GB and Ireland retain Seve Trophy

Britain and Ireland retained the Seve Trophy after beating Continental Europe 8-2 in the singles to win 16½-11½.

Victory was assured when Bradley Dredge went two up with two to play in Ireland but Phillip Archer's half against Markus Brier technically won the event.

Colin Montgomerie took his first point of the weekend, but by then Paul Casey and Graeme Storm had already triumphed.

Simon Dyson and Justin Rose also picked up full points while Peter Hanson was Europe's only winner on the final day.

The hosts started the final day a point behind at The Heritage, near Dublin, but Paul Casey eroded that deficit with a 3&2 win over Raphael Jacquelin.

Graeme Storm then crushed Thomas Bjorn, who missed Saturday with a stomach upset, 6&5 while Montgomerie and Marc Warren clinched victories on the final green as Britain and Ireland moved three points clear.

Nick Dougherty came from two down to halve with Soren Hansen while Simon Dyson battled back from two down after five, to beat Mikko Ilonen 2&1.

Dredge went on to complete a two-hole victory while Archer, his partner earlier in the weekend, had the distinction of sinking the winning putt against Austria's Markus Brier as the duo racked up 4½ points each out of a possible five.

I am pretty confident players will start to schedule things to include this GB&I captain, Nick Faldo

Oliver Wilson was the one player to lose, but beaten only on the last by Swede Hanson, while Rose wrapped up proceedings with a 2&1 win over Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Britain and Ireland team captain Nick Faldo was adamant that more star names would be present at the next event in 2009.

Open champion Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter were missing from Faldo's side, while Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth, Anders Hansen, Jose Maria Olazabal, Carl Pettersson and Bernhard Langer could all have played for Seve Ballesteros's European side.

"I am pretty confident players will start to schedule things to include this," said Faldo.

"They have the right to make their decision, but this event is growing in stature and with respect to Seve - he is European golf - I think more will want to be here."

However, Montgomerie was less positive about the weekend's success.

"There were far too many alternates playing and we need to get the Tour involved," he said.

"We need the top 10 from Britain and Ireland and we need the top 10 from Europe to be playing."

Archer meanwhile paid tribute to Nick Faldo's captaincy saying: "He came in with a few words of advice on 17 and it picked me up.

"He's been inspirational and I would love to be in his (Ryder Cup) team in a year's time."