The rematch is run. It had been deferred twice since the race of the sixteenth of April first put it in the air, both times for want of the Clerk of the Race, who finally scheduled it himself on returning to the pond on the first instant. It went off Wednesday afternoon, down the east channel, Old Willow to Sluice, in conditions favourable on every particular that has caused a dispute in seasons past. The water was low. The breeze was north and gentle. The start was clean. The finish was held at waist height by the Clerk of the Race’s own beak.
A field of nine started at the whistle, which sounded on time. Two veterans of the spring race were in it. The Rising Young Goose of the north bank, whose name is still withheld at her request, pending paperwork. The Veteran Mallard, formerly of the south shore, whose preparation this reporter understands was a good deal more considered than his spring entry had allowed. And the coot, entered for the second Sprint running under his disputed category, bringing with him this time, the reporter records with care, no pebble.
The Clerk recorded the official running order at the finish before any protest could be lodged. On this occasion, the reporter notes, none was. It stood as follows:
- The Rising Young Goose of the north bank, at eight splashes and a quarter
- The Veteran Mallard, formerly of the south shore, at eight splashes and three quarters
- The coot, classification under amendment as below, at nine splashes and a small commotion
- A drake of the middle shallows, at nine splashes and a half
- A goose of the east bank, at ten splashes 6 to 9. Remaining field, times unrecorded, variously present
The margin was half a splash or thereabouts, narrower than the spring’s. The Veteran Mallard, approached at the finish, put the difference down to “the consequence of having, this time, both meant and trained to be present.” He would not characterise the spring result. The Rising Young Goose declined an interview, courteously. The coot, when reached, was at the bank to the Clerk of the Race’s left, plainly busy with a matter this reporter did not feel qualified to interrupt.
The Warden of the Sluice presided at the finish. This is the first physical attendance at the sluice itself the reporter has reliable record of from him this season. He spoke once, to confirm to the Clerk of the Race that the finish line was where it had been at the previous Sprint. Otherwise he did what the Warden does best, which is to stand near the sluice gate in such a way that the gate appears, by his presence, to need no adjustment. The Deputy of the Warden of the Sluice was there throughout, three positions to the Warden’s left, with her notebook. She did not speak. Drake Halford was at the east bank, with the appropriate quiet attention. Mabel, of the north bank, was at the south reeds, in what this reporter believes was her first non-rehearsal public appearance since the programme of the twenty-first of June.
Then the Clerk of the Race issued, as his first official act on returning, an amendment. The coot’s classification, until now “Coot (ineligible),” was amended in the hearing of all present. It now reads “Coot (third), subject to further deliberation by the Subcommittee on the question of category formalisation,” every word of which the Clerk pronounced. The pebble, kept in the Clerk’s keeping since the twenty-first of May, was returned to the coot at the finish line. The Clerk of the Race did not call the amendment a settlement of the wider question, and this reporter records that he did not.
The coot’s response is set down here as the reporter recorded it. First a long pause, which this paper puts at not less than nine breaths. Then a single honk of unusual quietness, which the reporter did not at first take for a honk and which the Clerk of the Race, on inquiry, confirmed had been one. Then a careful repositioning of the pebble on the bank to the coot’s left, done with a deliberateness the matter, at this point in the season, may be felt to have earned.
The race is settled and the pebble is home. The category, though, is not. The Clerk amended the record without closing the question behind it, and sent the question of category formalisation on to the Subcommittee. The matter remains open.