The Wrykyn match was three-parts over, and things were going badly forSedleigh. In a way one might have said that the game was over, andthat Sedleigh had lost; for it was a one day match, and Wrykyn, whohad led on the first innings, had only to play out time to make thegame theirs.
Sedleigh were paying the penalty for allowing themselves to beinfluenced by nerves in the early part of the day. Nerves lose moreschool matches than good play ever won. There is a certain type ofschool batsman who is a gift to any bowler1 when he once lets hisimagination run away with him. Sedleigh, with the exception of Adair,Psmith, and Mike, had entered upon this match in a state of the mostazure funk. Ever since Mike had received Strachan's answer and Adairhad announced on the notice-board that on Saturday, July thetwentieth, Sedleigh would play Wrykyn, the team had been all on thejump. It was useless for Adair to tell them, as he did repeatedly, onMike's authority, that Wrykyn were weak this season, and that on theirpresent form Sedleigh ought to win easily. The team listened, but werenot comforted. Wrykyn might be below their usual strength, but thenWrykyn cricket, as a rule, reached such a high standard that thisprobably meant little. However weak Wrykyn might be--for them--therewas a very firm impression among the members of the Sedleigh firsteleven that the other school was quite strong enough to knock thecover off _them_. Experience counts enormously in school matches.
Sedleigh had never been proved. The teams they played were the sort ofsides which the Wrykyn second eleven would play. Whereas Wrykyn, fromtime immemorial, had been beating Ripton teams and Free Forestersteams and M.C.C. teams packed with county men and sending men toOxford and Cambridge who got their blues2 as freshmen3.
Sedleigh had gone on to the field that morning a depressed4 side.
It was unfortunate that Adair had won the toss. He had had no choicebut to take first innings. The weather had been bad for the last week,and the wicket was slow and treacherous5. It was likely to get worseduring the day, so Adair had chosen to bat first.
Taking into consideration the state of nerves the team was in, this initself was a calamity6. A school eleven are always at their worst andnerviest before lunch. Even on their own ground they find thesurroundings lonely and unfamiliar7. The subtlety8 of the bowlersbecomes magnified. Unless the first pair make a really good start, acollapse almost invariably ensues.
To-day the start had been gruesome beyond words. Mike, the bulwark11 ofthe side, the man who had been brought up on Wrykyn bowling12, and fromwhom, whatever might happen to the others, at least a fifty wasexpected--Mike, going in first with Barnes and taking first over, hadplayed inside one from Bruce, the Wrykyn slow bowler, and had beencaught at short slip off his second ball.
That put the finishing-touch on the panic. Stone, Robinson, and theothers, all quite decent punishing batsmen when their nerves allowedthem to play their own game, crawled to the wickets, declined to hitout at anything, and were clean bowled, several of them, playing backto half-volleys. Adair did not suffer from panic, but his batting wasnot equal to his bowling, and he had fallen after hitting one four.
Seven wickets were down for thirty when Psmith went in.
Psmith had always disclaimed13 any pretensions14 to batting skill, but hewas undoubtedly15 the right man for a crisis like this. He had anenormous reach, and he used it. Three consecutive16 balls from Bruce heturned into full-tosses and swept to the leg-boundary, and, assistedby Barnes, who had been sitting on the splice17 in his usual manner, heraised the total to seventy-one before being yorked, with his score atthirty-five. Ten minutes later the innings was over, with Barnes notout sixteen, for seventy-nine.
Wrykyn had then gone in, lost Strachan for twenty before lunch, andfinally completed their innings at a quarter to four for a hundred andthirty-one.
This was better than Sedleigh had expected. At least eight of the teamhad looked forward dismally18 to an afternoon's leather-hunting. ButAdair and Psmith, helped by the wicket, had never been easy,especially Psmith, who had taken six wickets, his slows playing havocwith the tail.
It would be too much to say that Sedleigh had any hope of pulling thegame out of the fire; but it was a comfort, they felt, at any rate,having another knock. As is usual at this stage of a match, theirnervousness had vanished, and they felt capable of better things thanin the first innings.
It was on Mike's suggestion that Psmith and himself went in first.
Mike knew the limitations of the Wrykyn bowling, and he was convincedthat, if they could knock Bruce off, it might be possible to rattle19 upa score sufficient to give them the game, always provided that Wrykyncollapsed in the second innings. And it seemed to Mike that the wicketwould be so bad then that they easily might.
So he and Psmith had gone in at four o'clock to hit. And they had hit.
The deficit20 had been wiped off, all but a dozen runs, when Psmith wasbowled, and by that time Mike was set and in his best vein21. He treatedall the bowlers9 alike. And when Stone came in, restored to his properframe of mind, and lashed22 out stoutly23, and after him Robinson and therest, it looked as if Sedleigh had a chance again. The score was ahundred and twenty when Mike, who had just reached his fifty, skiedone to Strachan at cover. The time was twenty-five past five.
As Mike reached the pavilion, Adair declared the innings closed.
Wrykyn started batting at twenty-five minutes to six, with sixty-nineto make if they wished to make them, and an hour and ten minutesduring which to keep up their wickets if they preferred to take thingseasy and go for a win on the first innings.
At first it looked as if they meant to knock off the runs, forStrachan forced the game from the first ball, which was Psmith's, andwhich he hit into the pavilion. But, at fifteen, Adair bowled him. Andwhen, two runs later, Psmith got the next man stumped24, and finished uphis over with a c-and-b, Wrykyn decided25 that it was not good enough.
Seventeen for three, with an hour all but five minutes to go, wasgetting too dangerous. So Drummond and Rigby, the next pair, proceededto play with caution, and the collapse10 ceased.
This was the state of the game at the point at which this chapteropened. Seventeen for three had become twenty-four for three, and thehands of the clock stood at ten minutes past six. Changes of bowlinghad been tried, but there seemed no chance of getting past thebatsmen's defence. They were playing all the good balls, and refusedto hit at the bad.
A quarter past six struck, and then Psmith made a suggestion whichaltered the game completely.
"Why don't you have a shot this end?" he said to Adair, as they werecrossing over. "There's a spot on the off which might help you a lot.
You can break like blazes if only you land on it. It doesn't help myleg-breaks a bit, because they won't hit at them."Barnes was on the point of beginning to bowl, when Adair took the ballfrom him. The captain of Outwood's retired26 to short leg with an airthat suggested that he was glad to be relieved of his prominent post.
The next moment Drummond's off-stump was lying at an angle offorty-five. Adair was absolutely accurate as a bowler, and he haddropped his first ball right on the worn patch.
Two minutes later Drummond's successor was retiring to the pavilion,while the wicket-keeper straightened the stumps27 again.
There is nothing like a couple of unexpected wickets for altering theatmosphere of a game. Five minutes before, Sedleigh had been lethargicand without hope. Now there was a stir and buzz all round the ground.
There were twenty-five minutes to go, and five wickets were down.
Sedleigh was on top again.
The next man seemed to take an age coming out. As a matter of fact, hewalked more rapidly than a batsman usually walks to the crease28.
Adair's third ball dropped just short of the spot. The batsman,hitting out, was a shade too soon. The ball hummed through the air acouple of feet from the ground in the direction of mid-off, and Mike,diving to the right, got to it as he was falling, and chucked it up.
After that the thing was a walk-over. Psmith clean bowled a man in hisnext over; and the tail, demoralised by the sudden change in the game,collapsed uncompromisingly. Sedleigh won by thirty-five runs witheight minutes in hand.
* * * * *Psmith and Mike sat in their study after lock-up, discussing things ingeneral and the game in particular.
"I feel like a beastly renegade, playing against Wrykyn," said Mike.
"Still, I'm glad we won. Adair's a jolly good sort, and it'll make himhappy for weeks.""When I last saw Comrade Adair," said Psmith, "he was going about in asort of trance, beaming vaguely29 and wanting to stand people things atthe shop.""He bowled awfully30 well.""Yes," said Psmith. "I say, I don't wish to cast a gloom over thisjoyful occasion in any way, but you say Wrykyn are going to giveSedleigh a fixture31 again next year?""Well?""Well, have you thought of the massacre32 which will ensue? You willhave left, Adair will have left. Incidentally, I shall have left.
Wrykyn will swamp them.""I suppose they will. Still, the great thing, you see, is to get thething started. That's what Adair was so keen on. Now Sedleigh hasbeaten Wrykyn, he's satisfied. They can get on fixtures33 with decentclubs, and work up to playing the big schools. You've got to startsomehow. So it's all right, you see.""And, besides," said Psmith, reflectively, "in an emergency they canalways get Comrade Downing to bowl for them, what? Let us now sallyout and see if we can't promote a rag of some sort in this abode34 ofwrath. Comrade Outwood has gone over to dinner at the School House,and it would be a pity to waste a somewhat golden opportunity. Shallwe stagger?"They staggered.
The End
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bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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freshmen
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| n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 ) | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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bowlers
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| n.（板球）投球手( bowler的名词复数 )；圆顶高帽 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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bulwark
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| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
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bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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disclaimed
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| v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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splice
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| v.接合，衔接；n.胶接处，粘接处 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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deficit
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| n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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stumped
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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crease
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| n.折缝，褶痕，皱褶；v.(使)起皱 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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fixture
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| n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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fixtures
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| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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