Riding Star

by Stacy Gregg

  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?”

  As it turned out, things got very bad indeed. In the first minute, Alice rode Nala hard into a lineout to take on a Winchester player and emerged with the mare holding up one of her forelegs.

  “She’s gone lame!” Alice was distraught as JP rushed on to the field to take Nala’s reins. “I think one of the Winchester players must have clipped her with his mallet.”

  This was competition polo and the game didn’t stop just because a pony was injured. The play continued up the field while Alice stood by impotently beside her injured mare.

  “Leave Nala with me,” JP instructed her. “You go get another horse.”

  On the sidelines, Cam and Alex were frantically saddling up Desiray.

  “But she’s already played!” Alice protested. “I need a fresh horse!”

  “We don’t have any back-up ponies,” Cam said, fastening the surcingle at lightning speed and checking the girth before legging Alice back onboard. “Desiray played the first chukka. She’s had enough time to recover.”

  Desiray seemed thrilled with the sudden turn of events. The dun mare was glad to be given a second chance on the field. But the time on the clock had been ticking by. As Alice re-entered the fray, the game was now well into the second half of the final chukka and still the girls hadn’t managed to put vital points on the board.

  Over the next few minutes there were cries of anguish from the Blainford fans as Daisy had a good line to the posts not once but twice, and each time her shots were thwarted by Winchester riders. There was a hard thwack at one point when the polo ball bounced off the rump of a Winchester horse.

  “What’s it going to take to get a goal past these guys?” Daisy groaned as they prepared for another lineout.

  There was less than a minute left to play and unfortunately the game was going the wrong way. The lineout had been won by the Winchester number four who struck the ball with a massive shot towards the goal posts.

  Speeding after it, Emily pushed her mare into a flat gallop, her eyes fixed on the ball. What she hadn’t noticed was the Winchester number four also galloping, and gaining on her with every stride. “Emily!” Daisy called to her. “Man on!”

  As the Winchester rider pulled up alongside her, Emily looked terrified that she was about to be barged off the ball, and then, to everyone’s surprise, she fought back! She pulled hard on her reins and urged Jocasta to the right, charging into her opponent, making room to take a perfect backhander on the polo ball, sending it straight back up the field, heading in the right direction at last. But with only seconds left on the clock!

  “It’s mine!” Georgie called. She pushed Princess into a gallop, chasing the ball down at the halfway line, hanging out of the saddle like an acrobat as she stretched out to take the ball with a sweep shot.

  The ball flew down the centre of the field towards the goal posts and Alice saw her chance to score. There were riders swarming around the goal mouth, but Alice took her chance. She lifted her stick to set up the shot. Daisy was running interference for her, blocking the Winchester number one.

  Alice swung her stick back, but it was hooked by the Winchester number three.

  “Oi! Get off!” Alice yelled. She yanked her stick free and spun Desiray round on her hocks to block the Winchester rider off the ball. Outplayed, the Winchester number three wasn’t about to let a goal happen now. He rode his mare straight into Desiray, and at the same time he stuck out his arm, deliberately elbowing Alice square in the stomach.

  Taken off guard by the blow, Alice doubled over completely and toppled off Desiray’s back like a sack of wet cement.

  “Foul!” Daisy raised a stick. As the riders from both teams were crowded in front of the goal, Georgie couldn’t see Alice at all. Then the goal mouth cleared, and she saw Desiray. The mare was standing over Alice, who was sprawled motionless on the ground.

  “Alice!” Georgie shouted. And then, like a death knell, came the sound of the bell that marked the end of the final chukka.

  Chapter Sixteen

  If th
e Winchester number three was expecting to get away with his foul he clearly hadn’t counted on Daisy. As the bell sounded, she leapt off her horse and stormed across the field like a banshee waving her mallet.

  It took both Georgie and Emily to hold her back.

  “Let me go!” Daisy demanded. “He’s got it coming!”

  “Daisy, urghhh, stop it!” Georgie was grappling with her while Emily took her mallet. “You can’t just attack another player!”

  “Why? Because I’ll get disqualified?”

  “No! Because he’s three times your size and he’ll cream you!”

  “I don’t care! Did you see what he did?” Daisy was furious. “He could have killed Alice!”

  Alice, meanwhile, was only just coming round. The fall must have knocked her out cold and by the time she woke up the first face she saw was Cameron’s. He had raced to her side and was cradling her in his arms. “Don’t move, Alice,” Cam was insisting. “They’re getting an ambulance.”

  “No!” Alice said. “No ambulance. I have to finish the game…”

  “Alice,” Cam said softly, “the game is over. Just lie back down and wait for the paramedics.”

  “No, we can still win it,” Alice insisted. “Help me up. Where’s my pony?”

  She struggled to her feet, still wobbly and grabbed Desiray’s reins. “Come on!” she insisted. “Give me a leg up!”

  “Alice,” Cameron shook his head, “the bell has gone.”

  Alice ignored him and put her foot in the iron and sprang back up into the saddle.

  “The bell sounded after I fell,” she said to Cameron.

  “And I was fouled by the Winchester number three, which means we’re due a penalty shot. So it’s not over yet.”

  Alice was right. The bell had sounded, but that didn’t mean that the match had ended. The referee still had the power to hand out a penalty – and he was using it. He rode up to Georgie. “Get your girls back on their horses,” he told her. “That was a direct foul on your number three. I’m giving you an undefended penalty from the thirty-yard mark. Choose a rider from your team to take the shot.”

  “See?” Emily said to Daisy. “Aren’t you glad now that you didn’t thump him? We’re still in with a chance!”

  Georgie mounted up and rode over to Alice. “Are you feeling up to taking the shot?”

  Alice shook her head. “I want to say yes, but to be honest, I’m still seeing two polo balls instead of one!”

  “Emily? Daisy? Do you guys want to take it?”

  Emily shook her head. “You’re the captain, Georgie. It’s yours.”

  “She’s right,” Daisy agreed. “The captain should take it. Go even the score with those numnahs!”

  As Georgie rode Princess forward to the thirty-yard line, she felt the eyes of the Blainford Academy upon her. Half the school was up in the grandstands right now watching her. The scoreboard stood at five-four in favour of the Winchester Reserves. If she got this penalty shot through the posts then they would be tied. If she missed, then her team and her school would lose.

  “No pressure though, Princess,” Georgie murmured to the mare beneath her.

  The referee set the ball on the line and Georgie pressed Princess into a canter, going up into two-point position as she turned the mare round in a circle so that she had a run-up towards the ball.

  In the stands the Blainford pupils were clapping along and chanting the school song as she cantered:

  Bay, dun, dapple-grey, Blainford take it all the way!

  Whip, spur, martingale, Blainford girls never fail!

  We’re here! We’re true! We’re silver and we’re blue!

  All-stars! All-stars! All-stars!

  There was something strangely energising about having the shouts and cheers of hundreds of students behind her as she approached the ball. Princess felt it too. The mare was like a coiled spring and Georgie had to steady her back so they wouldn’t overshoot the mark. As she prepared to swing at the ball she tried to remember everything that she’d been taught over the past few months, to keep her pace rhythmical, shoulders relaxed and her arm loose and soft. She was right on the thirty-yard line when she took a deep breath, swung back and struck the ball with a resounding crack.

  The line was straight and true and the roar from the crowd came up as the ball flew perfectly dead centre between the posts. It was a goal!

  Georgie cantered back to her team mates, her polo stick held up over her head as the ref’s whistle blew.

  As the girls hugged in joy, the Winchester players remained motionless on their horses, standing behind the goal line.

  “What’s up with the four horsemen of the apocalypse?” Daisy pointed at them. “What are they waiting for?”

  “Yeah!” Emily said. “The game is over – it’s a tie!”

  Alice shook her head. “You can’t finish a game on a tied score. There’s going to be a rundown.”

  The rundown was the ultimate polo tie-breaker. To decide the outcome of the match, each team lined up behind their opponents’ goal line and sprinted from one end of the field to the other with the ball.

  “You have to get all four of your players and your ball across your goal line to win,” Alice explained as the girls lined up behind the goal posts.

  “Do all four of us have to do it?” Georgie asked Alice pointedly. “A minute ago you couldn’t even see straight!”

  “I’m fine,” Alice insisted. “I don’t need to see straight to gallop – Desiray knows the way!”

  “That number three better watch out,” Daisy muttered. “I’m planning to take a swing at him on the halfway line with my mallet as he goes past.”

  “Daisy!” The girls all reacted.

  “I’m joking!” Daisy said. “I don’t want to risk giving him a penalty!”

  As the girls lined up behind their goal line, Georgie rode over to Emily.

  “You’re going to take the first shot off the line,” she told her. “You’ve got the best arm of any of us. Hit it as far as you can and then Daisy will ride it down to take the next stroke. OK?”

  “OK,” Emily looked terrified. At the other end of the field the Winchester squad were moving into formation and in the grandstands the Blainford students were starting up the school chant again as the girls took their places.

  On the line, Princess was getting worked up with excitement. The mare went up on her hind legs and at that moment the whistle blew.

  Alice and Daisy broke into a gallop as Emily eyed up the polo ball like a pro-golfer.

  “Just hit the thing!” Georgie bellowed. “Let’s go!”

  Emily swung her mallet back and smashed the ball so hard it flew halfway down the field. Georgie let the reins go and Princess surged forward, her strides swallowing the ground.

  Up ahead she could see Daisy strike the ball as she crossed the centre of the field with the Winchester riders charging at her from the other direction.

  Daisy and Alice had the lead, but Emily was making up the time she’d lost at the start line, urging her mare on, asking for more speed.

  Georgie stood up in her stirrups, leaning forward over Princess’s neck. Until now, Georgie had always assumed that Riley hadn’t wanted the mare because she was too slow to be a racehorse, but as they powered down on the halfway line, she realised she had been wrong. Princess was stretching out, her long, flat strides betraying her Thoroughbred bloodlines. Georgie was pretty sure that she had never gone this fast on a horse before.

  There was a sickening moment at the centre line when Georgie realised she was heading straight for one of the Winchester players going in the opposite direction. She shut her eyes and pulled Princess hard to the right, hoping that the Winchester rider wouldn’t go the same way. Two strides later, she opened her eyes and she was out the other side and heading for the finish line. The rundown would be close – the Winchester Players were galloping as hard out as the Blainford girls. They must be neck and neck.

  At the quarter marker Georgie had
caught up to the other girls as Alice caught the polo ball with a neat shot, edging it closer to the line.

  The sight of the ball zipping ahead of them seemed to energise Princess. The mare chased it down and Georgie arced her stick back and struck the ball with a clean thwack, shooting it over the line before galloping the last yards with her three team mates at her side as they stormed to the finish.

  As the four girls rode across the line they had their backs to the Winchester Reserves and couldn’t see whether they had beaten them or not. But they didn’t need to – an unmistakeable roar went up from the stands. The school was on their feet and the chant began. “All-Stars! All-Stars!”

  Blainford Academy had won the Low Goal Bluegrass Cup.

  *

  Two days later, Georgie climbed the stairs that led to Mrs Dickins-Thomson’s office once again. She had been summoned by the headmistress, although she had no idea why. They were no longer in trouble for leaving the school grounds without permission to compete in the qualifiers. Winning the match had conveniently erased any misdemeanours as far as Mrs Dickins-Thomson was concerned. How could you be in trouble when you were the school’s heroes?

  Yesterday, at assembly, Georgie, Alice, Emily and Daisy had been called on to the stage of the Great Hall and presented with their winners’ trophy and their school ‘colours’ in polo – a badge that indicated sporting excellence of the highest order. It was the second time in the history of the Blainford Academy that any girl had been awarded this honour.

  “I believe you knew the last girl who won this,” Mrs Dickins-Thomson said to Georgie with a smile as she pinned the badge on her collar. “Like mother, like daughter.”

  Georgie had phoned Lucinda that night back in Little Brampton to tell her the news.