You have to go to the Rusedski board for the best defence of Basingstoke's finest, i.e. Josh Hopefully Matthew (Basingstoke's second finest) won't mind if I reproduce it here:

What the hell is this all about ? A.Murray (obviously), J. Murray (for the doubles - obviously), Alex Bollocksdanovich (eh ?) and Ross (the bosses' son) Hutchins (what's he gonna do then ?)

So, we are pretending that we have two singles players (forgive me a little s******) and two doubles players in case Andy isn't up to playing in the doubles.

Agree wholeheartedly with earlier comments about Boggo. Excuse me for sitting on the fence but he is a spineless twit. As if we haven't learned enough about his character from earlier cup ties (and Lloyd watched them !) he is sliding down the rankings despite having one of the top coaches in the world behind him (quite right Chris!). He is hopeless and should change his name to NoBollocksdanovich immediately !! Anything else is a breach of trades descriptions.

As for the selection of Hutchins !!! Are we to believe that there is no family connection here ? There is no excuse for this at all. Hutchins has loads of opportunity put his way and there is little other than nepotism and a good run in the French Open supporting him. A run he made partnering the 2005 Wimbledon Champion - even I might win a few points with him on my side !! If you take away the FO run he is bearly better than Josh Goodall who is a fine doubles player but not a doubles specialist and who got to a Challenger Final last month at the same time as winning the singles title.

Goodall has current form (newly into the top 200 for singles) can play doubles and singles and was an obvious choice for number three in the team. He is (here i go on my soapbox again) not from a privilaged background, nor does he have any fans (or family) pulling the strings in British Tennis he is a lad from a comprehensive school in Basingstoke who was once a bit mouthy when the LTA let him down badly - suspending his coach Lundgren and hour before Goodall's Wimbledon match.

They do him very few favours (no wildcard at wimbledon this year) and ignore the clear evidence that he has more balls than Boggo (he won a challenger LAST MONTH !!, Boggo couldn't win a raffle) and more all round talent than Hutchins - but much less opportunity.

3 out of 10 for the LTA and Lloyd.....yet again !!!

Good to have that off my chest. After all, I know my tennis ! I'm not 332nd in the US Open prediction game for nothing !! 

Not fair to Boggo (or even accurate about which of them has won a Challenger singles title this summer!), but there's some good stuff in there.  think Boggo should be in there but someone like Josh who is decent at both singles and doubles should be there instead of either Jamie M or Ross. 

Looking on the bright side, at least this time there won't be too many players denied the chance of gaining ranking points over the next few weeks just to be hitting partners or subs with next to no chance of taking part in the tie.

James wrote:

---

... from what I have seen of Josh on and off the court he seems to be a rather placid personality who doesn't become too frustrated/angered on court and is humble and pleasant away from it. It sounds to me like this 'issue' [as of yet, undefined...] really put a bee in his bonnet and thus the outburst.

---

I've seen Josh play 'live' only once, at a Sunderland Futures last November. From the evidence of that, though, the Josh you've seen, James, and the one I saw that day must be characters in that well-known film, 'The Goodall, the Bad and the Ugly'. On the other hand, of course, Josh may well be the nicest, humblest, non-dog-kicking young man in Basingstoke - away from the court; he may also have learned his lesson as regards self-destruction, having matured somewhat over the last forty weeks or so - certainly his results have taken a marked turn for the better since Sunderland, which must have been about the nadir of his career. I certainly hope you're right about his present personality, for the young man clearly has great talent.
Good luck in the future, Josh, especially if you really have grown out of the behaviour I wrote about in the following extract from my bt.net report on the Sunderland event.



The two other losses, whilst disappointing, were also very embarrassing, partly because entirely self-inflicted, partly because of the appalling behaviour of our representatives. Josh Goodall was clearly in a different class from his opponent; he led 3-1, with a break of serve, of course, and had Sitak at 0-40 - about to be 4-1 with Josh's serve to come, we all thought. Then came an explosion; Goodall's double-break producing cross-court clipped the line right beside the umpire - or so Josh thought! "Out", came the call. Goodall could not, would not, believe it; he argued, he remonstrated, he accused - then, basically, he sulked. Five straight points, six of the next nine games went; 1-3 and 0-40 became 7-5 1-0, and still Goodall played all the quality tennis, but decreasingly often and all interspersed with moans. I moved along the viewing gallery to watch Eaton; at one point, there was an almighty yell, which went on and on - the other matches were disrupted. Chramosta, two courts away, appealed directly to Goodall to quieten down - and was told in no uncertain terms, including the clear use of four notorious letters, to mind his own business. The poor umpire, a very restrained lady, I thought, was again abused, 'not fit to be an umpire', 'a joke'; Goodall was so disenchanted that he served at set-point down with a ball lying in the court, on his side, half way to the net - a real danger of serious injury, but it demonstrated perfectly, I thought, his appalling attitude. Goodall again looked the class act in the second set, but, again, his attitude let him down. Another explosion came near the end, at 5-5; "Every time there's a break point, you just make a mistake. Just answer that question. I just want you to concentrate!" ... and the match just dribbled away, with neither handshake, nor word, for the umpire. And the disputed point that started it all? I had an excellent view, looking down and right along the line, a view bettered only by the umpire's! Josh's shot was out, not by much, but clearly out. What a waste of a talent. I haven't seen any of the rest of Josh's falling away this year, so I don't know whether today's pantomime was symptom or cause, but having witnessed how he destroyed his own concentration, I can't say I'm surprised at his difficulties - just a pity that Dan Cox seemed to be looking up to Josh in the aftermath, as were two or three other young ones. I didn't, though, see any of the 'grown-up' players spending any time with him.

whilst i disagree with 99% of that post, when some resorts to name calling etc it hardly gives their argument any weight.

the reason i think JL has gone with 2 doubles guys is that he is worried that Andy may say he doesnt want to play dubs.
We have all assumed he does, but listening to the commentary on SSX they were mentioning that Andy's main aim for this year is the make the YEC (which he should do now, unless there is some major upsets at the USO i think). We all know that the DC isnt really andy's highest prioirty, Andy knows that even if he saves our bacon this time realisticaly we dont have a team that is capable of winning the event as a whole so why bother. if we had a team that potentialy could win the cup then i think he may give it some more priority. of course when he goes out onto court he will give 100% but may deicide playing 3 5 setters, even on grass, over a weekend is not what his body wants.

that maybe why Ross is in the team over Josh.

with regards to boggo v josh.

since the start of the grass season:

Boggo won 133 atp points, 20 of them on grass. (not inc the 5 from surbs was actually a hard ct win!) beating soares, kunisten, falla, ward. loses to siranni, cilic and bolelli.

Josh has won 85 points, 17 of them on grass (again no surbs) beating kelc, rydersthat and klien, loses to hewitt, kendrick and beck (so quite tough)


also over the summer Alex bt udomchoke, kendrick and A. beck (and Zverev at the start).
the only player of note Josh bt was udomcoke.

the average ranking of the players alex had faced since after wimby is 234, for josh 408.

oh and josh has a 12-8 W-L ratio and Alex 15-8.

so really you cant say that josh had a better summer, ranking rises dont tell all as the points you gain rasie you more at lower levels, i think even if josh won a small challenger he'd still be behind boggo (just).

so it all comes down to ability to perform on the big stage, this is where josh would seem to be ahead as Alex has struggled in the DC, but josh has given no evidence that he could hanlde it, i believe this atp record is 0-7, boggo's is 10-30. perhaps a case of better the devil you know?

and even with all that i have not mentioned his dispute with the lta.

thank you, you knew i couldnt never let a post like that slide.

I wonder how Ross would feel if he were asked "Do you feel slightly lucky to be here ahead of the likes of Josh Goodall ?"

I dont think we can be under any illusion that the team is what it is becuse of 'Andy's preferences'.

The argument is wether that is right or not....where the hell is that fence ?

if boggo wins a live rubber and we lose it would probably mean murray will have lost a singles match!

Neil Harman gives extensive coverage to the Goodall issue on the Net Post today - see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article4649979.ece

He covers plenty of other ground too, like the story of when the tiebreak was first introduced at the 1970 US Open, Marcus Willis's win in Canada and Evo's recent run of success:

"... while Paul Hutchins, the LTA head of men's tennis, is meeting with Evans next week, to tell him if he has decided to reduce his penalty from four months to three.

Considering what Evans has done in the meantime, Hutchins should perhaps contemplate extending it!"