Dave Edwards struck a blow for old-style amateurism at curling's European Championship Play-downs yesterday with a shock defeat of David Murdoch's Olympic silver medallists in a dramatic deciding match which went to an extra end at the Dewar's Centre last night.

It was a victory that raised some questions among spectators about the heavy funding being received by some leading players as the Aberdeen-based web developer and his team - who have opted not to be part of the British development programme - earned the right to represent Scotland at the European Championships in the hardest possible way, playing 30 hours of competitive curling in four days.

Despite having beaten the fifth British Olympian Tom Brewster's rink twice in the round-robin matches, they had to meet and beat them again in a tie-breaker on Saturday afternoon after both finished with three wins and three defeats, while Murdoch's men qualified by right after winning four of their matches in that qualifying stage.

Undaunted by having to play three 10-end matches in successive days, they then won the first of the best of three final series 6-4 on Saturday evening, before narrowly losing the second 5-4 yesterday morning.

In the decider Murdoch looked to have the ascendancy but the advantage swung both ways as the measuring device twice came into play. While the pressure and error count rose, Edwards missed a chance to claim the match at the final end, before a Murdoch, with the final stone of a tense final end, ran too far.

"All the games have been so close, going down to the last stone ... all of them," said Edwards. "It's been a drain this week, survival of the fittest to be perfectly honest, but it's fantastic that we've come out on top."

Designed, as it is, to identify the form contenders to represent Scotland at an event that will decide whether there is representation at the World Championships later in the season, Edwards feels it has prepared his team well. "We're not going to have to play three 10-end games in a day so it should make two relatively easy," he grinned.

Unsupported even by their coach who was unable to be with them in Perth this week, they can take enormous confidence, ahead of the trip to Champery in Switzerland next month, from having met the two best-funded teams in the British programme eight times in all, claiming six wins and suffering just two defeats. "Although we've not represented Scotland on the international stage we've played in a lot of events on the European tour and done well in the past," said Edwards. "We won an event in Edinburgh last year and we've done well in the Perth Masters, so we've played against that level of team in the past and done very well. Hopefully we can continue that when it comes to the Europeans."

That said their success raises some issues since Edwards and his team-mates John Penny, who is a joiner, Scott MacLeod, who recently finished a Masters degree, and Billy Morton, who is an engineer, will have to find additional time to prepare. "We'll need to have a sit down," Edwards admitted. "We don't have any international competitions scheduled between now and the Europeans. We've got a couple of lower level domestic events, so we'll need to sit down with the coaches and see what they want us to do."

The women's event had, by comparison, gone exactly as expected with Eve Muirhead's team - that has seen just one change since they claimed bronze at the Winter Olympics with Sarah Reid's introduction at lead - sailing through unbeaten in their round-robin matches and the finals where they beat Lauren Gray's newly formed rink 9-1 and 5-3.