Inter Counties selection - a level playing field?

Picture the scene this coming Wednesday evening……………. Darren Gray sits at home perhaps pondering over West Brom’s future in the Premier League when the phone rings “Hi Darren, Lancs Team Manager here……..fancy a run in the Inter Counties on Saturday?” Don’t bet against it happening – it would not be the first time such calls have been made.

As hard working and well meaning as they are, my experience is that Lancs team management do not fully understand what Isle of Man runners have to do to compete at a decent level. Take selection for this weekend’s Inter Counties. The policy is to select the first five senior men in the County Champs with four discretionery places held for others. Whilst that seems fair enough on the face of it, the reality is that with little opportunity to prove themselves in other events, it is more or less a case of finish in the top five or miss out on selection as other, more known, runners will be chosen instead. This often includes runners who have not competed in the County Champs so how can you measure their form against those who do compete in the County Champs? Recent selections indicate our runners have one bite at the cherry.

So let’s look at those selected ahead of Darren, who finished 7th in the county event. Incidentally, Darren has competed in the senior County Champs race every year at least since 2002.

One runner competed in Edinburgh on the day of the country champs – ok, good to gain experience at that level and no doubt one of the best runners in the county, but given that Keith Gerrard raced up at Blackburn why couldn’t others do the same? A second runner is a former county champion but has dropped out of the last two Inter Counties races. A third runner, whilst in great condition for his age will be a Vet 45 this year – hardly planning for the future. The fourth discretionary place goes to a runner who I cannot ever remember competing in the County Champs at senior level (or at junior level for that matter) who finished behind 5 IOM runners in last week’s National Cross Country.

Whilst all may have pedigree, one way or the other, the unfair situation is that they were unwilling to put themselves to the test against others at the county event when their form could be fairly measured. It is also doing a disservice to the county Champs as the best runners are not encouraged to compete. Lancs could strive to make their event one of “the” races of the county champs weekend, up there with the likes of Yorkshire and Middlesex and set themselves up really well for the county champs – everyone would know that this really was the best Lancs could produce.

I have used Darren as a example, no doubt there are others too but the main point is that we have one chance to impress and if you don’t make the top 5, that is it (other than the last minute call up), whilst others can pick and chose and point to other events to demonstrate their form.

I realise that an effort has been made to produce the best team for the day but sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture – what is best for the development of the sport as a whole and what is fair?