XI

THE HOUSE-MATCHES


It was something of a consolation to Barry and his friends--at any
rate, to Barry and Drummond--that directly after they had been evicted
from their study, the house-matches began. Except for the Ripton match,
the house-matches were the most important event of the Easter term.
Even the sports at the beginning of April were productive of less
excitement. There were twelve houses at Wrykyn, and they played on the
"knocking-out" system. To be beaten once meant that a house was no
longer eligible for the competition. It could play "friendlies" as much
as it liked, but, play it never so wisely, it could not lift the cup.
Thus it often happened that a weak house, by fluking a victory over a
strong rival, found itself, much to its surprise, in the semi-final, or
sometimes even in the final. This was rarer at football than at
cricket, for at football the better team generally wins.

The favourites this year were Donaldson's, though some fancied
Seymour's. Donaldson's had Trevor, whose leadership was worth almost
more than his play. In no other house was training so rigid. You could
tell a Donaldson's man, if he was in his house-team, at a glance. If
you saw a man eating oatmeal biscuits in the shop, and eyeing wistfully
the while the stacks of buns and pastry, you could put him down as a
Donaldsonite without further evidence. The captains of the other houses
used to prescribe a certain amount of self-abnegation in the matter of
food, but Trevor left his men barely enough to support life--enough,
that is, of the things that are really worth eating. The consequence