Dewi and the Cricket Dragon

By Mark Frost

Dewi is a very ordinary boy from a small village called Ystrad in South Wales. His primary school makes a visit to the big international cricket stadium in Cardiff and nothing is quite the same after. The visit both sets up many problems for him and also inspires him with help from others to make some bold decisions as he encounters at least three big challenges.

Dewi finds that his love for cricket and Glamorgan takes him to new fields where he learns how to win in many more ways than he ever thought possible. Just in case you think this is just for boys, you’re wrong as the real hero is a girl. Dewi also finds out about a dragon.

An ideal read especially if your school has made a visit to Glamorgan Cricket’s headquarters stadium … and if not why not?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legend Press
• Release date: Jul 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789552201

Mark Frost

Mark Frost was co-creator, alongside David Lynch, and executive producer of the legendary ABC television series Twin Peaks. He received a Writers Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for the acclaimed television series Hill Street Blues, and in 2005 wrote and produced The Greatest Game Ever Played as a major motion picture from Walt Disney Studios. He is the bestselling author of The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Grand Slam, and the novels The Second Objective, The List of Seven, and The Six Messiahs. Mark lives in Los Angeles and upstate New York with his wife and son.

Book preview

yet?"

Chapter One

The Journey

Of course Dewi hardly slept the night before the big trip and in the morning after breakfast he rechecked his bag seven times.

I'm off to work now, have a good day! Dewi's mum had knelt down to speak to him. He thought it odd. She normally only did that on special occasions or when there was something serious. His older sisters were getting ready to leave for high school. Dewi wondered what it would be like next year when it was his turn. His primary school was on the way to the high school, so his sisters were supposed to walk him there every morning. The reality was that he often walked someway behind them. What also happened (and happened quite a lot these days) were two things. Turning the corner of his street there was a road called Metson Avenue, where he would bump into someone in his school, a girl. This girl was called Megan. When, reader, I say 'bumped', Dewi would try to time it so that he would pass by her house just when she left with her older brothers.

The second thing to note was something a lot less nice, something that made him worry. Further down the road where Megan lived was a turning where he would leave his sisters and within a one minute walk was his school. At that corner there would often be a group of boys and girls from another street, some of whom he was actually scared of.

As Dewi turned out of Metson Avenue he could see that Megan had already come out of her house and was with a friend called Mari and Mari’s brother Jonathan Derrick. He stepped up the pace but as he reached the two girls he also came close to his sisters. Mari looked back. He looked at her. His older sister Amanda looked at Dewi with a tiny smile. They walked a little longer and he noticed that despite talking with her friend, Megan looked back at him and smiled.

'Bang', something hit his head and he felt something wet and smelly dripping down his neck. A cackle of harsh laughter spilled out over the corner. Dewi could see that it was Baz. He was scared of Baz a tall, gangly boy with strange irregular teeth. Also in Baz’s gang was Tom Butcher who sneered at him. Alongside Dewi were many other children walking to school who looked up to see what was happening. Dewi could see this and noticed that most of them just looked away, apart from Megan and her friend. She stopped and spoke.

Alright Dewi?

He nodded. This wasn't how he wanted to have their first conversation. He wiped the mess off his coat. A large man in a vest came out of his house to see the content of his bin liner strewn over the pavement. Dewi recognised him as Mr Morris the undertaker wearing a stringed-vest and dark trousers.

Look sonny clear up the mess you made and don't walk away-like. I'll tell your mother.

But...

No buts butty, you clear this lot up.

Dewi could see it wasn't worth arguing. He could hear the giggling and sneering coming from round the corner and knew it was that lot again.

I'll help

He looked up to see Megan and her friend clearing up. It didn't take long.

Thanks Megan.

There it was! The first time he had called her name. Despite the gang that threw the stuff at him and despite getting into trouble with Mr Morris the undertaker, he felt good.

He felt even better when he turned into the lane that led to his school Ysgol Lewis. There standing clean and bright was a great big coach with 'Cottey’s Coaches’ written along the side in big letters with a huge dragon whose tail curled all around the letters. He couldn't take his own eye off the Dragon's eye. It seemed to follow him as he walked by