Scotland's men scored a 6-5 win over the Czech Republic yesterday morning at the Le Gruyere European Championships but a 6-5 defeat by Russia later left their play-off medal hopes in jeopardy.

Scotland's women also lost, beaten 9-8 in an extra end by Estonia, and have work to do if they are to proceed to the weekend's medal action.

Crucial to the win by Russia over Scotland's men was a score of 3 in the sixth end. A spirited Scottish performance followed - they had single steals in eighth and ninth ends to draw level at 5-5 in the ninth end - but, without last-stone advantage in the 10th were up against it and the Russian skip Evgeney Arkhipov had a hit and stay with his last stone to score 1 and win the tie 6-5.

Edwards said: "It was very tough.We were hugely unlucky in the sixth end. Now we just have to look at the next two games and keep winning."

The women took an early lead against an Estonia side looking for their first win, scoring 2 in the first end and taking a 4-1 lead with another 2 in the fourth. Scotland moved 8-5 ahead with 2 in the eighth and a single steal in the ninth.

A complete miss by the Scotland skip Eve Muirhead opened the door for Estonia in the 10th and their skip Maile Moelder drew her final stone into the house to score 3, tie it up at 8-8 and force an extra end. Muirhead came up light with her final draw.

"We had a really bad 10th end and we had the four foot to win in the extra," she said. "We know we're going to have to step it up later."