The Adventures of Tony Bumple

Tony had four brothers and sisters, but they always seemed to be at school or somewhere else!

Tony loved football. Keepy-uppy, dribbling, scoring in the “top bins”, but he knew it would be much better if he had somebody to play with.

Pete, Tony’s oldest brother, had said he would give Tony a pound if by the end of the week he could do 20 uppies. Tony was really trying hard and had reached 14 when he thought he heard a voice saying “ Can I play”. Tony looked round, the ball dropped to the floor, but he could not see anybody.

There it was again “Can I play”. Tony noticed a little boy, half hiding behind the apple tree, which was one of the goalposts. “Who are you?” said Tony. “My name is Tony Bumple and I want to play football with you. You can call me Bumple.” 

Tony thought it was a funny name but that was not important, at last he had somebody to play with.

The two boys made a little pitch in the garden. Bumple did not mind being the goalkeeper and did not seem to mind that Tony scored with every shot, good or bad.  When Tony was tired, the two boys sat against the fence and just talked.

“Bumple, where do you live?” asked Tony. “On the roof, behind the chimney,” said Bumple.  “It’s nice and warm up there and I can see when you are playing out.”

Tony was so excited he hit the next penalty extra hard. So hard it flew to the back of the garden and there was a loud crash. Oh no, the greenhouse window!

Tony ran after the ball but Bumple did not follow, he simply vanished.

Tony could hear his mum calling from the back door “What was that noise?” “There’s been an accident,” Tony shouted back. “ You had better come in and tell me what’s happened,” said Tony’s mum. 

Tony trudged inside and explained to his mum that he had been playing football with his new best friend, Tony Bumple, and they had had a slight accident. Tony was really more interested in telling his mum about Bumple. ”You have smashed a greenhouse window.” “No, mummy it was not me, it was Tony Bumple. He can hit the ball so hard. He is really great mum and we are the same age and we are already best friends.” 

“Tony Bumple – so where is he now?” said Tony’s mum. 

“I think he’s probably on the roof, up behind the chimney, that’s where he lives.”

“Really Tony, I think I need to meet this Tony Bumple, but now it’s probably time for bed.”

Tony trudged upstairs slowly, cleaned his teeth and jumped into bed. He looked out of the window and could just see Bumple’s hand waving to him. As he fell asleep he thought about all the things they could do together and he wondered whether Bumple would come down from the roof to play tomorrow.

– Have you ever met anybody like Tony Bumple?