches followed a typical script, as 2002 Olympic champion Rhona Martin of Scotland defeated Hana Synackova of the Czech Republic 5-2, Sweden's Camilla Johansson whipped Denmark's Angelina Jensen 7-3, Norway's Dordi Nordby beat Shari Leibbrandt of the Netherlands 9-3 and Germany's Andrea Schopp handled Italy's Diana Gaspari 8-5.

The Swiss women were looking to rebound against Sweden in evening play. In men's second-round action, Murdoch faced Germany and Finland battled Norway in the highlight matches.