At school, ball games were never my thing.
I could score goals … but only in my own net
(that childhood tournament haunts me still).
I’d knock my own bails off in cricket matches
and never keep a tennis ball in court.
My humble stature left me overwhelmed
in rugby’s crush and overlooked in basketball.

Today the fear returned. Invited back
onto the field to join the staff in battle,
I grasped the rounders bat and tried to banish
the rising sense of shame; ‘Oh no, it’s Ben’
I heard again. But then, another childhood
chant emerged unbidden from the past.
I heard at last the call, ‘Just keep yer eye
upon the ball!’ and with these words in mind
I faced the bowler and swiftly swung my bat.

And with that swing I banished both the ball
and school-hood shame, as with astonishment
I watched it fly through crowd and air and ran,
and ran, around base one and two and three,
and reached the final post before the fall.
What bliss! What cheers! Redemption’s mine!
Salvation found within that skyward ball!

This afternoon I arrived at school prepared for the annual humiliation of the Year 6 Vs Staff and clergy rounders match.
(16.07.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Ross Sneddon on Unsplash