Midweek Musings...International Edition,,,

Evening all...a few things to look at in our lap of the British hockey world this evening...

The commentary alone should be worth it: The Giants webcast team will be broadcasting live from Dundonald this evening for their KO semi final against Cardiff, with Jason Rushton co-commentating, apparently. Even in these credit-crunch times, that's got to be worth at least thinking about spending a fiver for...you can find all the details here...

Born (well, selected) Torun: Yes, it's an awful, awful pun, but GB now has a preliminary squad for the World Championships this April, which will take place in this town in Poland...a town which is twinned with Swindon, no less.

The full squad is here, but rather than print it out fully, let's take a quick look by position, bearing in mind that seven of the thirty players will not be making the trip...the final squad will be announced in a few weeks.

Goalies:

The glaring name in this group is, of course, Sheffield's Jody Lehman, who is now GB-eligible after playing in Britain since the 02/03 season. There is no question after his performances this season (and indeed his whole tenure in Britain) that he is the best goaltender on the roster, and his being available for selection instantly strengthens the GB squad. Nathan Craze has played himself into contention this season, impressing in games against Coventry in particular-so really the "other" goalies in the squad could be any two from Murphy, Craze or Lyle, without really changing GB's overall strength at the position...certainly, this season at least, Craze and Lyle are comparable, with Murphy possibly slightly ahead.

Defence

The usual suspects here, although the inclusion of Mark Richardson, who has only recently moved back from forward, raises an eyebrow, especially over players like Luke Boothroyd and (to a lesser degree given his advancing years) Jason Stone. Leigh Jamieson also seems to be something of a golden boy, being selected despite a less-than-stellar couple of seasons in domestic play. Mark Thomas is a welcome addition, while Ben O'Connor should consider himself very hard done by if his name is not already in the final 23 after his performances for Coventry, Edinburgh and Basingstoke over the past season or two. Graeme Walton is also another who should expect to travel however the rest of the pack is shuffled...

Forwards

No Matt Towe? Not even in the preliminary thirty? This one earns the highest raise of eyebrows from me, given that the rest of the crop of forwards can all justify their reasons for being there...however, given a choice between Jason Hewitt and the Cardiff Devil, the "British Bulldog" as Dave Simms and no-one else knows him, would be the one forced out. Rob Dowd continues his meteoric rise this season by becoming the first player in that crop you look at and say "he simply has to be picked"-quite an achievement in the company of such GB stalwarts as David Longstaff, Colin Shields and Ashley Tait, as well as dual-nationals like Steve Thornton and Greg Chambers.

Overall, it's not much of a departure, with most names being predictable despite there arguably being several youngsters who have really pushed themselves forward this year and perhaps should feel aggrieved at not even being considered...definitely a case of evolution not revolution...

However, as any gardener will tell you, sometimes you just have to turn round and chop down a rotten tree, as there's only so much pruning and modifying you can do to it before it reaches a level where it will no longer improve or may even decay. Paul Thompson and his team have spent the past year or so desperately cutting back the dead branches and trying to keep the GB tree looking as good as possible despite the ailments at its roots and its aging trunk and backbone...maybe, after this World Championships, it's time to chop the whole thing down nd start again from the ground up...and if that means ending the international careers of a few who until now were considered almost sure picks, every time, then so be it...

And on that thought...here ends this week's Midweek Musings...