14.Pass the Ball! 传球！
Chapter 1   
  Every Friday after school, Tommy went to Grandad’s house for tea.
  Take-away fish and chips with extra-hot curry sauce. Brilliant.
  Then, after they’d eaten, Grandad would get out his scrap album. He liked to talk about the old days.
  ‘You wouldn’t believe it now, Tom, but I was a champion footballer.
  ‘Did you, Grandad?’ Tommy would say. ‘Tell me what happened.’
  Tommy never tired of listening, even thought he’d heard it all before. It was great. Just the two of them.
  But on Saturdays, things were different. Tommy got really embarrassed by his grandad then..
  He hated the way Grandad would turn up at school football matches wearing his old team kit.
  Shirt, socks, boots. Worst of all, those awful, long white shorts. Yuk. Tommy hated seeing Grandad’s skinny, purple-veined legs sticking out. They looked horrible.
Chapter 2
  ‘Can’t you make him stop?’ Tommy asked his mum. She was folding up his goalie kit for that afternoon’s match..
  ‘Tom, love,’ said his mum, ‘you should be grateful he’s not your dad. When I was your age, Grandad used to meet me and your Auntie Ruth out of school.
  ‘Then he’d make us dibble a football all the way home. A mile and a half of sheer torment. I still get wobbly legs just thinking about it.’
  ‘I wouldn’t mind that,’ said Tommy. ‘It would be great. Can I dribble a football all the way home on Monday?’
  But his mum wasn’t listening. She was miles away.
  ‘Ooooh,’ she shuddered. ‘And there was this little squirt called Trevor Davies. He used to follow us, shouting out rude rhymes.’
  ‘What sort of rude rhymes?’ asked Tommy.
  ‘I can’t remember now. It was a long time ago. Something about droopy knickers, I think.’
  What was rude about droopy knickers? he wondered.
  Then he said, ‘Our new team coach is called Trevor Davies.’
  ‘Is he thin as a whippet?’ asked Mum.
  ‘Yes!’ said Tommy. ‘How did you know? And his nephew Mike Davies is going to be our striker. It’s not fair.’
  ‘Is Mike a good player?’ asked his mum.
  Tommy was torn for a split-second. But he wanted to be truthful, so he sighed and said, ‘Yes. He is. He’s brilliant. Mr Davies says that one day soon , he’s going to be spotted by a talent scout. Then one of the big clubs will  whisk him away.’
  An idea struck him. ‘If Grandad was playing football now, do you think he’d be famous?’
  ‘Maybe,’ said Tommy’s mum. ‘But right now you’ve a match to play. So hero’s your stuff. Don’t forget to put your muddy boots in the plastic bag. Oh, and it’s raining, so I’ll drop you off at school. Grandad will be at the match. He’ll bring you home afterwards. All right?’
  Blazing bananas, thought Tommy. No it wasn’t. But Grandad loved to see him play.
  By the time they got the school, the rain had turned to a fine drizzle.
  ‘Do you think they’ll cancel the game?’ asked Tommy’s mum.
  ‘No chance,’ said Tommy. ‘Mr Davies said that even snow wouldn’t stop it. It’s a dead important match. Forest Hill Juniors hammered us last time. Eight-nil. It was terrible.
  ‘We can’t lose this one or we’ll be out of the League Cup.’
  ‘Oh, right. THAT important,’ said his mum, ruffling his hair. She was about to give him a kiss, but he managed to embarrassment anyway.
  But, oh no! There was Grandad jogging towards them. He had a football under one arm.
  ‘All right our Tom?’ he said. ‘Get changed and we’ll have a warm up.’   
‘Grandad,’growled Tommy,trying to look fierce..’Everyone’s looking.’
  ‘Take no notice ,’ said Grandad. He was touching his toes, wiggling his shouldes, doing side bends.
  ‘After all,’he went on. ‘Not many lads have a grandad who nealy played for England. And don’t forget that bit of advice I gave you.
  ‘All good goalies watch the striker’s eyes. Where a player’s looking, is where he’s kicking. OK?’
Tommy sighed. ‘Yes,Gandad.’ Then he sloped off to join the rest of the team.
  As he got closer, he could see Mike laughing and pointing at him.
  ‘Your grandad hoping to join the team?’ sneered Mike.
  Tommy scowled.
  ‘You leave my grandad alone. He used to be a brilliant player.’
shudder
  ‘Oh, yeah?’ snorted Mike. ‘Who’d he play for then? was it Diplodocus Hotspurs?’
  ‘I suppose you think that’s funny?’ hissed Tommy.
  ‘We do lads, don’t we?’ said Mike. He turned to Tommy’s team mates. Some of them sniggered.

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