Clearing the Pack Read online

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Attending a conference called Getting Reluctant Readers Reading, Michael Panckridge skipped lunch to sit in the old commentary box at Victoria Park, where he was inspired to write stories for kids who were as keen on sports as he had been when growing up. Fifteen years on, Michael is the author of over 35 books, selling more than 250,000 copies. As well as sports books such as the Legends series, he also writes action-packed thrillers and suspenseful mysteries. When he’s not teaching or writing, Michael enjoys watching sport, reading, and running.

  Also by Michael Panckridge

  Chasing the Break

  Against the Spin

  Down the Line

  The Toby Jones series

  The League of Legends series

  The Clued Up series

  The Cursed

  The Vanishings

  The Immortal

  The Book of Gabrielle

  Be Bully Free

  Big Bash League Cricket series

  Thanks to Tim and all the staff at Ford Street Publishing for their wonderful support and expertise as we work together to bring The Legends back to life – MP

  Published by Ford Street Publishing, an imprint of

  Hybrid Publishers, PO Box 52, Ormond VIC 3204

  Melbourne Victoria Australia

  © Michael Panckridge 2017

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under

  the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process

  without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests and

  enquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to

  Ford Street Publishing Pty Ltd

  162 Hoddle Street, Abbotsford, Vic 3067.

  Ford Street website: www.fordstreetpublishing.com

  First published in 2003 by BDB. This edition has been revised.

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

  Creator: Panckridge, Michael, 1962- author.

  Title: Clearing the pack / Michael Panckridge.

  eISBN: 9781925804119

  Target Audience: For primary school age.

  Subjects: Sports--Juvenile fiction.

  Children’s stories.

  Cover design and interior illustrations: Marita Seaton ©

  Interior design: Grant Gittus Graphics

  In-house editor: Tim Harris

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 Scornly

  Chapter 2 Wrong Choice

  Chapter 3 Fire

  Chapter 4 Update

  Chapter 5 Mat Ball

  Chapter 6 Back Down

  Chapter 7 The Return

  Chapter 8 The Tackle

  Chapter 9 Hawks Flag

  Chapter 10 Mystery Numbers

  Chapter 11 Through the Eye of a Needle

  Chapter 12 Luci Versus the Hoods

  Chapter 13 The Hoods Play Tough

  Chapter 14 Bubba Stands Firm

  Football Match Scores and Ladders

  Netball Match Scores and Ladders

  Football Skills Scores

  Netball Skills Scores

  Football Game Points

  Netball Game Points

  Final Legend of Football Results

  Final Legend of Netball Results

  Legend of Sport Points Table - Boys

  Legend of Sport Points Table - Girls

  Football Quiz

  Netball Quiz

  Quiz Answers

  Event Dates

  Surfing

  February

  Cricket

  March

  Tennis

  April

  Football/Netball

  June

  Soccer

  July

  Basketball

  August

  Athletics

  October

  Swimming

  November

  Scoring

  1st

  5 points

  2nd

  4 points

  3rd

  3 points

  4th

  2 points

  5th

  1 point

  Structure

  Each sport has a teacher in charge. Generally, there will be three types of testing to determine the Legend for each sport.

  The percentage for each session is approximate only. The teacher in charge will decide the final balance of scoring.

  A skills-based session

  30%

  A knowledge session

  20%

  A game session

  50%

  Practice

  All participants in a Legend event will have the opportunity to practise on Wednesday afternoons from 1:00 pm till 5:00 pm. During this time, Legend participants will be able to use the library. Sports staff and sports venues will also be available on request. It is the responsibility of the student to book venues, equipment and other materials. Normal sports training will continue for all students on the appropriate afternoons.

  The Legends Noticeboard

  The noticeboard outside the gym should be constantly checked for updates. It is the student’s responsibility to do this.

  The Teacher in Charge for the Legends of Football is Mr T.

  The Teacher in Charge for the Legends of Netball is Miss Connelly.

  Mitchell Grady has become the school’s first sporting Legend for the year – Legend of the Surf. He’s backed it up with cricket to take his second Legend title. Most recently, Mitchell’s good friend Jack Crossly has won the Legend of Tennis title, leaving Fisk without a win.

  Will Fisk ease up in his attempt to knock out his opposition? He managed to knock Bubba out of the cricket. And he hung Bryce out to dry before the tennis competition. Although Fisk roughed Bryce up, Bryce recovered to knock Fisk out of the tennis tournament fair and square.

  What will happen now that the footy has started? Does Fisk have another target lined up?

  And how will Luci go in her quest to be Legend of Netball? Will Mia, her archrival, manage to score more points than her in the Netball competition?

  And finally, what is the secret in the library?

  We always seemed to be looking for Bryce Flavel. Before the school holidays, after the Legend of Tennis presentation, we’d been looking for him when he suddenly popped out of nowhere at one end of the library.

  Now we were back in the same place, again looking for our missing friend.

  ‘Bryce?’

  ‘There he is,’ said Bubba, pointing to the deepest and furthest part of the library.

  We raced over. Well, okay, we didn’t exactly race over, but we hustled and bumped our way across as fast as we could go with Mrs Lee, the library staff member on duty, watching us over her glasses.

  ‘Bryce! C’mon, you’re supposed to be goal umpiring the first game in fifteen minutes.’

  Jack and I were toey. The end of the Legend of Tennis presentation meant that we’d had to wait a whole month without competing in any sport. But now that June has arrived it is the beginning of Legend of Football month. Four beautiful weeks of football: drop-punts, tackles, goals on the run, screamers, smothers, mud, and more screamers.

  But we needed a goal umpire.

  ‘C’mon Bryce, let’s go,’ I said.

  Bryce looked at us with this stupid, surprised look on his face.

  ‘Guys, look at this.’

  He obviously hadn’t taken in a word we’d said.

  ‘It’s a copy of the floor plan of the second level. The library. The–’

  ‘The what?’ Mrs Lee loomed over us.

  ‘The floor plan
for our new house, Mrs Lee,’ piped up Bubba, looking serious.

  ‘Oh? Really? Well, let’s have a look then,’ said Mrs Lee.

  ‘Yeah, look, there’s a corridor for indoor cricket and a mini theatre for all the sport we’re going to watch, and a–’

  Mrs Lee was looking interested. Bryce had his hands carefully placed over the writing at the top.

  ‘Hmmm, very nice, I’m sure,’ she said.

  ‘Well, what’s keeping you guys, anyway?’ asked Bryce, folding away the plans. ‘There’s a game of footy to be won.’ Everyone just stood there. ‘Well? Isn’t there?’ asked Bryce.

  We stepped past Mrs Lee, then walked quickly out of the library.

  ‘Bubba, you’re probably never gonna break clear of a pack and put on a burst of speed, but boy you can think quickly on your feet. Nice going,’ said Jack.

  Bubba wasn’t sure whether to look pleased or annoyed, but his good nature soon settled on pleased. ‘Thanks, Jack.’

  Luci and I had heard this weird noise in the library about a month ago while we were researching Wimbledon during the Legend of Tennis competition. The noise had seemed to come from behind the rows of books at the back of the library.

  We’d told Bryce about it, who’d soon discovered an amazing thing. There was one more window on the outside library wall than on the inside; well, one more window that you could see, anyway.

  Bryce started to talk about the plans again.

  ‘We need to find an older plan,’ panted Bryce, trying to keep up with us as we headed towards the oval. ‘That floor plan ends at the far wall, where the sports books are.’

  We jogged on, only half listening. ‘This is stupid! Stop!’

  We hit the brakes and turned to look at Bryce.

  ‘Either everyone is really thick around here or there’s a conspiracy going on. There’s an extra window up there. And no one seems to care!’

  I had one eye on the oval where the other guys were warming up. Jack was scuffing at the dirt and Bubba was still catching up. Bryce looked exasperated.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Bryce, tonight we look into this big time. I’m gonna talk with our footy coach and see if he can get us a look at some old maps or something. Okay?’

  Bryce was looking doubtful.

  ‘But first, we’ve got a footy match to play,’ I said.

  ‘And win!’ Jack added.

  We set off again, just as Bubba caught up to us.

  ‘Hey!’ he panted, before jogging on after us.

  There would be three footy matches played during the Legends of Football competition, each against another school. For the first time, I was going to be playing on the same side as Travis Fisk – acknowledged professional bully, general bad guy and very good footballer.

  This was going to be weird. I had beaten him on the beach to win the surfing and then done the same on the cricket field. The third and most recent Legends sport was tennis, about a month or so ago. Jack won that one, but I managed to progress further than Fisk in that, too.

  He hated me. Luci reckoned I was the one big threat to him becoming the Sandhurst Legend of Sport. We’d made him eat sand during the Legend of Surfing and he had fought back the way only Travis Fisk could. He’d almost killed poor Bubba in the nets during the Legend of Cricket. Then he’d strung Bryce Flavel up a tree before the Legend of Tennis series. Who would he pick on next?

  Sandhurst had a good reputation among the local schools as a tough football opponent. But there were rumours going around about how good the other schools were this season.

  Someone had even sprayed graffiti on one of the school fences – something about Wetherhoods ruling. No one had wanted to tell me about the Hoods. That’s what the kids from the school on Wetherhood Street were called. They were obviously a scary bunch.

  Then there was Ascot College. They were so good, it was rumoured that AFL guys scouted around for talent during their training sessions and games.

  And finally, there was the team we were playing today: Scornly. Jack told me they were the weakest of the teams. But looking across the oval at some absolutely enormous Scornly kids warming up made me think otherwise. Then again, size isn’t everything.

  We arrived just as our footy coach was calling the team for a final word.

  He scowled at Jack and me. Bubba still hadn’t arrived.

  ‘You’re late,’ he barked at us. ‘Stretch!’

  ‘Mr T, when does the game start?’ asked one of the players.

  ‘In ten minutes. Now listen up, boys. It’s a must-win game, this one. Perhaps even a chance for some good percentage. We might talk about that at half-time. I want the centre corridor used as much as possible. Keep it moving and kick the ball long to Travis and Richard, okay?’

  That was Fisk and Mazis. The two of them could tear apart any defence, I was sure of it. I’d been watching them during lunchtimes, marking, kicking and generally mucking around with a football.

  Like the other Legend sports, we were going to get points in three different areas of the game. With football, there was the traditional quiz, the skills sessions and the games themselves.

  Mr T (I don’t think anyone could pronounce his surname) had put up pretty detailed rules on the Legends noticeboard. The main thing to remember was that any points you got in this first game, against Scornly, would only count for one point each. They were worth twice as many in our next game, and then three times as much in the final game. You needed to play well to stay in the team. Very well.

  I was playing on the halfback flank. Bubba was up in the forward pocket, with Jack in the centre.

  There were a lot of people about. Most of the classes had come out for a look, as well as plenty of parents. There was also a group of kids in ties and blazers, all in a tight bunch. Jack told me later that they were kids and teachers from Ascot College, checking out our form.

  I wondered if any of the Wetherhoods were about. Maybe they were too busy spray-painting trains or robbing little old ladies or something.

  We got on top pretty early, with Richard Mazis pulling in two massive grabs in the first quarter and kicking two big goals from centre half-forward. Both Jack and I were getting a few touches. By half-time, Sandhurst had a 23 point lead.

  Mr T came over to me as I took a long drink of water.

  ‘You’ve got good skills, Mitchell. I want to see you run off your line a bit this quarter and give us some drive through the middle. Take a few risks, all right?’

  I nodded, excited by these instructions. I had been playing defensively, not allowing my opponent to get too involved in the game.

  I charged into the middle as the ball was being thrown up for the start of the third quarter. Big Jimmy Paisley had possession of the ball. I screamed for it. I was open and in space. He handballed it neatly over their rover and I charged off, dodging one player, then another. I took a bounce and looked up. Fisk was charging at me, yelling for it. I noticed Bubba, way down near the point post, and went for him instead.

  Bubba marked the pass on his chest, but the angle for his shot on goal was almost impossible. He missed.

  I snuck a look at Fisk. He was staring at me, seething. He didn’t say anything. He looked around, then raced across to pick up a player.

  In a moment, there was a runner, one of the kids not involved in the Legends competition, by my side.

  ‘Coach says nice run, but terrible option. Do that again, and you’re off.’ He looked at me. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, and raced off.

  I looked over at the coach, but he wasn’t looking at me. It had been a dumb decision. I had to redeem myself.

  The pattern of the game continued. I got a few more chances to deliver the ball into the forward line and twice managed to hit Fisk on the chest for two easy marks and two easy goals. Bubba got his chance too. With the last kick of the game, he plonked through a goal after being given a handball from Fisk. Fisk probably could have kicked the goal himself, but Bubba was alone in the goal square, and only had to tu
rn around and dribble the ball through for a goal.

  We ended up winning by 37 points. Amidst all the backslapping and stuff at the end of the game, I walked up to Fisk.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Stupid pass. Split-second decision, you know.’

  He looked at me, shaking his head. ‘No, it wasn’t, Grady,’ he said. ‘If you’d made a split-second decision, you would have passed it to me, because you’ve got a football brain. You would have done it automatically.’ Fisk stood, only a metre from me, pulling at some strapping on his right shoulder. He was yanking it hard. ‘Instead, you thought too long. You thought of your lonely, fat friend, kickless for a whole half, and decided to give him a turn. Mr T would have smashed your head in if we’d lost by a few points.’

  For a moment he moved forward, threatening, his face only centimetres from mine.

  ‘That’s enough, Travis,’ said Mr T. Fisk sauntered off. I stood there, fuming, staring at his back.

  ‘I don’t need to say anything, do I? Your decision-making has to be for the team. Cross that white line there and you leave everything else behind, right?’

  ‘Yes, Mr T,’ I said, looking him in the eye. He returned my gaze.

  ‘You’re a very good footballer, Mitchell. That 35-metre pass hit the target on the chest, and you were moving pretty fast yourself.’

  ‘Was I at top speed, when I took it?’ Bubba had appeared from nowhere.

  We both looked at Bubba.

  ‘Well, you were moving faster than the point post,’ laughed Jack from behind us. ‘Hey, let’s go see how the girls are going,’ he suggested.

  ‘Remember what I said, Mitchell,’ said Mr T as we grabbed our gear.

  We stopped at the netball on our way back to the change rooms.

  There were two games in progress, both against Scornly. Next year there was going to be football for girls and netball for boys, depending on the numbers.

  ‘I think it’s an A and a B team,’ said Jack.