FORUM CLOSING ON 14th JANUARY

MING wrote:

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JFK wrote: Now knowing the Wiltshire youth match might not happen (which you did) you decide to send them letters that arrive friday telling them training on saturday for match sunday.  I think you need to check your facts John, I wasn't aware that Wiltshire didn't have a Youth team until Friday when Marcus rang me.

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Yes you did ... i told you at our doubles match.  I told you specifically that we were waiting on whether they had one and they'd be in contact if they managed to form one.

Well this is a nice way to start the season, isn't it??!!

In conversations with a number of people as to why they didn't play county, or were thinking of giving up county, their response was, "fed up with all the politics".

This is a prime example.

I think that the committee need to get together and AGREE how they will run the county.

Let the people elected in positions do their job.  If people then aren't happy, they can take it up with the committee direct (as John stated before the match on Sunday).

This isn't really the place for these discussions and will only put more people off playing for the county in the future.

I believe that we have a very strong squad this year, and could very much challenge at Selsey next year.

At this rate, we will be lucky to have a squad left to take!!

Well someone leaked a shortlist to the sun!!

Sven
Kevin Keegan
Howard Wilkinson

I personally think, whatever the opinion of Kevin, that it was very disrespectful and either naive (or calculated depending on his wishes) to do that to Marcus and John on the day. They are in an impossible position with regard to pleasing everyone with team selection and deserve the support if not necessarily the approval of all members of the squad. Especially from the Committee members and President.

Why was there a need to reply to Milhouses post, Kevin? Could you not have spoken to John/Marcus privately, sorted it out, and just pm'd Mark and told him that the issue had now been resolved?

If it wasn't Kevin, just who was responsible for the collapse of the 'A' team the season before Marcus and myself took over? The buck stops somewhere surely?

We've now lost Marcus as a Team Manager (quite understandably) due to the incident, and John is very disillusioned about it all, but is bravely determined to stick with the principles we have formed over the last few seasons. Like it or not we elected them to those positions.

I'm remain very glad that I ended my involvement in the running of the team, as I would have resigned in the same circumstances.

JFK wrote:

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The A team for sunday was initially going to be the same A team that succeeded at Selsey.  However, losses of Pete M, LBJ (3 days before due to baby - congratualtions btw), Jez (2 hours before) and kevin (30 seconds before) changed that.  Worked out well as we could easily bring in  Malc, Nathan, Danny and Tom Weeks which i think are unarguably the strongest players available.  Given between them they won 13 out 15 i think it was correct. 

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I notice my name was not mentioned despite finishing with 5 out of 6 in last years season and playing in the A's at the finals also. Is this an oversight ?

MING wrote:

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Success breeds success and nothing gets noticed more than a team of good players winning. Other good players want to join in, this not only pushes the top players to a higher level it pulls the lesser, inexperienced players up to a higher level. The perfect local example of this is Berkshire B. A few years ago most of those players were Joe Average, to even get close to getting in their A team you had to be better than the likes of Peter Lofts, Steve Avery etc, not as good as, but better. Only a couple of player made the jump but it raised the standard of their B team who have now won the last 2 B team championships.

 

And finally, when they discovered, a youth player called Dan Davy they didn’t piss around, they had him straight in the A’s, probably why they’ve won the County Championships and we haven’t even come close.

 

Think on………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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I don't know where you get your information from but it's way off mark. 

While I was running the Berkshire squad the A team, or any team for that matter, was most definitely not a closed shop. To GUARANTEE a place in the A team for a new season a B team player simply had to finish in the top 2 of the averages for the previous season. They didn't need to be better than me or Steve, otherwise no one would ever have got in   We had a system in place that provided automatic promotion/demotion between teams based entirely on win average.  It is that, in my opinion, that motivated the B team players to do well knowing that an A team place was achievable and it also motivated the A team players to do well in order to retain their place. 

As for Daniel Davy, it's a long story how he ended up in the A team but it wasn't such a good choice anyway and certainly not why Berkshire have won the championship and you have not.  He only turned up for a few games, so few in fact that he was not eligible to play at the county finals. 

I don't understand, and never will no matter how many people try to argue the point, why you would not want to base team selection on performance. You can argue that so and so would be good for the team but the most important thing is winning and while players are winning frames that is the most important thing for the team. The second most important thing is team moral or team spirit call it what you want.  You will get nowhere while you are bickering about who should or should not be in the team.  The best, and in my opinion the only way, to prove any point is on the table. If someone failed to qualify through the trials, whether they were unlucky or had a bad day or not, or whether you reckon they are the best player ever to have picked up a cue, they failed and cannot really have cause for complaint.

If you have a system in place where everybody knows where they stand then over time you will get your best team and you will be successful, but you need to give it time not expect instant results or claim the system has failed before you've even tried it.

Sometimes hand picking a team or getting a team of mates together can be successful, because you would have achieved the team spirit bit automatically and the players may feel special at being picked.  But given time complacency will set in because the players know their place is assured and their mate isn't going to drop them no matter what happens.  To my mind it is far better that the players have earned their place and then still have to work to retain it.  It is also fair to everybody, which to me is also important.