A fluky kick or a mistake on the part of a
Blackburnite outside might give Dencroft's the cup.
But the Blackburn outsides did not make mistakes. They played a
strong, sure game, and the forwards fed them well. Ten minutes before
No-side, Jimmy Silver ran in, increasing the lead to six points. And
though Dencroft's never went to pieces, and continued to show fight to
the very end, Blackburn's were not to be denied, and Challis scored a
final try in the corner. Blackburn's won the cup by the comfortable,
but not excessive, margin of a goal and three tries to a goal.
Dencroft's had lost the cup; but they had lost it well. Their credit
had increased in spite of the defeat.
"I thought we shouldn't be able to manage Blackburn's," said Kennedy,
"What we must do now is win that sports' cup."
XXIV
THE SPORTS
There were certain houses at Eckleton which had, as it were,
specialised in certain competitions. Thus, Gay's, who never by any
chance survived the first two rounds of the cricket and football
housers, invariably won the shooting shield. All the other houses sent
their brace of men to the range to see what they could do, but every
year it was the same. A pair of weedy obscurities from Gay's would
take the shield by a comfortable margin. In the same way Mulholland's
had only won the cricket cup once since they had become a house, but
they had carried off the swimming cup three years in succession, and
six years in all out of the last eight.
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