Chapters 1-3 are available here and I will post more as he writes them over the next few weeks!
The Twickenham Trials – Chapter 1
Twickenham Stadium, Thursday 17 September
Woody and Rory smiled gleefully when they saw it. The glittering gold trophy. Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour inscribed on its blue banner background.
Three uniforms stood guarding it.
‘I don’t know why you’re smiling,’ a taller boy standing behind them said, nudging Woody playfully with his shoulder.
The third boy was Owen. He, Woody and Rory were best mates and team mates. Looking smart but scruffy in their uniforms, they were representing their school rugby team at Twickenham Stadium, one day before the Rugby World Cup kicked off. Invited – at the last minute – to join a roomful of men and women chinking wine glasses and eating posh food off silver trays.
‘What are you rabbiting on about?’ Woody stared at Owen.
‘You! Smiling! You don’t really think England are going to win it, do you?’ Owen asked.
‘I do, actually,’ Woody snapped.
‘Me too,’ Rory nodded.
But Woody and Rory knew exactly what Owen was really getting at.
Wales.
Owen was convinced Wales would win it. Owen was Welsh. And, for him, this was their year. With Warren Gatland as coach they couldn’t fail. He thought.
Woody and Rory disagreed. Intensely.
As the three boys exchanged jibes, none of them had any idea that they were about to be pitched into the strangest and most dangerous five weeks of their lives. Nor, that it would all be caused the girl who had walked calmly towards them, approaching from behind.
‘Hi,’ she said loudly, cutting their banter dead.
The three boys turned to look round to see who had interrupted them. She was taller than Rory and Woody, but the same height as Owen. Her corkscrew hair framed a deep brown complexion.
‘Hi,’ Rory said back.
But Owen and Woody just stared at her.
‘I’m Rose,’ the girl said. ‘And I need you to do something for me.’
None of the boys responded. This situation felt more than unusual. The posh room, the trophy, and now this girl.
‘I need you to watch the trophy,’ Rose carried on.
‘Er…why?’ Woody asked.
Rose lowered her voice. ‘Well… it’s about to be stolen.’
‘What?’ Owen asked. ‘From here? With all this security? No chance.’
The girl stepped back. Rory noticed that she seemed to adjust a small object in her left ear, hidden by her hair, before she merged with the other party guests and disappeared from their sight.
‘Crazy,’ Woody laughed.
Owen scratched his head. ‘Yeah, crazy,’ he echoed.
Rory smiled. Rose was definitely crazy: but he liked her.
Then a microphone was turned on and the room began to fall silent.
‘Speeches,’ Owen said, watching the blue banner behind the trophy shudder.
‘Yawn,’ Woody mouthed.
Rory was still looking for Rose amongst the other people there. But he couldn’t spot her.
And then – suddenly – darkness.
Voices.
A scream.
The noise of shuffling feet.
Then light again. No more than five seconds later.
Owen and Woody looked at each other, then at Rory, whose face looked crestfallen.
‘What’s up?’ Woody asked.
‘It’s gone,’ Rory gasped.
‘What’s gone?’
‘The cup.’
All three boys joined the suited wine drinkers as they studied the empty stand where the World Cup Trophy had been just moments before.
It had gone.
But how?
As everyone stared in silence, Rory noticed the black cables taped to the floor behind the trophy stand flex, then relax.
Then loud voice came over the speakers.
‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. DUE TO A TECHNICAL PROBLEM, WE ARE EVACUATING THE BUILDING. PLEASE ALLOW US TO SEARCH EACH OF YOU AS WE EVACUATE. THE MORE CALMLY WE DO THIS THE SOONER WE CAN GET AWAY. PLEASE DO AS YOU ARE ASKED TO DO BY THE SECURITY PERSONEL. FOR SECURITY REASONS WE NEED YOU NOT TO SPEAK, TWEET OR WRITE ABOUT THIS SITUATION UNTIL IT IS RESOLVED.’
But the three boys were not listening to the announcement. They were scanning the room. Looking for Rose. What did she know that they didn’t?
‘Where did she go?’ Woody asked.
‘No idea,’ Owen said. ‘But we have to find her.’
Rory spotted her first. Sitting at a table on her own, with her back to the panicking party guests, staring back at the boys. Smiling. Again.
The three boys moved swiftly across the room.
‘Why is she still here?’ Owen asked as they walked. ‘If she took the trophy…’
‘Maybe she didn’t,’ Rory suggested.
‘Hmm,’ Woody grumbled as he stopped in front of Rose, who looked up at them.
‘Where is it?’ Woody snapped.
‘It’s been taken,’ Rose replied. ‘I told you.’
‘By you?’ Owen jumped in
‘No,’ Rose laughed. ‘Don’t be stupid. Not me.’
‘By who, then?’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ Rose leaned forward. ‘What matters is that you have to find it. All three of you. Together.’
Rose stared at the trio of boys in such a way that they all went quiet. Almost like they were being hypnotised.
‘Why us?’ Owen asked.
‘Because the reason you are here is to sort this out,’ Rose went on, urgent now. ‘Are there any other young people here? No. And if you don’t do something – and if you don’t work as a team – then it’s gone forever. Only you can find it. No-one else. And – well – it’s going to be rather embarrassing if you don’t, isn’t it?’
Owen stared at his two friends.
‘This is crazy,’ he said. ‘Let’s tell the security people. Turn her in. Come on.’
‘We’d sound mad,’ Rory shook his head. ‘They might even think we were something to do with it.’
‘So, what do we do?’ Woody asked. ‘Go and search for it?’
All the time the three boys were aware that Rose was still studying them. As a group they turned their back on her – so they could talk without feeling her gaze.
‘I saw something,’ Rory said. ‘The cables. Behind the trophy. After it had gone.’
‘What?’
‘They moved. Like someone was pulling on them. Just after the lights came back on.’
‘Is that all we have?’ Owen asked.
‘It’s not enough. Let’s turn her in,’ Woody said. ‘We’re schoolboys, not detectives.’
‘We can’t,’ Rory said, pointing at the empty chair where Rose had been sitting.
The mysterious girl had vanished again.
‘Now what?’ Owen asked.
Owen and Rory looked to Woody. He was the decisive one.
Woody paused. Breathed in deeply, then out.
‘We go after it,’ he said. ‘We find the trophy. Then we find that girl. Come on…’
QUESTIONS
Where do you think the Rugby World Cup trophy has gone? Do you have a theory? Why do you think that?
Can the three boys get the trophy back before the Rugby World Cup kicks off the next day? What will happen if they don’t find it?
Who is Rose? Is she good or is she bad?
The Twickenham Trials – Chapter 2
Twickenham Stadium, Friday 18 September
Woody, Rory and Owen have just witnessed the theft of the Rugby World Cup trophy at a posh function next to Twickenham Stadium. They have been told by a mysterious girl – Rose – that they have to recover the trophy before the tournament kicks off on Friday evening. They have no idea who she is and what she’s talking about, but they have decided to go along with it.
Woody, Owen and Rory headed for the exit. Time to start their quest.
A large man in a purple jacket blocked their route to the door.
‘Not yet, lads,’ he growled.
‘What?’ Woody asked. ‘We’re staying in the stadium hotel. Just there. Can’t we just…’
‘Not yet. There’s a curfew a mile around the stadium. You know why. No one moves until it’s lifted. Understood?’
Woody nodded and led his two friends away from the door.
‘So now what?’ Owen asked.
‘We make a plan,’ Woody said. ‘Once they let us out, we’ll be ready.’
‘How?’
‘Teamwork,’ Rory said. ‘Rose said teamwork.’
‘Go on then,’ Woody challenged. ‘Show us some teamwork.’
‘Well,’ Rory said. ‘We need to pool everything we know. Then see where it leads us.’
Owen told the others he’d spotted the boards behind the trophy wobble.
Rory reminded them about the electricity leads he saw moving.
‘Is there anything else?’ Woody asked.
The three boys stared at each other for a few seconds.
‘So, the wires moved,’ Owen volunteered. ‘Because someone was behind the trophy stand?’
‘But the wires moved at least ten seconds after the cup had been taken,’ Rory said. ‘There was no one there.’
‘Which means?’ Woody pressed.
Rory paused. ‘Which means that the wires were disturbed outside this building by whoever it was making away with the trophy. Which means that wherever the wires go could be where the trophy went.’
Although the boys were making progress, they terminated their conversation when two large men came to stand very close to them. And not just any two men, but two England players from 2003. Two Rugby World Cup winners!
‘So, if the police don’t find the trophy…’ one of them said.
The other player laughed. But it was not a happy laugh. ‘If they don’t find it, and if it is not on that stand for the opening ceremony in a few hours, then it will be a disaster for England and a disaster for rugby union. Full stop.’
Thirty minutes after the trophy had been taken, an announcement was made. The trophy had still not been found. People were – at last – permitted to go. If anyone was staying in the stadium hotel, they were told, they had to go straight there. No hanging around.
As the three boys left, they noticed several police vans and cars outside. Two helicopters in the air, searchlights scanning the ground. Dogs barking. The search was on for the trophy. The boys decided to do as they were told and go to their hotel.
For now.
They crept out of the hotel at 3 a.m.
There was no-one on the reception desk.
Outside, the helicopter searchlights and dogs had gone. All the police vehicles too.
But someone was watching them. Someone with a thermal imaging camera, tracking and recording their every move.
Rose.
But the boys did not know that. They were focused on their quest. Nothing else.
Woody took the initiative. He led the other two around the edge of the stadium, past the entrance gates and towards the prefabricated building where they had been the evening before. It was dark. It was cold. It was almost perfectly silent.
They moved slowly. Barely daring to breathe. Silent gestures. Wordless. Until they found themselves round the back of the building from where the trophy had been taken.
They quickly located what they had come to see. A thick bunch of black electric leads came from the side of the building towards a stream that ran between Twickenham and a school on the other side. Rory could just make out the words Chase Bridge School over the door, illuminated by street lights.
Above the stream was a scaffolding structure carrying the wires over the water and into the school grounds. Through what looked like a school garden, then an area of the school grounds being used for more pre-fab buildings.
‘Over there,’ Rory grinned. ‘They must have taken the trophy over there.’
The other two agreed.
Woody had an idea. ‘Let’s…’
‘HEY YOU BOYS. GET BACK HERE NOW.’
None of them looked to see who had shouted. They just ran. Away from the voice. But almost immediately they hit a fence, turned right, then hit another fence.
No way out.
Trapped.
Owen’s instinct was to climb the wire fence. The others followed. They climbed, dropped down, then scrambled across the stream.
The water was up to their waists. Ice cold.
They heard dogs barking at the same time.
‘What now?’ Owen gasped.
‘In the water, where the guards can’t see us,’ Woody said. ‘And under the water, so the dogs will lose our scent.’
Five minutes later the three boys were still lying in a metre of water, only their heads showing.
The dogs’ barking had stopped. The shouting too.
‘What did the girl mean?’ Owen asked weakly.
‘Rose?’ Rory asked, hearing his own voice juddering with the cold, just like Owen’s.
‘Yeah, Rose. When she said we had been chosen?’
‘She was just crazy,’ Woody contributed. ‘I told you.’
‘But she knew,’ Rory contradicted Woody. ‘She knew the trophy was going to be taken.’
Woody had no answer for that. All three boys lay in the cold water, feeling it soak every thread they were wearing, then chilling their flesh to the bone.
Just fifteen metres away, hidden underneath a Portacabin and with cam cream on her face to avoid light reflection, Rose was filming the three boys. And recording their conversation. She smiled as they speculated about who she was.
They’ll find out soon enough, she thought, smiling again.
After two more freezing minutes, Woody began to crawl downstream. ‘Come on,’ he said.
‘Where to?’ Owen whispered.
‘That bridge. The one under the road. We might be able to climb out of here, sneak back to the hotel.’
‘But what about finding the trophy?’ Rory complained. ‘If we don’t…’
‘Forget it Rory,’ Woody snapped. ‘We’ll freeze to death if we don’t get out of this river now. Hypothermia. Have you heard of that? Anyway, the trophy’s not going to be in some old stream, is it? It’ll be long gone.’
Owen and Rory followed. They were so cold and uncomfortable now, they knew they had to get out of there.
Once they were under the bridge, they rested, waiting to take Woody’s lead. A car passed over the bridge.
‘The plan is to climb out the other side. Go over the road. Then the hotel. Dry off somehow…’ Woody went on.
Owen was listening and nodding. But Rory was not.
‘What was that?’ Rory interrupted.
Owen and Woody looked at Rory.
‘What was what?’
‘When that car came past its headlight reflected off something above us.’
‘Up there?’
‘Yeah.’
The three boys gazed upwards. There was nothing to see but blackness.
‘Are you sure?’ Owen asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘Get on my shoulders,’ Owen said to Woody.
Woody shrugged. Water was dripping off him. He was freezing. How much worse could this be?
Woody balanced as Owen heaved him up so that he could touch the underside of the bridge.
‘Show us where,’ Owen gasped.
‘Left a bit. Right a bit. Yes, it was about there.’
Woody put his hand into a cavity above him. He was terrified of having a rat brush against his hand. Or worse, bite him. But he didn’t tell the others that.
Then – suddenly – he felt something cold and smooth at his fingertips.
‘There’s something here,’ Woody said quietly.
Questions
Is the smooth object hidden under the bridge the trophy – or something a lot more dangerous? What could it be?
Why do you think Rose is filming the boys?
Did the boys show teamwork on their quest? How many ways did they show it?
To find out about more free rugby literacy resources, created by Tom Palmer and the RFU, visit here.
To read Tom Palmer’s Rugby World Cup blog, visit here.
The next chapter of The Twickenham Trials will be published here before 6 a.m. on the morning of Monday 21st September. Enjoy the first weekend of the Rugby World Cup!
The Twickenham Trials – Chapter 3
Woody, Rory and Owen were asked to find the Rugby World Cup and return it in time for the opening ceremony at Twickenham. In the process, they had been chased by dogs, barked at by security guards and were forced to lie in a metre of water before Rory spotted something…
Three boys walked into the hotel on the south side of Twickenham, each wearing an England flag around their shoulders. The receptionist smiled at them as they waited for the lift to take them up to their room. He had no idea their clothes underneath were soaking wet. Or that they had just returned the missing World Cup Trophy to the RFU.
Rory had been right: it was hidden under the bridge.
They’d retrieved it, carried it towards the stadium and placed it at the door to the RFU’s offices, ringing the doorbell, then running to hide just to watch and make sure someone took it inside.
Then – breathless and suddenly exhausted – they fished out the England flags they’d been given at the party the night before and donned them to hide their soaking and filthy clothes.
As soon as they made it into their three-bed room, Owen threw his flag off.
‘Oh man, I can’t believe I wore an England flag. I need a shower.’
Woody picked up red and white flag, brushed it down and scowled at Owen. He was about to say something when the giant TV in the room flickered on.
The boys stared at it in surprise and couldn’t believe what they were seeing. A night-time scene outside in the dark. Lights overhead in the sky. A river reflecting the light. And three figures lying in its water.
‘It’s us,’ Woody gasped.
Rory and Owen nodded, speechless.
They watched themselves hiding from the dogs in the water, then emerging from under the bridge with the trophy. Finally dropping it at the door of the RFU and running away.
Then the film cut to Rose. Her smiling face. Their hotel room in the background.
‘Hello boys. Well done. You did it. You found the trophy. You passed the first test.’
‘First test?’ Rory muttered the question to himself.
‘And I owe you a big explanation,’ Rose went on.
‘Er… yeah,’ Woody grunted.
‘So, come and meet me at the Cardiff Rugby World Cup Fanzone on Sunday and I’ll tell you everything. It’s in Cardiff Arms Park. There are train tickets and cash in your hotel safe. The code is 2003. See you tomorrow.’
The screen went black.
And the three friends stood, stunned and speechless.
The train journey from London to Cardiff was fun. The boys met a family of Japanese fans who were laughing and grinning wildly, travelling from Brighton after beating South Africa and heading to Gloucester for their next match against Scotland.
Owen had bought that day’s Rugby Paper. Together they looked at the pictures of the opening ceremony, the panels of a giant ball being peeled away to show the Webb Ellis Trophy on top of a giant stand. It was hard to believe that – without them – there would have been no trophy to reveal.
Owen waved the newspaper at Woody as they got off the train.
‘It says here Wales don’t have much to worry about after England’s game,’ he said.
Woody scowled. ‘We won, I think you’ll find. With a bonus point.’
Rory said nothing. He could see that Saturday’s England v Wales match was starting to get to his friends, Owen revelling in being in Cardiff, near his beloved Millennium Stadium.
‘Man, I wish I had a ticket,’ Owen said excitedly.
‘Me too,’ Woody grumbled. ‘Then we’d not have to put up with you.’
On their way to the fanzone – inside Cardiff Arms Park, another rugby stadium next to the Millennium – they walked past a giant rugby ball that looked like it was smashing through a castle wall. Cardiff looked amazing, flags and smiling faces everywhere.
Inside the fanzone they easily found Rose. She was sitting in a red deckchair, watching Samoa versus the USA on one of the two giant TV screens. Rory thought she looked nice. But he didn’t say so to his friends.
Woody went straight at her, demanding answers.
‘Right,’ he said. ‘Spill.’
‘I will,’ Rose said. ‘I promised I would. Once I had you all together.’
‘We’re here. All of us,’ Woody went on. ‘We want to know what you’ve got us involved in.’
Rose smiled, then took an envelope out of her pocket.
‘What’s that?’ Owen asked. It had Rugby World Cup branding on it. Could it really be what he was hoping it was?
‘It’s for you, Owen,’ Rose smiled.
‘Me?’
Rose slipped a piece of card out of the envelope.
Owen gasped. ‘A ticket. A ticket. For me?’
‘For you. Wales versus Uruguay. Kick-off is in seven minutes. You need to go now.’
‘Not before you tell us what’s going on,’ Woody demanded.
Owen was hoping from foot to foot, he was so excited. Looking like a little boy who needed the loo.
‘After the match, Woody,’ Rose said calmly. ‘Go, Owen, go.’
Owen ran towards the Millennium Stadium, shouting a thank you over his shoulder.
Rory looked at Woody. His face was as red as the dragon on the Wales flag that was billowing in the breeze above him. Woody was furious.
‘Tell me. Now,’ Woody said. ‘I’ll not wait.’
Rose shook her head. ‘I said I’d tell you together, Woody. And look, Owen has gone. You’ll have to wait a couple of hours now.’
Woody turned away and kicked the deckchair behind him.
Rory couldn’t help but smile. She was playing with Woody, winding him up. He grinned when he saw Rose grinning at him too. Then he blushed and looked away.
Three hours later, Owen returned. Buzzing.
Rory, Rose and Woody were sitting in the fanzone enjoying highlights of Wales’ 54-9 victory over Uruguay, as families queued for street food and to play on the challenge games there.
‘Where. Have. You. Been?’ Woody snapped. ‘The match finished an half an hour ago.’
‘Sorry,’ Owen said, his voice gravelly and damaged from cheering. ‘It was good. Thanks Rose.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Rose nodded. ‘And now I’ve got you together I can tell you exactly what I’ve got you involved in. It’s so big, so unbelievable, I wanted to be able to tell you face to face, all of you.’
‘Come on then,’ Woody snapped. ‘Speak.’
IMPORTANT MESSAGE.
At the end of tomorrow’s episode you will be asked to vote on what will happen next. The decision you will have to make will have a massive influence on the next day’s chapter and the rest of the entire story.
Questions
What is Rose about to tell the boys? Think up some theories and see if you’re right tomorrow.
Do you like Rose? Why? Or… why not?
To find out about more free rugby literacy resources, created by Tom Palmer and the RFU, please visithttp://tompalmer.co.uk/rugby-world-cup-2015.
Watch Tom Palmer’s six-minute Rugby World Cup vlog – about rugby fiction for kids – here.
https://youtu.be/6HhaUGNWr0o
The next chapter of The Twickenham Trials will be published here before 6 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday 22nd September.
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