Let us get to work,
bare-headed, and girded with our plain leather straps. But we mean
business, gentlemen.
And now that the two sides have fairly sundered, and each occupies its
own ground, and we get a good look at them, what absurdity is this? You
don't mean to say that those fifty or sixty boys in white trousers, many
of them quite small, are going to play that huge mass opposite? Indeed I
do, gentlemen. They're going to try, at any rate, and won't make such
a bad fight of it either, mark my word; for hasn't old Brooke won the
toss, with his lucky halfpenny, and got choice of goals and kick-off?
The new ball you may see lie there quite by itself, in the middle,
pointing towards the School or island goal; in another minute it will be
well on its way there. Use that minute in remarking how the Schoolhouse
side is drilled. You will see, in the first place, that the sixth-form
boy, who has the charge of goal, has spread his force (the goalkeepers)
so as to occupy the whole space behind the goal-posts, at distances of
about five yards apart. A safe and well-kept goal is the foundation of
all good play. Old Brooke is talking to the captain of quarters, and
now he moves away. See how that youngster spreads his men (the light
brigade) carefully over the ground, half-way between their own goal and
the body of their own players-up (the heavy brigade).
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