The next skill was fielding. There was throwing over a variety of distances, as well as catching and stopping. One of the events was catching off the slips cradle. The slips cradle, made of plastic, looked big and useless to me, but my opinion soon changed.

Groups of kids stood at either end, with a gap of about three metres between them and the edge of the cradle.

We had to throw the ball onto the curve-shaped cradle. When it hit the surface, the ball flew off at an angle, giving the kids on the other side hardly any time before the ball was onto them.

The event was fast and dangerous.

Mr Landsbury was in charge of the fielding. We started with the cradle. Mr Landsbury gave us each ten catches. The two kids with the highest score would then face off against each other. I managed to catch eight of the ten Mr Landsbury threw on the cradle to me. So did Fisk. He seemed to throw at us a bit harder than the others.

Fisk had the first go in the face-off. He hurled the ball and it smashed into the frame of the cradle. First blood to me, I thought. He went to throw again, but Mr Landsbury told him he’d already had his turn.

‘Hardly matters,’ he said.

‘Remember. The first person to drop two catches is out,’ Mr Landsbury said.

I threw the ball high to the right side of the cradle. It flew off at an easy angle and Fisk caught it in front of his face. He hurled it back at the same spot on the cradle. It seemed to come off much faster. I put a hand up in front of my face, mostly out of self-protection. The ball thudded into my thumb joint and spilled to the ground. Fortunately, for the final, we were using an ‘Incrediball’ – not the normal hard leather ball. A test of skill, not bravery, Mr Landsbury had said.

I aimed at the edge of the cradle, trying to get as much angle as possible. The ball moved a bit, but not enough to cause Fisk any problems. He went for the high angle again, but this time I was ready and caught the ball easily. I wound up and with all my might flung the ball into the cradle. This time I caught the edge of the cradle right on. The ball flew off, almost at right angles. Fisk dived to his left and actually did well to get a hand to it. It spilled out, though.

‘Sudden death,’ Mr Landsbury called out. A crowd had gathered to watch.

Again Fisk went high, and again I was ready. My next throw caught the end of the cradle and shot out at Fisk in a flat line, right at his shins. It was the worst place to take a catch. It was a risky throw. Another few centimetres and I would have missed the whole cradle, giving Fisk the next throw. But the ball smacked into his legs before he could even bend halfway down.

‘He had first throw! I should get one more throw,’ cried Fisk. For a moment, Mr Landsbury looked flustered.

‘No, you had first throw and hit the front of the cradle, remember?’ Luci said, half to Fisk and half to Mr Landsbury.

A few others agreed.

‘Right then. Full points for slips catching to you, Mitchell Grady. Travis, you’ve scored one point less. Let’s move on to the outfield catching, shall we?’ said Mr Landsbury.

‘Grady,’ Fisk hissed at me, ‘the only time you ever beat me is by pure luck.’

‘I aimed for the edge, Travis. You hit the same spot three times.’

Fisk moved towards me, threateningly.

‘You fluked it, Grady, you–’

Fisk was interrupted by Mr Landsbury calling out the order for outfield catching.

The rest of the fielding went well. Fisk and I were pretty even over most of the events. He threw better with the long throws, but I did a bit better with the short, accurate throws. He was brilliant with his general ground fielding and I did okay with the close-in stuff.

We were all pretty tired at the end of it. Luckily there was a drinks break before the final event.

‘Jack, how are the girls going?’ Luci was very interested in what the other girls were up to.

‘I don’t know about Becky, but Mia is doing pretty well. How are you going?’

‘Oh, you know–’

‘She’s doing really well,’ I interrupted. ‘How about you, Bryce?’

‘Well, after my quiz debacle, I feel it’s–’

‘Debacle? What do you mean, debacle?’

‘Debacle. Catastrophe. Disaster. Well, perhaps not catastrophe, but–’

‘But you know everything about cricket. You finished so early,’ Jack pointed out. Bryce sauntered off.

‘Bryce, are you upset?’ I called out.

‘No, not a bit,’ he called back, heading over to the cordial and biscuits.

‘That guy is something else,’ Luci said. I had to agree with her. And yet, I wondered whether something was going on. Time would tell.

Jack asked me for tips about the slips cradle and I asked him about the bowling machine. I still felt this was my best strength – batting. And soon we were there; our final venue for the day. In my case, the nets and Lurch, the school’s bowling machine.