Roy: Let's do some roleplay, OK? Do you think that would be a good idea? Moss: It helped me learn how to buy sandwiches.

The valleys and hillsides looked pretty chewed up by all the maneuvers, portaloos dotted the landscape, but the fauna seemed to appreciate the fact that the U.S. Army—unlike the Bavarian hunters outside the box—were shooting blanks.

The talented 22-year-old is one of six players named to lead last year's wooden spooners, the group to be headed by James McDonald who had already been confirmed as the club's new captain.

And these were not human shapes, or the shapes of anything I recognised as alive in the world, but outlines of fire that traced globes, triangles, crosses, and the luminous bodies of various geometrical figures.