Continental Europe were the team celebrating on Sunday afternoon at the beautiful St Nom La Breteche as they defeated a strong Great Britain and Ireland team 15 points to 13 after an exciting and intriguing final day of singles matches.
Champions of Golf professionals Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson both secured valuable points throughout the week, neither of them being rested by team captain Sam Torrance, as the played both foursome matches, both fourball matches and the final singles game.
Marc's week:
Day one Marc played alongside Scott in the Thursday Fourballs eventually losing to Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez Castano and Belgian Nicola Colsaerts. However on day two Marc partnered Jamie Donaldson to take on Europe's longest serving team members Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn winning this fourball match comfortably 4+2.
In the penultimate foursomes matches on day 3 Marc partnered Jamie again in the morning and came up against two of the European Tour's hotest prospect, Joost Luiten and home favourite Gregory Bourdy who narrowly defeated the celtic pairing. Paired together for the third time in a row, Marc and Jamie once again played Foursomes on the afternoon of day three, defeating Thomas Bjorn and Mikko Ilonen by a margin of 2and1.
In Marc's final match, singles, he showed great compsure against an admirable competitior in young Thorbjorn Olesen, although it was close in the early stages birdies at the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth were enough for Marc to run out a convincing winner y 4and 3, and secure his third point of the week for his GB&I team.
Scott's week:
In his first match of the week Scott came up against bombers Nicola Colsaerts and Gonzalo Fernandez Castano who eventually beat him and partner Marc Warren 5and 3. Day two, fourballs, Scott partnered David Lynn and closed out his match in impressive style making birdies at seventeen and eighteen to the italian pairing of Molinari and Manassero by just one hole, earning Scott's first point of the week.
Scott followed his first point with his second contribution to the team the following morning in foursomes alongside Bristolian Chris Wood. The pair impressively secured a 2and1 victory over Molinari and Olesen. However the conquerers of Warren and Donaldson that morning, Bourdy and Luiten once again showed their class as they ran out victors over Jamieson and Wood byt two holes.
In his final match of the week Scott came up against Gregory Bourdy, The Wales Open Champion of 2013 at Celtic Manor on the European Tour and one of only two players at the Seve Trophy with a chance of securing five out of five points for the first time ever. Five birdies on the front nine holes gave Gregory a commanding grip on the singles match and despite two birdies himself Scott wasnt able to quite claw his way back into the match as he eventually lost 4and3.
Both Scott and Marc can be very proud of their contributions to the team, having both had success at the event previously, Marc winning in 2007 under captain Nick Faldo and Scott more recently in 2011 with captain Paul McGinley, they will be keen to reclaim the trophy the next time the match is played in 2015. However the next match that they both have their eyes on is most definitely the Ryder Cup in 2014 on home soil at Glenegales, and their performances this week will put them in a great position to grab one of those illusive 12 spots in the squad.