The Gold Bat

At Wrykyn school the football season is going badly, and a shadowy society calling itself the League begins sending anonymous threats to players it judges are letting the side down. When a statue of a local worthy is found smeared with tar one night, a small gold cricket-bat charm left at the scene throws suspicion on the wrong boys and sets off a tangle of loyalty, blame, and schoolboy honour. Trevor, the football captain, has to hold his team together and clear his friends while the real culprits stay hidden. An early Wodehouse school story, brisk with matches, ragging, and house rivalry, written well before he turned to the drawing-room comedy that made him famous. Free to read here as a PDF and EPUB edition.