After our first volleyball defeat we managed to successfully maintain an unbroken losing streak. It matched my success with Kelly: I hadn’t seen or heard from her since the Moorfield meeting.
Luckily, things were going much better in our quest for the Senior Debating Trophy. Two debates. Two victories. As for Operation Tarango, we were about to face the next big test – the Inter-house Cross-country. It was time to put Scobie’s ‘Saturation Participation’ strategy into overdrive. To do that we had gathered at our usual lunch table. All eyes were on the door to the sports office.
‘Geez, we’re cutting it a bit fine, aren’t we, Scobes? Hardcastle said nominations had to be on the noticeboard before the end of lunch, remember? And there’s only ten minutes to go, man. Here, give them to me. I’ll whack ’em up.’
‘No need,’ Scobie said, pointing across the playground.
Mr Hardcastle was leaving the sports office and making a beeline for the main noticeboard. It was a beeline that would take him right past our table.
‘Excuse me, Mr Hardcastle.’
‘Yes, Mr Scobie. What can I do you for?’
‘Well, I have a few last-minute Charlton House nominations for the Cross-country. I was just about to take them over and pin them up with the others, but if you’re collecting them anyway, could I just hand them straight to you?’
Mr Hardcastle checked his watch. Then he took the sheet from Scobie and studied it closely. There were about fifty names on it. A single eyebrow arched upwards on his tanned forehead.
‘Call me suspicious, Mr Scobie, but my gut reaction is that the reason you’ve kept all these names until the very last minute and handed them to me directly, is so the other houses won’t see how many runners you’ll be fielding on the day and try to match you. Technically you’re not breaking any rules, but some people might consider this a tad … devious.’
Scobie smiled innocently but didn’t reply. We all waited. Mr Hardcastle folded up the list of names, tucked it into his top pocket and gave it a pat.
‘Love it. I’m going to miss you, Scobie, I really am,’ he said before striding happily on his way.
Not surprisingly, when the day of the Cross-country arrived, Mr Hardcastle found himself surrounded by the unhappy faces of the other house leaders.
‘Too late to start whingeing now, gentlemen. You had exactly the same opportunity to register runners as Charlton. Them’s the rules. Sorry, fellas,’ he told them.
He didn’t look very sorry.
Of course, just having more runners didn’t really mean anything. They still had to finish within the set time limit to gain a participation point. Thankfully, three-quarters of our runners did just that. It was a great day for Charlton House as well as for our newly appointed Sports Captain.
I think Razz must have completed nearly three cross-countries by the time it was over. He spent all day charging back and forth along the course encouraging the Charlton competitors and making jokes to keep their spirits up. In the end he barely made the time limit himself. This was because he was practically dragging Ignatius along the ground behind him for the last 100 metres or so.
But Razz was well supported in his efforts. Melvin Yip and Theodore Bungalari made the time and did a great job inspiring the stragglers with a combination of ninja moves and friendly intimidation. And our ex-captain Jimmy ‘The Main Event’ Mainwaring went a long way to redeeming himself by piggybacking about half a dozen struggling Year Eights across the finish line. Even Bill beat the bell. All the jogging and hooping he’d been doing was really starting to tell. He was still big, but more and more of him was muscle. And believe it or not, I made it too, although it took me quite a while to put out the fireball in my lungs and to regain the power of speech.
But the biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for the ‘runner’ who came in last. Twenty minutes after the qualifying time had elapsed, the chubby form of James Scobie appeared at the end of the bush track and shuffled around the final half-circuit of the oval before collapsing across the finishing line. And when he did, it wasn’t just Charlton who cheered – so did the other houses and all the teachers. I was standing beside Mr Hardcastle at the time and heard him say, ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about,’ to no one in particular.
In a miraculous turnaround from the previous year Charlton ended up winning the day. It was a win that pushed us ahead of Radley and Franklin in the overall house totals, into outright second place. In his first test as Charlton House Sports Captain, Razz had come through with flying colours and he proudly held the Cross-country trophy above his head to the roar of his teammates.
But Razz was soon going to come face to face with a different kind of challenge. One that would scare the life out of him.
And it all came about because of the Courses and Careers Expo.