The third-place qualification matrix had, Griselda acknowledged, become complex.
This was an understatement of some magnitude. The calculation involved points, goal difference, goals scored, fair-play conduct scores, and FIFA rankings, applied across eight groups of which five had now completed and three had not, with yesterday’s results having introduced what Gwendoline was carefully describing in her bulletin as “a degree of additional nuance.” What she meant was that three matches had gone entirely the wrong way and the picture was now, mathematically speaking, quite difficult to look at directly.
Griselda had covered three whiteboards. She had requested a fourth.
It was also extremely hot.
Gertrude had abandoned the seed store on grounds of temperature and was sitting very still in the corner with a small electric fan and an expression of determined calm. The seeds were fine. She had checked. She had then gone back and checked again because it was very hot and there was nothing else to do while Griselda covered the whiteboards.
Gwendoline had drafted a bulletin that said Scotland’s qualification was “subject to ongoing computational review” and had sent it, and then sent a follow-up bulletin that said the same thing in different words, and was now drafting a third.
Greta was lying on the floor next to the fourth whiteboard. She had not been asked to lie on the floor. She appeared to be looking at the ceiling. At intervals she passed Griselda a marker pen without being asked, which was either very helpful or not helpful at all depending on how one felt about the situation, which was: very hot, and unresolved.
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/third-places