The knockout phase had begun, and Gerbil World Cup HQ was, for the first time since the mudslide incident, operating at full administrative capacity.
Griselda had produced a bracket. It was laminated.
The bracket had required three attempts to get right, because the Hanseatic League presented certain structural complications — specifically, that they were not a team, had never been a team, and their participation in the tournament had been approved during a period that Griselda described as “the early administrative phase,” by which she meant before anyone had looked too carefully at the entry forms. They were through to the knockout stage regardless. The bracket had a box for them. The box was slightly larger than the other boxes, for reasons that Griselda declined to explain.
Gwendoline had issued a communications bulletin describing the field as “historically diverse” and “a testament to the breadth of the gerbil game.” She had not mentioned the Hanseatic League by name in the bulletin. She had mentioned them four times in the footnotes.
Gertrude had scaled up seed procurement accordingly. Knockout football meant longer matches, potentially extra time, potentially penalties, and Gertrude had prepared for all contingencies. The seed store had not looked like this since the inaugural tournament. She was extremely pleased.
Glory the mascot had been brought out of storage and was in excellent condition except for one ear, which was now a slightly different shade of yellow and which everyone had agreed, formally and in writing, not to mention.
Tunnel were through. Scotland were through. England were through, which the Department was processing with calibrated awareness. The Hanseatic League were through, in whatever sense that meant anything.
Greta had updated the bracket with the first round of knockout fixtures. Most of the other boxes were empty, because the matches had not been played, which was the correct reason for a box to be empty.
Some of them had been filled in anyway. Griselda had looked at these for a long moment and had decided not to ask.
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/knockouts