Anxiously the House lined up and waited for the kick. Livingstone had
converted nearly every goal on the Colts' games the term before. It was
a trying moment. He seemed to take hours placing the ball correctly.
There was an absolute hush as he ran up; then a great sigh, half of
relief, half of disappointment, burst from the touch-line. The ball rose
hardly six feet from the ground, and sailed harmlessly towards the
School House line. And then Turner made a mistake that he cursed himself
for ever afterwards. All that was necessary to do was to let the ball
bounce, and then touch down. But as the ball sailed towards him, Turner
was suddenly possessed with the longing to do something brilliant. He
was last man on the list, and had only been put into the side at the
last moment, owing to another forward stopping out. It was not
unnatural. He caught the ball.
"You blasted fool," yelled out Richards, "for God's sake find touch."
Turner lost his head. He gave a mild punt down field, and before the
House had realised what was happening, Wilkinson had caught the ball,
and dashed over the line between the posts. This time Livingstone made
no mistake. 8-3.
For the next five minutes the House side was entirely demoralised.
Nothing went right. The forwards did not keep together. Gordon cursed
foully, and only made matters worse. Lovelace's kicks only found touch a
few feet down the line. Richards rushed up and down fuming, and upset
everyone. It was due only to a miracle and some fine work by Foster that
the School did not score at least three times. Foster did everything
during those awful minutes. Rush after rush he stopped, just as
Fitzgerald was looking dangerous, and he brought down his fly-half
every time. Gordon was amazed at his performance; he had always rather
looked down on him before. He had never imagined he was so plucky.
But it takes more than two unexpected tries to throw a School House side
off its balance for long. Soon the forwards began to reassert
themselves. Burgess the wing three-quarter, a self-satisfied member of
Buller's, who was in VI. B, and whose conceit far excelled his
performances, got away and began to look dangerous. But Gordon came up
behind him. He loathed Burgess, and flinging aside all the Fernhurst
traditions about collaring low, he leapt in the air, and crashed on top
of him. Burgess collapsed like paper. A great howl went up from the
School House. New life seemed to enter into the side. The grovel flocked
round, and Collins, heaving Burgess off the ball with a flying kick,
dribbled the ball to the half-way line. A scrum formed up and from the
heel Richards got the ball to Lovelace, who broke through the defence
and with a clear field ahead made for the line.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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