Just Sex Mates (boyxboy)

Chapter 16: Tournament.

Eight boys had entered the air hockey singles competition. Taylor, Tyler, and Connor were the only ones I knew. I was relieved that the prick Ivor and his mates hadn't bothered to register. Lots were drawn for the first round to see who would play who. It was a knockout competition, best of three games and two tables were being used. Connor and Tyler were both on one table and Taylor was on the other.

Each game would last five minutes and was timed by a countdown clock, beside the referee, which was clearly visible to everyone. In the event of a draw they played on until the next goal which would decide who was the winner.

The referee quickly read out the basic rules. "You can stand anywhere around the table as long as you don't cross the centre line. You can only hit the puck if it's on your side of it, and when the puck passes over it, you have seven seconds to return it. If the puck is touching the centre line, either player can hit it. No distracting your opponent by talking, making loud noises, or excessively shouting. Any foul I call means you give up possession of the puck to your opponent immediately. Is that clear?"

There was a chorus of replies of making various sounds of acknowledgement, mainly grunts.

"Need I say that anyone caught topping will incur a foul against them," reminded the referee, "and the puck must land in goal and stay there for it to score. If it bounces in and out, it doesn't count!"

I couldn't help it. I sniggered loudly as the referee said 'topping' and Tyler gave me an odd look.

"It's bringing your mallet down on the puck to stop it or drag it," Taylor said helpfully, "not what you're thinking."

"Oh! Thank you," I answered, covering my blushing cheeks. "That's good to know.... I thought my luck had changed."

Taylor's nudge to my ribs really hurt.

Connor was up next on Table 1 with Taylor playing on Table 2 at the same time. I couldn't watch both so I chose to watch Taylor. He won in two games very quickly and I was able to watch Connor win the last of the three games he ended up playing.

The draw for the next round saw Connor pitted against Tyler and Taylor pitted against a French guy called Jeremy. I knew Jeremy was French because of the remarks being clearly made to Taylor of a derogatory nature by some of the crowd regarding his opponents nationality. Not very entente cordiale at all. But then tensions between us and the French were very high as they had been playing up by seizing British fishing boats in a dispute over fishing rights and seemingly doing nothing about the hordes of refugees illegally crossing the channel using inflatable boats, so it wasn't that surprising given our closeness to France.

Taylor was drawn to play first and with his confidence boosted and the crowd well behind him, he easily dispatched Jeremy in two games. The crowd went wild and poor Jeremy was subjected to further humiliation as the crowd made croaking noises, mimicking the sound a frog makes. Even Tyler joined in with a French tank joke that had everyone laughing. Very unkind and not very PC either.

Poor Jeremy. He didn't deserve it. I had great sympathy for him having to endure all the banter and still having to play in a competition.

Connor and Tyler's match went to three games with not a lot in it. It was a lucky deflection in the final 20 seconds that saw Connor come out as the winner.

The final was between Taylor and Connor. Quite frankly I wasn't sure who to root for.

Connor positioned himself low over his goal, his pert bum nicely displayed for my delectation, as he prepared to start the game. The puck wildly crashed with a real thud all around Taylor's goal and off his mallet as he protected it. I was surprised it never entered the slot given the ferocity of Connor's opening play.