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The speaker recalls learning as a halfback to punch holes in the dark, followed by the title Rectory night Practice.

Football supplies the bodily action behind the image of making a way through darkness. Rectory places a religious building beside the practice, but the fragment does not establish a particular school or event.

A three-line handwritten memory, 'As a halfback I knew early / how to punch holes in the / dark.', with the title 'Rectory night Practice' set apart below it.

Football gives the speaker a physical skill, breaking through a line, that doubles as a way of pushing into darkness. The title places the image at night practice near a rectory, so sport and church share one setting; the turnover lands the word 'dark.' alone.