After much deliberation the selectors are now able to name the team that will be travelling for the long awaited Cotswolds game. (Assuming it goes ahead!)

This has been a really difficult one for the selectors as it's one of the most popular fixtures of the season but we believe that we have come up with the fairest solution.

The line-up will be...

Tony Alfieri
Sheridan Leigh
Mark Cox
Nick Shewring
Steve Shewring
Mat Freeman
James Downing
Graham Tyrell
Marcus Rose
Ian Cully
Rob Tona
Graham Sparrey

Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that this totals 12 players - the reason for this is that Robsy and Slaps will be sharing a slot - one innings each.

While it is not the usual policy for the selectors to explain their decisions this is a special case so the reasoning was as follows:

There were three ad hoc spaces available - the selection came down to Ian, Robsy and Slaps based on their desire to play, early notification and close ties to the opposition. There was almost nothing to choose between the three, however Ian gets a full slot based on the fact that he will not be able to make many other fixtures due to his locality and that he sent in his availability for this fixture just hours after the original ad hoc email went out several weeks ago.

Slaps has already played a number of fixtures and Robsy will almost certainly be involved in a good few to come so there was literally nothing to separate them. Rather than dissappointing one individual the decision was taken to give them both an innings each providing the opposition are agreeable - this was considered the fairest solution all round.

Sincere apologies to anyone who has missed out on this occassion - hopefully this highlights the fair approach to selection policy and also indicates the importance of ad hoc players pro-actively indicating their availability to selectors as early as possible.