What would you say is Wards best surface now? how does a challenger win on green clay match up to a ATP QF on grass, beating two top 100 players to get there?

plus Baker's only top 100 win is on grass too.

i appreciate what you say and in some instances i think grass had backfired on us, but against the turks i doubt it will, and i think Ilhan is going to be better than our guys on hard too.

i agree i am not sure about Eastbourne, maybe Nottingham could have been better, or even Wimby No2 court.

i do agree with you, was just playing a little bit of devil's advocate. plus we would expect our guys to have the occasional better grass results just due to numbers, I'm sure if we had ATP's on hard etc we'd have players making progress every now and then too (perhaps less often due to grass not really being played anywhere else, which as you point out, is probably why form can be so variable ).

from sporting life (i've edited it a bit), interesting that they seem to be doing more back ground work this time around, was much of that done before?
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The 34-year-old Scot, though, insists there are plenty of reasons to be positive.

He said of the prospect of defeat: "That's not what I'm thinking about. It's a different start and it's a case of focusing on one tie and not looking beyond that.

"I'm really focused on what we can do to prepare the team well. We've got a group of guys capable of winning the tie and it's about having good preparation on grass, which they've had, and a good week before the tie."

"Alex (Ward) has had a good year," said Smith. "In particular he performed very well at Nottingham and looked very comfortable on grass. He has a great workrate and he'll be good around the team as well."

Ward's inclusion meant no place for British number five Dan Evans, who has fallen out of favour since losing the deciding rubber against Lithuania.

Britain will go into the tie as favourites but, in world number 118 Marsel Ilhan, Turkey will have by far the highest-ranked player.

The 23-year-old is also no stranger to grass having reached the quarter-finals in Nottingham before coming through qualifying at Wimbledon and reaching round two.

Ilhan is Turkey's only world-class player, though, and Smith admitted scouting out other potential opponents has been a challenge.

The Scot said: "Their number one has been very visible. He's had quite a good year and for that reason we've been able to take in quite a lot of his matches.

"We've been out videoing him a lot and Judy Murray has been doing performance analysis. He's a good player and he's going to be tough to beat.

"With the other Turkey guys, it's been kind of difficult because they haven't been outside of Turkey. A couple of British guys have been playing in Turkey and I've asked them to make some notes so we have some information but we haven't been able to see them up close and personal."

Smith knows the pressure is on to justify the multi-millions invested in British tennis, and that has only increased following another poor Wimbledon.

Only Andy Murray reached the second round, but his former coach insists it is a challenge he is looking forward to rather than fearing.

"Otherwise I wouldn't have taken the job," he said. "I'm really excited about the challenge and the players are too.

"My task as captain is to really prepare the players emotionally and mentally and to make sure they're tactically ready. It's really important the players go out there feeling good about themselves."

hmm, i think theres something a bit fishy about that team.

its a edible team tho:

Morsel Ilhan
Er-Gorgonzorla
Tuna Al-Tuna!

hmm cant think of the last one.

DC H2Hs:

Ilhan 7-3 v Brits, 0-2 v Wardy
Zorlu 2-2, 0-1 v our sub the Wardinator
Altuna 0-1 (a loss to Evo)
Akkoyun 0-5, 0-1 v Baker.

Unfortunately, too far away for me, but very nice of you to offer them up.