THE Guernsey Commonwealth Games team includes an Englishman who has been in their island for just three months.

The Guernsey Press reported last week that the Sarnian squad for Melbourne in March includes 27-year-old squash player Martin Watts, the Essex No 2, who arrived in September to take up the post of assistant director of squash.

Although there have been some murmurs of discontent it seems there’s nothing in the eligibility rules to stop him being selected.

A similar scenario, with a different result, arose in Jersey when the name of former England No 1 badminton player Mark Constable, who moved to live in Jersey early in the summer, was put forward for inclusion in the squad.

Constable was turned down for selection as a member of the Jersey squad, because he hadn’t lived in Jersey long enough.

Constable was part of the England gold medal-winning squad at the 2002 Manchester Games – and as a British national is eligible for inclusion in the Jersey team.

Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey president Martin Hebden said: ‘The Jersey Badminton Association appealed, to a CGAJ appeals committee with an independent chairman, against the validation committee’s right to take the decision that Mark Constable wasn’t eligible for selection because the criteria hadn’t been met.

The committee upheld the appeal, saying that the decision to allow Constable to be part of the squad should have been made by the CGAJ council.’ Hebden said: ‘The Commonwealth Games Federation – the overall governing body – set a two-year residency ruling to try and stop people ‘country-hopping’ if they weren’t selected for their own country – not that anyone thinks Mark is doing that.

But the wording in the Federation constitution says that those seeking selection to the Games have to have shown long-term commitment to their home country (Jersey is regarded as a separate country for Commonwealth purposes).

‘After considering all those points the CGAJ council decided not to pursue the matter further.’ He added that every Commonwealth Games Association must apply to the CGF if they wish to include a competitor in their squad who has lived in the jurisdiction for less than two years.

‘And if a competitor has represented another jurisdiction in the Games, there has to be permission given by, in this case, Badminton England, for the player to compete as part of the Jersey association.’ He added that he was aware that Badminton England was prepared to release Constable to the JBA, but that he would also have to be released by the England Commonwealth Games Association to the Jersey Association, and the application would then have had to go to the Commonwealth Games Federation for their decision on the two-year residency ruling.

The JBA president Steve Watson said: ‘We followed all the procedures, and accepted the result.

We will not be taking any further action.’