n led off with a
magnificent place-kick which flew almost into the School lines, Classics
and Moderns forgot their differences and squirmed with a common
foreboding. Fullerton promptly returned the ball into _medias res_, and
the usual inaugural scrimmage ensued. To the knowing ones, who judged
from little things, it seemed that the present match was likely to be as
even as any of its predecessors. The forwards were about equally
weighted, and the quarter and half-backs who hovered outside seemed
equally alert and light-footed.

Presently the ball squeezed out on the School side and gave Ranger the
first chance of a ran. He used it well, and with Fisher major and Yorke
on his flanks got well past the Rendlesham forwards amid loud cheers
from the oak tree. But the enemy's quarter-back pinned him in a moment;
yet not before he had passed the ball neatly to Fisher on his left.
Fisher struggled on a few yards further with the captain and Dangle
backing up, but had to relinquish the ball to the former before he could
reach the half-backs. Yorke, always wary and cool-headed, had measured
the forces against him, and as soon as he had the ball, ran back a step
or two, to break the ugly rush of two of the enemy who were nearest, and
then with a sweep distanced them, and charging through their half-backs
made a dash for the goal. For a moment friend and foe held their
breath. He looked like doing it. But in his _detour_ he had given time
for Blackstone, the Rendlesham fast runner, to get under way and sweep
down to meet him just as he reeled out of the clutches of the half-
backs. Next moment Yorke was down, and Dangle was not there to pick up
the ball.

This rush served pretty well to exhibit the strong and weak points of
either side. It was evident, for instance, that both Ranger and Yorke
were men to be marked by the other side, and that Dangle, on the
contrary, was playing slack.

A series of scrimmages followed, in the midst of which the ball
gravitated back to the centre of the field. Runs were attempted on
either side; once or twice the ball went out into touch, and once or
twice a drop-kick sent it flying over the forwards' heads. But it came
back inevitably, so that after twenty minutes' hard play it lay in
almost the identical spot from which it had first been kicked off.

The onlookers began to feel a little depressed. It was not to be a
walk-over for the School, at any rate. Indeed, it seemed doubtf