2005 Worlds team: Mark, Abi, Steve, Russell, Nicky, Adrian and Bruce

British Team.

British Team Selection Process
There has been considerable discussion about the team selection procedure this year, triggered partly by CIVLs move to smaller team sizes in the Cat 1 events, and their increasing emphasis on the team-based competition in Cat 1's.
While the move to a base team size of 3+1 made sense, at least to the smaller nations (3 pilots score each day, so it is hardly fair to force teams to have less than 3 pilots), CIVL had clearly not thought things through because when the Worlds Organiser drew up the team lists, it became clear that with 40 teams, 170 pilots were eligible to compete, but CIVL have required a maximum of 150 pilots at the Cat 1 events for safety reasons.
For the Worlds in Australia, the organisers (Godfrey Wenness) have reverted to the old rules for team size, and reallocation of spare places. CIVL will have to revisit this area at the Plenary in Lausanne in February.
With no way of knowing what CIVL will decide, we are currently unable to declare our team selection procedure for next year until after that meeting. However, the competitions panel have been debating the issue at length over the last few months.
Two options have emerged. One group (led by Mark Hayman and Adrian Thomas) have been arguing for fully automatic team selection based on a published set of criteria, agreed and set in place for at least 3 years.
Others (notably Russell Ogden and Calvo) have been arguing in favour of a procedure like that used in International Football, Rugby or Cricket, where the team is picked by a small committee of selectors who use all the available information to select the team they think will deliver the strongest results in the conditions expected in the upcoming event.
The advantage of the first scheme is that it is fully transparent, once the criteria are set pilots know exactly what they have to do to get selected - who they have to beat, and which competitions they have to win. The disadvantage of that system is its inflexibility.
The advantage of the second method is that it is flexible and factors that are invisible to any automatic selection system (such as illness or injury precluding a pilot from participating) can be taken into account.  The disadvantages are that in a small sport there can be a paucity of suitably qualified selectors who are not themselves seeking a team place and it is always open to accusations of favouritism
The debate continues.
When CIVL reaches its decision over the team size allocation procedure the competitions panel will decide what the team selection procedure will be, in light of that decision. The result will be published before the start of next season, hopefully in the March or April CompLines.

British Team 2007
Team size for the Worlds in Manilla, Australia has finally been declared by CIVL. The UK currently sits 9th in the Nations Ranking, so the team will be 4+2, rising to 5+2 if there are 10 vacant spaces (possible, but unlikely). Under the current selection criteria the top 3 in the WPRS and the National Champions are automatically selected. The top 3 Brits in the WPRS are Bruce Goldsmith, Adrian Thomas, and Steve Ham. Louise Burnham is the Womens champion. Russell Ogden was selected for the 4th mens place, on the basis of past performance (twice National Champion), and current performance in the PWC (top Brit at 23rd), and in the Europeans (top Brit, 29th overall). Two candidates stood out for the possible 5th, or reserve place, Mark Watts and Craig Morgan. Mark finished 3rd overall in the Nationals, but Craig displayed a fine turn of speed at Ager with 4 task wins, and a 2nd, unfortunately he bombed in the penultimate task. For individual cat 2 events, with no discards, that dropped Craig, but in the PWC or in team events like the worlds, his winning ways would score heavily for the team. After much discussion the selection panel voted by a narrow majority to offer the reserve place to Mark Watts. The second Women’s place went to Nicky Moss by an overwhelming majority, convinced by her excellent performance in the racing conditions in Ager, and past experience at Manilla.

British Squad Selection Process
The squad is the mainstream route into the team. By developing a strong squad identity we attract sponsors and develop skills. Through training events we are able to review candidate team members in the same air, and review whether their communication and assistance to other team members will lead to a strong team performance. 15 Pilots make up the British squad.
Automatic places are given to the top 7 male and top 3 female from the national Championships results. The remaining 5 places are discretionary.

British Squad 2007
The British squad for 2007 has been selected based on the published criteria, however due to imminent changes in selection procedures expected from CIVL and ongoing discussions with our sponsors we may be in a position to award further squad places for 2007. This decision will be made after CIVL have met in February 2007 and will, we hope, be finalised during March 2007.

Squad members for 2007 are: Adrian Thomas, Bruce Goldsmith, Craig Morgan, Fiona Macaskill, Innes Powell, John Ellison, Kai Coleman, Louise Burnham, Mark Leavesley, Mark Watts, Nia Harland, Nicky Moss, Steve Ham, Steve Nash and Russell Ogden.

…and finally a quote from an ex-chairman of the Competitions Panel:
"Whatever happens the Panel will inevitably end up with a few pilots who feel disappointed to have not been picked. Each pilot needs to understand that they have to earn themselves a clean-cut selection. Develop your skills to be the clear number 1,2 or 3 - try not to leave yourself in the delicate position of being 1 of 3 candidates for position number 5!”