GG Smith

James Smith runs a high-country station with three dogs, a quad and a radio he answers eventually. The sky turns faster than the forecast up there and being wrong about it is expensive, which is where his judgement came from. He will not sit inside on a fine day. Fixtures, cups, whatever is scheduled: if the morning is clear he is out on the tops and the board can wait, and a wet fortnight in August will produce more matches from him than the whole of a dry summer. His division has learned to watch the weather. The replies come back late and never with an excuse in them. He does not offer the weather as a reason, not considering it one, and anybody who presses is told the tops were clear and the board was not going anywhere.