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First day of play for Czech teams.

The Czech men's team made their debut at this year's European Championships on Saturday morning against the Swiss. A number of the national teams have changed their line-ups this year. Some of the missing players include stalwarts like Edin, De Cruz, Muirhead, MacManus and Neuenschwander in the women's team. According to a brief statement by the Czech men's coach, forty-four-year-old Canadian Craig Saville, we made more mistakes than our opponent and that was the reason for the loss. The men's second game is now against Turkey. The women took on the Lithuanians shortly after noon on the sidelines. The first pre-match practice on fresh ice did not give us the advantage of the last stone for the first end. We were slow to get going and it wasn't until the second half that we took the lead. After eight ends we were up by two and in the ninth we only got a one after a great defensive roll by Betka. But in the tenth end, the Lithuanians pulled an excellent tap back on us to tie the score at five-five and they managed to get the winning stone in the extra end. We need to improve the draw overall and we should be more successful in the next matches. In a moment, Lenka and I will leave for the evening practice and in the morning we will take on the Belgians at eight.