Story Of A Rugby Wager

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1942, Page 9

Story Of A Rugby Wager

W™deJ he vJv Cal f ° otball SGa son reminded of the t again ' 1 am cipated in a t ' as f t, " ,e J Parti- ° 940 BEES S7 If m the countv L f g i- publlc school During the Swrmi i En § lan,Jmonths or so at Lti C n ' s two e nt, all the nnitP stations in in quite a hit f to get etc. football, hockey,

to?k pTace ,vith S, r?v ,hese games aerial activhv a v a,r , amount of oftpn } over hea( , and vprv alike,' it f was P a a c V a ? n , d tion. it W as iitT,, divided attento keep one difficult progress ami .u e same in Of the R A p he a °n er T on ( the antics above. When thJi-i Luftwaffe up Hurricanes ami m Wer< L Spitfires, gaeed in ,! a < Messerschmitts en' think for , °g fl g hts within view I thS. n « k if 1 r w , h h l r ?fh?,l ors „ a , t al -' concentrated. attention was "Ssl" f c ™ e ,,i° , {AW. I twpen t„-, scratch affair beta I ion We had P haA e V f T r bat " SP a "v,eam a es aS team had performed quite well n/r . nga K e ments without unearth S a "f,,P''f, mlal A " B'Mk» nea The Johnny a hio-'SS, was r rAm "is 13-stone odd Mac>ri himself for t'^ hnn % ? lwa >' s arrayed inseit tor the matches in a bright

lueI ue x J ers ey and a pair of swimming s "°rts of brighter red. , A pair of sandshoes completed the ensemble By 21475 -A-fter he had scored all our points in tne first two games we played Johnny talked the rest of the team into a little wager. He reckoned that ne would score some points in every game, and, failing to do that, he was prepared to 'shout" a "pint" for each member of the team on the pav dav following our last match. Our side °\J, h , e , bargain was that if Johnny won the bet we would each "shout" tor mm to the same extent. We told Johnny he was being very rash, as the odds were all against him, and case was financially a onesided arrangement; but he was full of confidence that he would collect, this confidence seemed fully justified when, with only one game to go, our star had notched points in eacn of the preceding games. A : s we were getting ready for this nnal flutter, we arranged to increase our chances of yet winning the wager. Our skipper decided to plav our husky friend at full-back, because. as he told Johnny, we were notoriously weak in that department. Johnny protested, with I must admit, some justification, but to no avail. However, he contented himself with the prospect of kicking a g ' )a > or so, although he pointed out that they would have to be penalties as with himself at full-back there was no chance of our team scoring any tries for him to convert.

The game proceeded, and with about ten minutes to go till the final whistle, one try had been scored— : but by our opponents. Johnny had had several unsuccessful attempts at goal with penalties, and we felt certain that, although it looked as if "we were going to lose the match, we were going to win a bet. But it was not to be. We had heard planes up above for some time, but none within view. Soon, however, we heard the roar of motors getting closer, an'd during a hold-up in the game observed two planes approaching and steadily losing height. The game started off again, but we were still giving a lot of attention to those two planes. As they got nearer we could see that they were a Hurricane and fourengined German bomber. The R.A.F. fighter was shepherding the bomber down to a forced landing. This was too good to miss, and everyone seemed to forget about the football match we were playing. That is, everyone except Johnny! As we watched the planes, our attention was attracted to the goal posts our opponents had been defending. There was Johnny with a large grin on his face, and sitting on the ball between the posts. This brought our attention back to the game, whereat Johnny insisted that the referee blow his whistle for a try.

There was much argument from all and sundry, but the referee awarded a try. With the conversion Johnny won the game for us, but more important to Johnny just then he had won the bet!