A league on the table, by Dorian Treweek

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

Tessa Uglow’s football league began on the dining table in 1976. She painted the tiny players herself, balancing each plastic base on an upturned jam jar while its shirt dried. The home team wore her school colours, purple and yellow; the visitors changed every fortnight. Her father had offered to draw the pitch with a ruler, but she preferred the faintly wandering touchlines she had marked in tailor’s chalk. She kept results in an exercise book and wrote a report after each match, including defeats. A player whose paint had chipped was declared injured until she had time to repair him. On Sundays her cousin brought his team round, and Tessa made him wipe his hands before he touched the green cloth. She never allowed a disputed goal to stand without a replay. At six she packed everything into a shallow drawer and laid the table for supper, leaving the league table pinned inside the cupboard door.

List five things you learn about Tessa in this extract.