Riding Star (15 page)

T
he buses from Blainford Academy arrived at the polo grounds at nine and the students in their whites and navy blazers cut a swathe through the crowd. Mrs Dickins-Thomson and Tara Kelly led the way to the grandstands.

“No chewing gum, Mr Blackburn,” the headmistress instructed as one of the boys walked past. “Take your hands out of your pockets, Mr Adams, and stop slouching! You are representing your school so stand up straight, please.”

As the students took their seats, filling five rows of the grandstand, Heath Brompton emerged from the riders' area. He looked around the crowded stands for somewhere to sit and then reluctantly took the seat next to Tara.

“Hello, Heath,” Tara said. “How's the team looking? ”

“Woefully underprepared,” Heath replied. “They're going to disgrace the school. They aren't ready to play at this level.”

Tara frowned. “I've been watching the girls train and I'd have to disagree.”

“Oh, so you're a polo expert now?” Heath shot back at her.

Tara shook her head in disbelief. “You've always been like this, Heath, even when we were at school together. Why is it so hard for you to grasp that the girls at Blainford are every bit as capable in every branch of equestrianism as the boys?”

Heath Brompton wasn't having it. “Girls shouldn't be playing polo. They shouldn't even be at the school,” he muttered darkly. “If I had my way Blainford would still be a boys' school like it was back in nineteen-thirty-six.”

Tara looked coolly at him. “Your attitude towards girls doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I whipped you completely in the end of the year rankings in cross-country in our senior year, does it? Or the fact that Miss Parker's mother, Ginny, was chosen to captain the school polo team over you?”

“Ginny Parker should never have been made captain,” Heath Brompton snapped. “It should have been me!”

“Oh, dear!” Tara looked at him with mock surprise. “Have I hit a nerve?”

“You haven't changed at all,” Heath snarled at her. “You're the same competitive shrew that you were when I was at school with you.”

“And you are still the same small-minded sexist,” Tara said sharply. “If I hear any more reports about you making it hard for girls in your polo class then I'll be taking it up with Mrs Dickins-Thomson. I'm sure she'd be very interested to hear about your antiquated views.”

“You can't—”

Tara turned to him with her finger placed over her lips. “Sshhh, please, Mr Brompton. It looks like they are about to get underway and I do want to watch the game without interruption.”

*

Out on the practice field, Georgie watched the Blainford pupils taking their seats in the stands. “It looks like half the school has turned out to watch us,” she said.

“Well, that settles it,” Alice said, “we better not lose.”

The girls were ready to make their entrance on to the field, mounted up on their first chukka ponies. They had chosen reliable, experienced mounts for the first quarter, each of them riding one of the polo mares that Mr Dupree had donated to the team. Daisy had chosen Jada, one of the Duprees' most experienced mares. Alice was on the veteran dun, Desiray. Emily was riding Vita, the pretty dark brown mare with four white socks.

Georgie was riding Estrella, the little chestnut with the white star on her forehead. Or at least she was planning to ride Estrella if the mare would stay still long enough to let her mount up. Estrella was so over-excited she refused to stand still, crab-stepping from side to side as Georgie bounced about beside her with one foot in the stirrup trying to get onboard.

“Here!” Riley stepped in to help her, hanging on to the mare until she could climb onboard. “Don't move, I need to tighten your girth.”

Estrella stood still for a moment and then she raised her head high and let out a clarion call, whinnying a challenge to the Winchester horses.

“She knows this is the real thing,” Georgie said. “She's ready.”

Riley looked anxiously over at the Winchester players. “Promise me you'll be careful out there?”

“You know me,” Georgie said.

“Yeah,” Riley replied. “I do. That's what worries me.”

Alex was doing a final check on Emily's girth. He whispered last-minute advice to Emily, holding on to her hand, reluctant to let her go.

Cameron meanwhile, was busily checking Alice's martingale.

“Isn't there anything you want to tell me?” Alice said to him.

“Like what?”

Alice sighed. “I don't know, something poignant before I go on the field to face a team full of man-sized thugs who might kill me?”

Cameron snorted, trying to suppress a laugh. “Come off it, Alice! They're the ones that are in trouble here – I should be over there reading them their last rites.”

Daisy rode over to join them. “Those guys have no idea what's coming at them.”

Georgie turned Estrella round and addressed her team mates. “Does everyone understand the tactics for the game? Are we ready to do this?”

“We're ready,” Alice affirmed.

“Sure,” Emily said nervously.

“I think it's the craziest plan I've ever heard,” Daisy said, “but, yeah. Let's do it.”

“Remember,” Georgie said, “we're going to come out in the first chukka and play a hard, fast and physical game. If they think they can ride us off our line just because they're bigger than us, they need to think again.”

“If they come at you, never give away ground,” Alice added. “Knee-barge them straight back.”

“There's no way I'm letting them ride me off the ball,” Daisy said. “They can forget about it.”

Emily wasn't so sure. “I don't think I can ride off a guy twice my size.”

“You don't have to get into the maul, Emily,” Georgie reassured her. “Your job is defence. We're relying on you to stop the ball before it reaches the goal. You mustn't let them past.”

Emily's face looked grim with determination. “Let's go.”

*

Out on the field, the four girls took up their positions in the lineout, squaring up to their opposite players. Georgie's eyes scanned the line for their number three player, a thick-set man with a moustache and russet brown hair. He was the captain and their best player and he would be their key goal scorer. She glanced over at Alice, who returned her look with a nod, confirming that she knew that this guy was the one that she had to watch.

At the far end of the lineout, Emily was keeping a tight hold on Vita, her game face set.

Georgie's last glance was to Daisy. She was right at the front of the lineout, wheeling Jada about, jostling for position against the Winchester number one as they waited for the ref to throw the ball in. Georgie turned Estrella on her hocks and focused, her muscles tensed and ready for the throw-in. This was it. Game on.

The bell rang and the ball flew across the grass towards the horses. Georgie reacted immediately on instinct, driving Estrella forward fearlessly, her polo stick clashing up against the Winchester number two as they fought for possession.

The ball shot out of the pack and whizzed across the field, heading in the direction of the Blainford goal. Daisy pressed Jada into a gallop and set off after it, but there were two Winchester riders following close behind her.

“Daisy!” Georgie called out. “You've got company!”

Daisy got to the ball first and hit it hard towards the goal posts. She tried to chase it up, but the Winchester number one was all over her, riding her off the line, barging against her with his knee and stealing the ball, taking it back in the other direction.

Daisy, however, wasn't deterred. Urging Jada into a gallop, she stayed with the Winchester rider, and then when the two mares were shoulder-to-shoulder, she pulled across, barged hard into the Winchester number one and swung a magnificent backhander so that the ball changed direction once more and shot back towards their goal.

“Alice!” Daisy cried out. “It's yours!”

As soon as Desiray caught sight of the white ball coming her way, the mare flattened back her ears and whipped her tail aggressively, giving chase at a gallop. There were two Winchester riders after the ball, but their mares weren't as fast as Desiray. There was no way she was letting anyone else get there before her. Alice tapped the ball towards the posts and Desiray swung her rump round to block the Winchester rider's path while her rider lined up a shot on goal. The mallet contacted the ball on the sweet spot and it flew cleanly between the posts.

In the stands the Blainford Academy students applauded. First blood to the Blainford girls!

The Winchester riders looked like stunned mullets as they came back to the line to restart the game. “Go after their number three!” the Winchester captain called to his men. “Somebody mark her!”

As the ref threw in, Alice tried to trap the ball with her mallet and send it to Georgie, but she was cut off by the Winchester number two who rode directly in front of her, barging into Desiray and swinging wildly with his stick right in front of the mare's legs.

“Foul! Ref, that was a total foul!” Daisy raised her mallet in the air to appeal to the referee, but the whistle wasn't blown. The game was still on and the number two player was off at a gallop and bearing down on Emily.

“Em!” Alice shouted out. “It's up to you!”

At the sight of the massive Winchester player thundering down on her Emily froze like a rabbit in headlights. And then, with a growl that sounded like a battle cry, she rode straight at him. Afterwards, Alice would say that it was like watching a jousting scene from a Robin Hood movie. Emily pushed Vita into a gallop and rode headlong at the Winchester number two, her mallet raised like a lance. The Winchester rider held his line. Emily was holding hers too – it was a game of chicken. Which one of them would scare first?

They were just a few strides apart when the Winchester player finally realised that this girl wasn't going to swerve out of his way. In a last-ditch bid to save himself he pulled the reins hard to the left. He managed to get his pony out of the way as Emily screamed down on the ball and hit it perfectly straight back up the field, where Alice, Georgie and Daisy were waiting to receive it and shoot once more for goal.

This time Daisy took the shot and it was a lucky hit. The ball glanced off the posts but went through. Goal number two to the Blainford girls!

As the girls came off after their first chukka they were ahead two points to nil and their ponies were exhausted and dripping with sweat.

“You're doing great out there,” Riley told Georgie as he took hold of Estrella's reins while she vaulted down.

Georgie shook her head. “I'm not sure that we can hold them like this for the whole game. They're so much more physically strong than us.”

“But you're better players,” JP pointed out. “You can out-manoeuvre them.”

“Do you think so?” Alice asked as she dismounted, utterly exhausted, from Desiray.

“I know so,” Cameron confirmed. “Just keep passing, keep possession and keep taking shots at the goal. You can do this!”

The girls were on green Thoroughbreds for the second chukka. But what the ponies lacked in finesse they made up for with speed. This chukka was ridden so fast and furious, the ponies never seemed to stop galloping. The girls maintained their focus, trying to retain possession and fighting to keep the ball, but the Winchester players were getting more pushy. The Blainford girls seemed to spend half their time with their sticks in the air calling fouls, but the referee seemed blind to the Winchesters' dirty tactics. Winchester scored two goals in the first two minutes of the chukka. Then Blainford got one goal, a penalty from a foul. In the last minute of the chukka the Winchester number four made a blistering run down the wing and even Emily couldn't stop him. It was goal number three for the Winchester Reserves and the score was tied.

Riley was fuming as the girls left the field. “Somebody needs to have a talk with that referee! Those guys are fouling you constantly!”

“There's nothing we can do about it,” Georgie said. “We've just got to keep in their faces.”

The third chukka was the time to bring out their solid, dependable ponies. Georgie was mounted on Belle. Alice had Will and Emily was on Barclay. Daisy was on Francine, who was already in a lather of anticipation before they even got on to the field.

From the start of the third chukka the Winchester riders had the lion's share of possession. Alice managed to snatch the ball away a couple of times and had two tries at goal, but each time the Winchester riders got in her way and she failed to score. Daisy finally got one through, managing to lay her mallet to the ball in the middle of a scrum of players and tapping it almost casually through the posts.

The hero of the third chukka though was definitely Emily. She blocked at least half a dozen attempts on goal by the Winchesters, sending the ball back up the line each time with her powerful field drives. In the end, despite their dominance, only two of the Winchester attempts on goal got through. It was enough for them to take the lead though and the score was now five-four against the girls.

Off the field on the pony lines the boys were ready and waiting as the girls came off the field to swap ponies for the final chukka. Riley had Princess all tacked up and Georgie rode Belle alongside so that the two mares were standing parallel. She dropped her feet loose of the stirrups and flung herself from Belle's back on to Princess.

Riley held the mares steady as she did this and then passed Georgie her mallet. “Be careful out there,” he warned her. “These guys aren't going to hold back in the final chukka. They're going to foul you every chance they get.”

“We're one point behind and there're only seven more minutes to go,” Georgie said, taking up the reins. “How bad can it get?”