'One'of the best things about Rugger is that however bad you may be at the game, you always enjoy it as much as an expert player does, That explains why at ome in England one sees the amazing sight of Puddlecombe' Extra "A" turning out full of spirits every Saturday afternoon ta play Sedlescombe "C, or another of their rival teams. And to watch the manner in which these teams baltic one: another for a good hour and a half, finish the the terrifying sound of that stern war-ery. We would subside into rather a morose silence as the coach drew up at the town's Rugby Club headquarters, and fifteen hairy, stalwart players stepped forth to grasp our hands in their big horny palms, and look us up and down, £0 we thought," with an air of utter disdain, We thought we could discern a contemptuous grin being exchanged behind those powerful palms as we made our way fearfully to the changing rooms. "Oh, we happened to defeat our biggest: rivals by 55—nil last Saturday", they would say, as if to hint that they were intending to score double that number of points against us. "And, of course, we have not yet lost a match this season. And the average weight of our side is well over 12 stone"——The sound of their braggings would ring in our ears as we opened battered suitcases, and {ook forth' brilliant coloured sweaters and stockings, and neat family gatherings.
And het 's_ another. thing which intrigues me.
Look at a Holly dush and Rote that every leat within six or seven fect) off the ground is armed with wicked spikes. Why? Because caitle love to cat the leaves and the plant grew the spikes for self-protection. But look at a Holly tree 20 or 30 feet high and. you will see that all leaves above the height of grazing cattle gradually lose the spikes: docs a plant then think?
And if not, why nol? course, I must add that in countries where the Giraffe rome wild the Holly trees (No, No! such thoughts are dangerous—a mist desist), Dec. 19—Theré was a high wind blowi 1 wallied yesterday within my now restricted country, so I thought T would see how the Rooks were behaving. The Chinese call them "Wind Crows" and there i no doubt that the name ix) well deserved: for whenever there is a strong wind you will find Rooks scattered over the sky. purposely permitting themselves to be blown Penultimate A Lanarkshire lassie at Frinton Always talked about playing badd inten, She said that the best Folk invariably: stressed The: penultimate, up at Dolphinton, Pluratizing Sato a cobbler at Deal, "Look'ere, Pete. Cis rit for tow foots to be feet am sure you must see—Why, it's quite plain to me!—The plural of boot should be Beet."
Who Told You That? game with three rousing cheers for the other side, and then make for the changing rooms covered with perspiration, their vests and pants in shreds, and their weary persons unrecognizable through a thick disguise of mud, tone would think that it was a match between. England and Scotland at Twickenham. was even so with Brinkton Extra "A" team, a side which I graced with my presence for a whole rugger season. Tt was quite the worst team on the whole of the South Coast. We: alli knew it in our heart of hearts, but I never heard any member of the team, not even the sorely tried captain, who used' to curse and. swear at us in an effort to improve our style of play, admit that it was so. We left that Jor the'few spectators who gathered at the touch line and shouted the most discouraging remarks at us throughout the match. But we! never had a chance to hear them, so frantic were we in our efforts to prevent the next] try from being scored too soon, I joined Brinkton Extra "A" during the first season of its existence. Frankly, it was through a feeling of overwhelming pride that Lever joined at all, Not pride in the prowess of the team, but in the supposed knowledge that even I could do better than many of the, players, I had reported about four of their matches, and had come to the conclusion that. it was far less boring to get on the field and play than to sit right the way through one of their matches as a helpless spectator. 1 was] not too popular in the team, as a constant! series of withering remarks had figured in my reports referring to various members of the team by name, and pointing out that whenever their services might be required in' the course of a match, they just were not there to give them, On the whole, we were a cheery fifteen, and it would have taken a lot to make us really downhearted. We all thoroughly enjoyed the weekly matches, but especially so if they were played against a team on their home ground, Then we would foregather at 11 'O'clock of a Saturday morning at the town square, each one wearing a brilliant red and green tie with white stripes, which signified that he was a member of the Brinkton Extra "A" team, We would usually have to wait! for an hour or so while one of the more energetic members of. the team went to fetch a player who had forgotten that he had to turn out with the side that afternoon, Even when this had been done, we usually found] that we were at least one man short, Then we had to call upon the hospitality of the! home team to provide us with a player.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.