Membership: Paul Denning (Chairman), Richard Butland, Val Constable & Roger Schofield.
GCBA Selection Guideline
Purpose of GCBA Selection Guideline
This document sets out the competition results and other factors that are considered in selecting pairs and teams to represent the county, mainly in the Midland Counties League (MCL). It is intended to be a means of enabling county members to understand the selection process and their own suitability for selection.
Introduction
a) MCL results
The single best predictor of performance in a particular league i.e. the Dawes, Porter or Markham in a forthcoming MCL match is the performance of that pair over the previous 12 months within that league; this is because in each match you have played the same 32 boards against a particular set of 4 opposition pairs. Comparison with pairs in the other 2 leagues lacks this advantage but has the strength of increasing the number of scores and thus should reduce random variation. Historically, results in the Markham league may be more variable than in the Porter or Dawes divisions.
b) Other county team events and Cheltenham Club Pairs league (based on teams scoring)
The weakness of producing Butler imps for the county league, knockout and Swiss teams and the Cheltenham Club Pairs League is that the figures are not comparable as the opposition is different. Nevertheless, the ranking and scores at the end of the season is useful.
c)The National Grading System.
There are 3 advantages of the NGS:
- Its big advantage is that is based on a more substantial body of data than any other available.
- It provides data on all EBU recognised competitions nationally.
- It provides information on pairs from the whole of Gloucestershire, not just Cheltenham or county nights
- NGS performance takes into account the (NGS) strength of the opposition.
The major disadvantage is that it is mainly match points rather than IMPs.
Some pairs perform better in local events where they know the opposition who are playing a familiar system than against pairs from outside the county who may be playing unfamiliar systems. Thus, the selection committee gives greater weight to good results outside the county than within the county. Pairs are welcome to report their successes to the Chairman of the Representative Events Committee (paul.denning@gcba.org.uk) and for posting on the GCBA website (results@GCBA.org.uk).
Objectives: Following discussion in both the Representative Events Committee and the GCBA Executive Committee, it is agreed that the primary aim is to select teams most likely to win the Dawes, Porter and Markham leagues.
The REC may select a pair in which it sees potential in order to assist their long term development by providing experience of the level of competition involved. In practice, this latter situation does not commonly arise.
Tollemache Cup: Select the team most likely to qualify and to win the Final.
Selection Guideline
The selection committee takes into account:
- MCL – comparison within teams over the past 12 months (and also comparisons across teams).
- Past record.
- The selection of regular partnerships.
- Results in national events
- The National Grading System.
- Results in: a) County league
b) County K.O.
c) Cheltenham Club Pairs League
g) Squad Training and Practice
Historically, in the Midland Counties League, teams have been selected a month at a time to allow assessment to include performance in the previous match. The committee does not consider it appropriate to reassess the ability of a pair based on a single performance in preference to large quantities of other available data. It was decided to pick teams for the first three matches of the season and then to select the team for December after September`s match. Selection for matches 2-3 months beforehand seems to have increased availability of players.
Appendix
The REC uses the relative scores within a team. The relative score derives the match score in a league by adding together the 4 Gloucestershire pairs` Butler IMP scores. A pair`s score is compared with 25% of this derived match score i.e. with the average score of our team in a particular division eg if you play well in a tough match but end up scoring -10 IMPs because teammates are not performing to their usual high standard (their match scores are: - 15, -35 and -40), then the teams total Butler IMPs is -100 IMPS, giving an average of -25 IMPs per pair. As you were only -10 IMPS, your relative score is + 15 IMPs (& your teammates are +10, -10 & -15 IMPs). Occasionally Butler Imps are not available. Half the X-IMP score is used.
The relative scores for a particular match are displayed on the GCBA website as “Rel scores for REC”. On the GCBA home page, find the “Results” column towards the right hand side and click on the match in which you are interested.
Cumulative relative scores are also displayed. On the left hand side of the GCBA Home Page, left click on the Representative Events tab, then Midland Leagues followed by “Statistics” for the longer term average relative scores of each player.
Drafted by The Representative Events Committee 17 Oct. 2019 Approved by the GCBA EC 4.11.19
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