Wow. That was some response to my invitation to take part in a mini debate on selections. First of all thanks to everyone for your submissions which were varied to say the least. I was a bit surprised that our moderator didn't let us have the benefit of his wisdom. The one thing that comes across re-enforces what I said in my opening posting that there are so many ways to make a selection, and that the more experience that you get with Photoshop, the more you are likely to explore all the alternative options.
Some of them seem to be way beyond me and I will probably be a stick-in-the-mud and stay with my tried and tested tools that I am comfortable with. Thank you all once again.
Jack