GC International Performance Development Squad for 2018 Announced

[<<] [>>] by Martin French
28th January 2018 (GC)

The GC Selectors, in consultation with the International Performance Director for Golf Croquet, Lionel Tibble, are pleased to confirm the following additional appointments to the International Performance Development Squad for the coming year:

• Michael Bilton
• Colin Britt
• Stephen Custance-Baker
• Libby Dixon
• Paul Durkin
• Liz Farrow
• Stephen Leonard
• Keith Pound

Congratulations to these new squad members! There was strong competition for these remaining places so it is worth summarising the criteria used for these further selections:

• the IPDS was launched a year ago as a two-year programme - so we were not looking to "deselect" any of the existing 9 members who wanted to continue
• we were looking to top-up those 9 with further developing players who have the potential to progress further and reach the top level
• accordingly, we were looking for people whose ranking grade showed good growth in 2017 over 12 months earlier (say 100+ points)
• we decided to discount players who had good growth in 2017 BUT had held significantly higher grades in previous years
• and finally, they needed to have already made a decent commitment to GC and have played a reasonable number of ranking games - including having begun to play at A-Level.

The full Dev Squad for 2018 now comprises:

• Nick Archer
• Michael Bilton
• Richard Bilton
• Colin Britt
• David Crawford
• Stephen Custance-Baker
• Libby Dixon
• Peter Dowd
• Paul Durkin
• Liz Farrow
• Roger Goldring
• Paul Gunn
• Stephen Leonard
• Keith Pound
• Chris Roberts
• Jayne Stephens
• David Widdison

Martin French

chairman, GC Selectors