Page 40 of Playing the Field
‘If a ball is dropped, it goes out of play,’ Dad explains. ‘So once you’ve dropped both, your circle is frozen. The winning team will have the biggest circle at the end of one minute, so spread out and give yourselves plenty of room.’
Bailey joins myself, Elliot, Aaron and two of the reserve players.
‘Do we have a plan?’ Elliot asks.
‘To beat my brother,’ Bailey replies, just loud enough for Ben to hear.
I look over to see Ben mouthing ‘not a chance’, accompanied by a self-assured grin.
Dad starts a timer and it’s quickly apparent that the hardest thing this time is making sure the two balls don’t hit each other in the middle. Two teams are frozen instantly when a clash throws both balls in directions that make them impossible to catch. It leaves only my team and Ben’s in the running.
‘We need a system,’ Bailey says, his voice full of urgency.
Aaron suggests calling out ‘go’ each time we have a ball safely in our hands so the other one can be tossed. I notice Ben’s team have the same idea.
When Dad blows his whistle it’s impossible to say whose circle is bigger. He tries counting how many strides it takes for him to get from one side of each circle to the other, but concludes he can’t do this with any level of accuracy. So he declares it a draw and suggests we move on to version B.
‘What were we supposed to learn this time?’ Jacob asks.
‘To never drop the ball,’ Dad replies with a grin.
For the next version, we’ll be kicking rather than throwing the ball, so we need it to land as close as possible to our team members’ feet. If no one can reach the ball, it goes out of play, which is not so difficult for a footballer, but is much more of a challenge for me. This time, it’s fair to say Ben’s team– he’s got Jamie and Craig with him too– make a significantly bigger circle than the rest of us.
‘Hard luck, bro,’ he says, clapping Bailey on the shoulder.
‘It’s not over yet,’ Bailey reminds him.
Cassie arrives in time for the final challenge, but signals to Dad to just carry on with things. He sets down two cones around thirty metres apart and tells us two teams will compete at a time in this game, owing to the number of footballs needed. He moves my team and Ben’s to the starting line and gives us five balls each. On Dad’s whistle, we’re to balance one ball between the chests and backs of each team member, then all six of us must try to reach the other cone without dropping a ball.
If one drops, the whole team must go back to the beginning. No hands are allowed once our balls are in place. I look over at Ben and he winks at me. Game on, I know he’s thinking.
It’s harder than you might think– and even harder once Elliot and I get the giggles. Because he’s so tall, the ball between us is nearer his bum than his back, so after a few false starts, we have a quick reshuffle to put him at the back, me at the front and everyone else in height order between.
Ben’s team have already made good progress thanks to their coordinated march, with Levi calling out ‘left, right, left, right’ to keep them all in perfect timing.
‘We’ve just got to go for it now,’ Bailey says. ‘Elliot, you drive us from the back and the rest of us will just have to make sure we keep up with him.’
It does prove effective, and Elliot propels us over the finish line just a few steps ahead of Ben’s team.
‘I knew you had to be better at something,’ Ben teases his brother.
‘Being balanced?’ Bailey quips back.
Ben makes an ‘ooh’ shape with his mouth. ‘I walked into that one,’ he says, laughing.
While Dad lines up the next two heats, I grab my phone so I can film them. I think it’s nice to show our fans that the team has a fun side as well on our social media.
Cassie takes back over from Dad after that and leads the team through some more football-specific challenges. All in all it’s a brilliant session and it’s so gratifying to see the smiles on everyone’s faces at the end of it.
Dad and I are both on a high as we walk back to the house, though for me this is as much to do with what I know is coming next as the fun that’s been had already. I’ll be heading over to Ben’s just as soon as I’ve got changed and I can’t wait to see what our next evening together brings.
21
I team my jeans with a white blouse, tied at the midriff to show off my waist. It’s not the most practical open-top car attire but it’ll be fine underneath the jumper Ben lends me.
He whisks me off to a vineyard in the South Downs, which is surrounded by rolling hills as far as the eye can see, and we manage to bag a spot out on the restaurant terrace so we can soak up the scenery while we eat. He orders me a glass of the house bubbles, a sparkling water for him.
‘They’ve started hiring out a couple of cottages here recently so people don’t have to drive after dinner,’ he tells me. ‘They were fully booked this evening but if the food turns out to be as good as I think it will be, maybe we could come back and stay over another time.’
