The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2945 by Angharad Copyright© 2016 Angharad

---

This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
*****

We waited in the sunshine, shivering occasionally in the cool breeze which I believed was a north easterly wind. The girls were in the changing room and I could almost predict that they were standing round Trish who would be reminding them of their tactics including, let me take the free kicks. Some of them would be several inches taller than her, but Danni said she’d spoken to the coach and the vice captain, who would be the captain for the day in Danni’s abscence.

The Leigh Parkers emerged first and they all looked to be about two years older than our girls, some of them looked as if they could double as bearded ladies in a side show and they looked suspiciously broad shouldered and knobbly kneed for girls. They all looked about a foot taller than Trish and I began to worry for her if this got physical.

St Claire’s came out to lots of shouting and clapping and the ‘Parkers’ saw the size of Trish and began to laugh. That was okay, it would make her try harder but it still looked like a massacre was in the making.

We had the kick off and the ball was passed back to Trish in midfield while two of their forwards raced up field. She whacked it towards them, the one passed to the other who hit it on the volley and St Claire’s were one up. I was yelling so much that my throat was hurting and Livvie and Mima were jumping up and down nearly pulling Simon over.

The Parkers restarted and it became rather physical with our girls being bounced off the ball by their larger players. Twice the game was stopped to deal with injuries and Trish narrowly avoided being flattened by diving out the way after kicking the ball into touch.

What happened next was nothing short of comedic, though our little starlet acquired a couple more bruises as it happened. The Parkers’ main forward lost the ball to a St Claire’s defender who saw Trish free on the wing, somehow she managed to pass it towards her and to my amazement, Trish trapped the ball and simply rolled it out of the path of a Parker defender then ran round them. However, as she dashed up field another defender knocker her off the ball and as she fell over she grabbed at the other player’s chest and her bust fell out down through her shirt—two pieces of shaped foam—she was not a girl.

The lineswoman—all the officials were female flagged the referee and the game was stopped. After an argument between the referee and the Parker’s coach, where the referee threatened to suspend the game if it was found that they were playing boys in an all girl game. They compromised and the offending ‘girl’ was withdrawn and a much smaller, female looking player came on as substitute.

St Claire’s were awarded a free kick for the challenge on Trish who elected to take it. Did I mention she had the shirt on—number seven, with Beckham written on the back. With all but the St Claire’s goal keeper in the opposing half and seven of our team in the penalty area, it got a bit congested and when Trish took the kick, much to everyone’s astonishment, she lobbed it up in the air so it dropped into the penalty area. Then, I’m not quite sure what happened because it was a bit like pin ball with the ball rebounding off feet and legs as it traversed the Parker’s goal mouth but didn’t enter it.

Trish was racing to the middle of their half and screaming for the ball. I don’t know who eventually passed it to her or if it just happened but she hit it on the volley and caught it absolutely right because the ball curved out to the right and looked to have missed the goal before it swooped back in and into the top corner of the goal. There was total silence for a couple of seconds before the St Claire’s fans went wild. I spotted Sister Maria hugging two of her colleagues and jumping up and down. I felt so proud of my little girl.

The rest of the first half saw Leigh Park unleash wave after wave of attacks but all to no avail. The way things were looking, St Claire’s would probably not be able to hold out for a whole half an hour against more of the same and although they had a lead, it looked unlikely to be enough if their opponents started shooting on goal.

We watched Trish call her team around her and she and the captain urged them to keep playing as they were. She also shouted, ‘Plan B,’ and they all nodded as they took their positions for the second half, playing with the wind behind them. Of course, that was how she lobbed the ball earlier on, she kicked it into the wind and it dropped just right to cause mayhem.

Leigh Park kicked off the second half and they literally battered their way to the goal, several of the St Claire’s team were flattened in the movement and received attention from their coach. One was still limping after the treatment.

St Claire’s kicked off and their two forwards once again raced forwards as Trish received the ball, but this time they were heavily marked and our little minx, kept the ball and started racing up the centre, dribbling past two opponents and into the penalty area, where the goalie was screaming, ‘Stop her.’ A defender did. She was hacked down from behind and as the whistle blew, she was rolling about in agony.

Simon shouted in anger at the much larger girl who’d chopped her, I wanted to run on and hold her but couldn’t—she’d have never spoken to me again. However, I could send her some help and imagined the light healing whatever had been hurt while asking it to do so invisibly. Once she was standing, hopping on one leg, the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Trish signalled to her captain that she wanted to take it. The captain came up and they argued about it and reluctantly she allowed Trish to place the ball on the spot, which she did limping quite heavily. We all held our breath.

Again limping badly, she tottered towards the ball and suddenly slammed it at the goal. It looked to go wide but hit the side post and bounced out hitting the goal keeper on the head whereupon it flew into the goal. I don’t think Trish could believe it. Simon leant down to me and said quietly, “You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?” Phew, it had suddenly got very warm. I mean I might have asked the energy to help it along a bit but I didn’t think I deserved the muttering of ‘’Arry Pottah,’ that he said as well.

I do admit that the girl, at least I think it was a girl, who’d chopped Trish, did meet a bolt of energy a bit later when she jumped up to head the ball and I threw a bit at her. She missed the ball and seemed to land a bit heavily, whereupon she looked around to see who’d bashed into her. Nothing the ref could see. When Simon glanced at me, I blushed again but I was wearing a very warm coat.

The whistle finally blew for full time and the more physical tactics of the Parkers had failed against the cleverness and teamwork of St Claire’s. Sister Maria was so excited that as soon as the whistle sounded, she was running onto the pitch to hug everyone of her players but especially, the baby of the team and late replacement for her sister, Trish, who immediately burst into tears.