Football -- Juvenile fiction; Schools -- Juvenile fiction
For the first ten minutes of that game Parkinson and Kenwood tried
each other out and neither team approached a score. Kenwood had what
advantage lay in a mild westerly breeze and she punted often. But if
she expected fumbles or misjudgments she was disappointed, for either
Stone or Warden caught unfailingly and usually took the ball back over
one or two white lines before being stopped. Just at first Mr. Bates,
whose football education had been sadly neglected, thought the game
much too rough and predicted broken legs and worse, but before that
first quarter was at an end he was inured to the ungentle behaviour of
the contestants and was following the varying fortunes of the game with
grim lips and flashing eyes.
Parkinson made one first down and Kenwood two in the initial period,
the second of the Blue’s successes coming just at the end when a
back shot unexpectedly around Peters’ end and made all of seven yards
before he was pulled to earth and enthusiastically sat on by most of
the Parkinson team! Two attacks on Newhall and Wendell added the three
more and the chain was trailed to a new position. But the Blue was
still well away from the home team’s goal and shortly after the second
quarter began she had to punt again.
Neither team appeared to be able to gain consistently through the
opposing line, while neither team had shown thus far much ability to
run the ends. It looked like a punting duel all the way, with the
victory depending on a “break” in the defence of one side or the other.
It was a ding-dong affair for thirty minutes of playing time, and when
the first half ended neither team could claim the advantage.
“You wait till Dick gets in, though,” said Sumner to Mr. Bates when the
field had emptied and the Silver Cornet Band was blaring forth again.
“That quarter they’ve had playing may be good, but I’ll bet Dick can
play all around him. He’s awfully slow, for one thing----”
“Dick is?” inquired Mr. Bates, anxious to learn football lore.
“No, that fellow Stone. Dick’s a streak when he gets started. Why, he
can do the hundred in ten and two-fifths, sir!”
“You don’t say!” murmured Mr. Bates. He wondered what the hundred
was and how Dick “did” it, but he had no intention of exhibiting his
ignorance any further. He was still recalling Sumner’s expression when
he had innocently asked which team the little man in the grey flannel
trousers--he happened to be the umpire--played on!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account