E.P.L.

''In the first of a series of Interviews with EPL players, I thought it would be best to kick-off the series with an informal chat with EPL and newly appointed England Captain Dave Pawsey.''

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Welcome Dave, well let’s start with an easy question, what are your ambitions for the forthcoming season with club and country?

Hello, my ambition for EPL is for us to continue to grow as a club and for us to push San Siro as hard as we can for the ranking of number one club in England. My ambition for England is easy, I want an English team to win a category at the World Cup.

What can you add to the English board this season?

Experience !!!! I've played near enough non stop since around 1980 when I first began to play. I've played abroad for around 18 years. I've been a regional organiser and I have served on at least two other boards. All this should give me the all round knowledge to be useful to the new board.

How did you feel when you were appointed England captain?

I felt very proud when I was asked to become England captain. Captaining your country is the biggest honour a player can receive.

With former ESTFA Les Commons moving to China for work related reasons, what do you think Martin Hodds can bring to the English sport?

Firstly can I congratulate Les on what he achieved for the ESTFA before his work got in the way. I think that Martin (and the rest of the new board) all have the best intrests of this sport in mind. The ESTFA has been in a bit of a mess for years now BUT the new board want to come in and sort things out. I think that now we have a board that ALL want to help out we'll get new idea's and the fresh impetus to move US forward as an association.

We’ve lost some good young talent in England the past year with the Whitehead brothers leaving the game along with Anthony Collins and Matt Lishman. It also appears that former World U15 No1 and EPL starlet Sam Curtis has lost interest in the sport recently. Where do you think ESTFA have gone wrong in the past, and how are you going to develop the youth players in England?

I don't think that the ESTFA has gone wrong in the past. I think that the decline in good young players come's down to a number of factors. Firstly because of the lack of local clubs for them to play and develope in. Secondly because of the costs to travel to tournaments. Thirdly because of the move forward in technology. Why would they pay £40 (entry fee's, travel costs etc) to go to a tournament and get beaten when they can pay the same money to get the latest computer game and get weeks of fun from it. Fourthly because they all reach that age when they have to concentrate on exams and have to cut down or stop playing. My aim to develope players (young or old) is through coaching. I will help out with some training on a personal level if approached (I have some planned already) or in group sessions (probably at English tournaments) for those that wish to attend. I can't make them want to improve BUT I can help them if they WANT to.

On the ESTFA subject, what are your personal views on Eric Verhagen changing playing nationalities to England, and the question everyone wants to know, will you select him for the national squad?

I think that it would be very unproffessional of me to air my own personal views on this matter. I can confirm that after a huge amount of talks the ESTFA's decision to let Eric become English was unanamous. I will pick the England team that I think gives us the best chance of achieving my aim's.

What do you feel about all the negatives posts from other Briitsh players about Eric becoming English?

I can understand their point's of view and everyone is entitled to thier opinion. I value all of them and some very good point's have been raised. At the end of the day we would never have kept everyone happy no matter what decision we made. We have made OUR decision on what we feel is best for the ESTFA and it's members.

Do you think that you’ll have a divided England camp if Eric is allowed to join the England squad?

To be honest I don't think that it would be a problem but if it does arise then its something that I will have to deal with.

Eric has done a lot of good work behind the scenes for the English game the past year training the likes of former EPL players Kasper Bennett and Chris Thomas. Are there any plans to get the top 8-10 English players to meet up on a regular basis so Eric pass on some of his training skills and International experience to the rest of the camp?

At this moment in time there are no plans to do this. It is something that I have thought about and something that I will ask Eric about in the future.

FISTF have taken a lot of flak on their decision to allow Eric to play for England, do you think FISTF are doing a good job in promoting and running our sport?

The current FISTF board is going through a very difficult time at the moment. They are trying to make our sport more proffessional both on and off the pitch. These changes will take time and they will make a few mistakes along the way but in the end I think that they will make the right decisions. Hopefully at some point they will look at the rules and do something about the loophole situation that has been exploited in this situation.

I’m a big fan of FISTF myself, but I think they could choose their World Cup tournament venues and dates a bit better. The last WC had a poor attendance compared to previous years, what are your thoughts about this?

We all have our opinions on this subject. Mine is that all World Cup tournaments should be very accessable to ALL players. Therefore it should be in a close proximity to an airport and have a good transport system.

Moving back to a few months ago: It didn’t reflect well that England couldn’t field a full team for the UKIC tournament in Belfast, especially with all the available players that we have here. What went wrong in your opinion and what will the new ESTFA baord do in the future to stop this from happening again?

I think that things went badly on a personal level. Some players had to pull out at the last moment and one player made a bad decision. But due to the lateness in time the ESTFA was unable to get replacements in. Things will be organised earlier this season and hopefully planned better but you can't take account of players pulling out at the last moment.

Will England still use the UKIC to break in new players or as the tournament is so close to the WC will England in future basically field their strongest side?

I will continue picking a competative team but one with some different players in. In my opinion it's very important to give players something to aim for and some reward for thier good play over the season. I will learn nothing by putting out a full strength team and winning the UKIC.

For years, Italy and Belgium have been the strongest nations in our sport. Why are they so successful compared to us Brits?

They are successful because they have a very good club network for keeping and improving new players but also at the top end because they have so many good players that they all play a very high standard all the time and are willing to pass on thier knowledge to other players. Over here we don't have the club nework to keep players or attract players and we don't have enough top players playing to a high enough standard as often as other countries. Also most of our top players are only intrested in themselves and not in trying to bring other players through.

How do you think other countries look at the current state of the game in England?

I think that bar a few players most of europe see us as a country with a lot of mediocre players. Our standard is improving all the time though and we now have around 8/10 players that can hold our own against them. We need to make this number bigger though and to try and get some good young players coming through.

With Kasper reaching the WC final recently, surely English players will command more respect on the International scene. I’ve also noticed in the past year that the whole playing level in this county has greatly improved

It was good to see Kasper do exceptionally well in the World Cup. I was very proud of him as I've known him since he was very young and I have seen and been a part of his game growing over the years. The playing level is getting better year by year but the gap between the majority and the top players is also growing year by year. This needs to be bridged somehow.

After a strong resurgence of former players returning to the sport in 2004/5, the game seems to be on the slide again. Tournament attendances the past year have been well down on previous years. Do you think players are losing interest again, or that the age group of players remaining in the sport have other priorities. (ESTFA to blame, poor venues etc)

I think that it comes down to the gap in standard. Theres a good chance if your a middle or low ranked player that you could be drawn in a difficult group lose both your games and go out of the tournament. Players won't travel to competitions consistently if this keeps happening. That's why i've taken away the automatic England spot from the English circuit champion. Hopefully a lot of the top players won't go now (not that many played consistently anyway) so giving the other players the chance to do well in a tournament and improve thier own game and confidence.

Luckily we have the likes of Nicky Chappell supporting the ESTFA circuit by supplying his boards for our tournaments.

Nicky Chappell has been a god send to the ESTFA. His boards are the best that ive even known in my 26 years of playing this sport and he has single handedly raised the opinions of foreign players towards us. We used to get slated for our poorly run tournaments on poor pitches.

A question a lot of people would like to ask is that do you have any resentment towards Nicky for poaching some of EPL’s better players when he formed the San Siro club in the summer of 2006?

I have no resentment towards Nicky whatsoever. I know at the time some people tried to make it out that we had a big falling out but this never happened. At the time I didn't really know him but since then i have got to know him and we get on well with no problems.

There was a rumour that Nicky approached you to join his San Siro outfit? Is this true? Surely it would have been easier to jump ship and join your former team mates? Why did you stay at EPL?

Whatever discussions (if any actually took place !!!!!) between Nicky and it would be private between the two of us.

This summer has seen EPL lose the services of Steve Hawkins. Was this a big blow to your ambitions for the 2007/8 season?

It was an extremely big blow as he was a big part of our success over the past season. He's a great team player and a great motivator when the team's doing not so well.

But you’ve added three players to the squad, including Scottish Champion Steve Bennett. What do the new players bring to the squad?

The three new signings fit the criteria that I look for when I try and bring players in. They have to be able to get on with the other players at the club. We have an excellent club spirit and I won't let that be ruined by bringing in the wrong type of player no matter how good they are. They also have the ability to improve in the future as do all our player bar one, ME !!!! I'm too old and set i'm my ways to improve now.

Going back to Steve Bennett, it was the worst kept secret in the UK scene that he was going to sign for EPL. Why did it take so long for you to come out that Steve had signed for the club?

Steve did agree to sign for us quite early but Steve, Tayside Kickers and myself decided to keep it quiet as he was trying to become Scottish champion at the time (which he did) and we didn't want to provide any distractions for him. It was decided to announce it once it had been won or lost but a poll on the forum ruined that idea.

Did you miss out on any signings this summer, and how close were you in signing them.

I was in discussions with two other players one of which almost signed and one of which never really got off the ground. I don't really go out looking for players to sign, I wait for people to approach me to play for us.

You signed possibly England’s most famous Subbuteo player from the 80’s at the beginning of the year. Will Justin Finch feature heavily for EPL this season?

When Justin played in Milton Keynes it was to be a one off. I have kept in touch with him on a regular basis and we have discussed many things. He will hopefully play more than he did last season but how much we'll have to wait and see. He is down to play at Cardiff.

Will EPL players meet up more on a regular basis for training and are there any plans to form an EPL league in the future?

Plans are in thier final stages for an EPL group of events for the coming season. This is what most if not all our players wanted. I was trying to get one organised for last season but it never materialised.

On a personal level, you’ve been at the top of the English game for almost 20 years. How have you kept motivated, and do you still enjoy practising and playing as much as you did when you first started playing?

I wouldn't say that i've ever been at the top of the english game. I'm an average player that got the odd good result. I've never really practised at all over those years (probably why i'm just average) but I did use to play a lot more in those early years. As ive got older i've started to play less and less. Now I hardly play between tournaments. I still love the sport and my enthusiasm is as stronger now than it ever has been. I can't ever see me retiring.

What advice would you pass on players out there who may be frustrated with their lack of progress in the sport?

As in any sport if you want to get to the top then you have to learn, practise and play lots. There is no such thing as a perfect game so keep looking for ways to improve. The most important thing though is to enjoy playing.

Finally, if you could meet up with Hasbro, what would you say to them about trying to mass-market Subbuteo again? Not the awful version they launched a couple of years ago but a new version based on the 00 scale game we played and loved as a kid. Do you think that there is still a market out there for Subbuteo, even in this age of computer consoles?

If you stand on any street in England and ask people what subbuteo is 90% will give you the same answer "thats the game that I used to play as a kid". It would be a shame if this and future generations missed out on this excellent sport.

Dave Pawsey was interview by Rob O'Hare