German St Clare's Board Game

[Wolfgang]

There's a German boardgame featuring Hanni und Nanni, Pat and Isabel of the St. Clare's' books. The aim of the game is to pack your suitcase first and go to the bus at the last day of the term. To illustrate the game the publishers included a short story in the manual to show what kind of things can happen. I translated this background story and thought that now is a good time posting it.
A big thank you to Ilsa who beta-read the translation.


Last day at St. Clare's.
"Have you already packed your suitcase?" Pat O'Sullivan asked her twin sister Isabel. "Don't forget the bus will leave at 12 o'clock.
Isabel was looking for something under her bed and vanished again with a sigh. "I simply can't find my sports shoes," she complained. "Maybe I left them in the gym. I should look there first."
When she had left the dormitory, her sister made a list of things she missed in her suitcase. She was looking for her maths exercise book and her school jersey – and her pen, too. Yesterday Mam'zelle took it away when she realised that Pat was writing in her exercise book instead of listening to her while she conjugated a French verb. So Pat had to go to the teachers' room and apologize to Mam'zelle to get her pen back. She left the dormitory and went to the teachers' room where she knocked at the door.
Nobody answered. Pat carefully opened the door. The room was empty, and on the table was her pen. Mam'zelle had probably forgotten all about the incident and wouldn't even realise if Pat sneaked in, took her pen and…
"How dare you!" A voice behind Pat made her jump. "It is strictly forbidden for pupils to enter the teachers' room." It was Miss Mart, the maths teacher. "Get out of here! And don't let me see you here again!"
Pat took the fountain pen and slipped behind her through the door to the corridor. She thought she had been clever snatching the pen because it surely wasn't advisable to encounter Miss Mart once more.
When she went around the corner she saw Anna Brown heading for the dormitory. Anna was a strange girl. It was her first term in St Clare's, and although Pat and Isabel had tried their best to befriend her, they had felt nothing but cool rejection. Anna seemed to dislike the twins and took any chance to challenge them.
"Hey you!" Pat's friends Bobby and Carlotta went to her. Bobby had a bag in her hand.
"We still have some leftovers of our yesterday's midnight feast," explained Bobby, "and we thought we celebrate the end of the term a bit in the common room. Do you wish to join us?
Pat thought she could spare some time before she had to finish her packing. And so the three of them went together to the common room.

In the meantime Isabel had found her sports shoes and brought them into the dormitory. What else did she have to find? Her bathing suit, her lacrosse stick and her dictionary. Miss Roberts, her form-mistress, had promised her to give her a new one after Anna Brown had borrowed hers and "accidentally" thrown it into the open fire of the common room.
Isabel went to the classroom because she hoped to see Miss Roberts there. But she wasn't there. Perhaps she was in the teacher's room.
Knock-knock! Isabel knocked politely at the door of the teachers' room. When nobody answered she pushed the handle. She had hardly done that when the door was opened from the inside and Miss Mart was standing there. When she saw Isabel she went red with anger.
"Please excuse me…" Isabel began, but Miss Mart already exploded.
"I thought I had made myself perfectly clear that you should go away," she snorted angrily. "This is pure disobedience!"
"But…" Isabel tried again.
"No excuses," Miss Mart said. "I don't like this kind of behaviour at all. You go straight to Miss Theobald and report to her." She slammed the door into Isabel's face.
Isabel realised that Miss Mart must have had an encounter with Pat already. Because of their resemblance many people couldn't tell one from the other. Well, she didn't have any choice, she had to report to Miss Theobald and explain the situation. She went to the Head's room.

Pat, Carlotta and Bobby enjoyed what was left of the chocolate cake in the common room when Janet peeped through the door. "Has anyone seen Pat O'Sullivan?" she asked.
"I'm here," replied Pat, her mouth full.
"I've got a message from Tessie," Janet said. "She found your maths exercise book in her desk. If you want to have it again, you have to fetch it from her. The last time I saw her she was in the laboratory. Oh, by the way, I saw your sister Isabel heading for Miss Theobald's room. I'd like to know what she's doing there."
Pat quickly grabbed some biscuits for Isabel and left the common room to find Tessie. When she arrived at the laboratory, Tessie had already left. So she went to the corridor again. At that moment she saw Anna Brown who left the library stealthily, grinning maliciously. Pat slipped into the art room to avoid her, and there she found Tessie who was looking through her drawings choosing the ones she wanted to take home.
"I have no idea how it arrived in my desk," she told Pat. "Someone must have put it there. I just wonder who."
All I have to find now is my jersey, Pat thought, then I can finish packing my suitcase. She looked at her watch. Goodness, it was already half past eleven. There was only half an hour left until the school bus would take them to the station.

After Isabel had explained to Miss Theobald that there had been a misunderstanding with Miss Mart, she was allowed to go. She still didn't have her dictionary, but she wanted to check out the classroom again to see if Miss Roberts had left it there for her. And yes, there it really was lying on her desk. Good Miss Roberts! Now it was high time to fetch her lacrosse stick from the playing field and to look for her bathing suit.
Isabel found her lacrosse stick and was wondering feverishly where she could find her bathing suit. Where could it be?
Suddenly she remembered that she had had it with her yesterday when she had gone to the sick-room to visit her friend who had sprained her ankle. She must have left it there.

In the sick-room matron told her:
"Hurry up, girl. The bus will leave in 20 minutes."
Isabel found her bathing suit and quickly returned to the dormitory where she met Pat who was looking feverishly for her jersey.
"Take a look in the music room," Isabel said. "Do you remember how warm it was there yesterday? Maybe you took it off and left it there."
When Pat had left her Isabel started to finish packing her last things into the suitcase. While arranging her bathing-suit she found an old sock that had been put in the back of her suitcase. That doesn't belong to me, she thought and carelessly threw it over her shoulder. She didn't realise it fell straight into Pat's suitcase!
Pat returned with her jersey. "That's enough now!" she said. "I'd like to know what this is." With the tips of her fingers she removed the sock from her suitcase, held it high and far away from her. "It doesn't belong to me!"
"It isn't mine, either," Isabel said.
It isn't mine, either," two other girls said from the other side of the dormitory.
"What shall we do with it?" Pat asked.
"Put it into Anna's suitcase," one of the other girls suggested. "It's as nasty as she is!"
"No, that's mean," Isabel said. "I know – let's hide it on one of the chairs in the dining-room. How they will giggle when someone finds it." She took the sock and ran across the corridor to the dining room.
When she returned she saw Pat checking her clothing list. "It's strange," Pat said. "I know I put my tie into the trunk, but it's no longer there. Who could have taken it away?
Anna Brown was entering the dormitory. "Have you lost anything?" she asked casually.
"Yes," Pat replied, "my tie! Have you seen it?"
Anna shrugged. "What makes you think I could have seen it? Everyone thinks I'm responsible for anything that happens, while you always get away unscathed just because you're twins. I believe you hid it yourself to simply blame me!"
"That's not true!" and "That's not fair!" Pat and Isabel retorted in unison.
"Anyway," Anna continued, "you would do well to find your tie soon. The bus will leave in ten minutes."
"Oh my goodness!" Isabel said. "Come on, Pat!"
Pat looked in the common room while Isabel looked in the art room. Then they checked the music room, the laboratory, the classroom and the gym. "I'm sure that Anna hid it," Isabel told her sister when they met in front of the teachers' room. "She really seems to dislike us, or what do you think?"
"I suddenly remembered," Pat said suddenly, "I saw Anna leaving the library some minutes ago. I wonder if…"
She opened the door of the library. The room was empty, and the two of them went along the tables and shelves and looked for the tie. They nearly gave up when something caught Pat's eye. High above on one shelf there was a plaster bust of Shakespeare – and Pat's tie was tied around his neck.
"Hurry!" said Pat and jumped up to get the tie. "Let's get a chair!"
But even when she was standing on the chair she couldn't reach the tie.
"I know what we need," said Isabel, "my lacrosse stick. Stay here, I'll fetch it immediately."
When she returned to the dormitory she saw a bunch of girls walking to the front door where the bus was waiting. The servants carried the trunks out of the dormitory already. She ran back to the library and gave Pat the lacrosse stick. She held it at the wrong end and had just removed the tie from the bust when someone opened the door of the library. It was Miss Theobald, the Head. "Get down immediately!" she ordered.
Startled Pat fell from the chair, clutching the lacrosse stick in her hand. She fell against the shelf, and awfully slowly the bust began to rock back and forth. She was holding her breath. Would it fall down?
Isabel supported the shelf with one hand to keep it still. And the bust decided to stay where it was. Pat got up. Both girls stood in front of the Head, eyes downcast.
"Well… ?" asked Miss Theobald.
The twins started to explain.
"Someone had put Pat's tie up there… we tried to get it down… standing on the chair…"
"And who is this "someone" who took your tie?" asked Miss Theobald.
Pat and Isabel looked at each other. They didn't want sneak on anyone.
"It's alright, you don't have to tell me anything," Miss Theobald said kindly. "I think I already know who it was. It's Anna Brown, isn't it?"
Pat and Isabel looked at each other in surprise. How could Miss Theobald know that?
"You surely think I don't know what's going on here," said the Head. "But you'll be surprised because I'll tell you something now that you should know. Anna Brown has more in common with you than you can imagine. She's a twin, too.
Pat and Isabell were indeed astonished.
"Just before the beginning of the term," Miss Theobald continued, "her twin sister Lisa became very ill. I think Anna was too upset to talk about it. Somehow Anna felt very lonely and unhappy without her sister this term, and I think she was jealous of you, because you two were together."
"How is her sister doing now?" asked Isabel.
"I'm glad there are good news. Lisa will be with Anna at St Clare's next term."
They heard the horn of the bus in the courtyard. "Go now, you two," said Miss Theobald, "you surely don't want to miss the bus."
Pat picked up the tie, and Isabel took her stick. They quickly called "goodbye" to Miss Theobald and ran down the corridor.
"Anna must have felt really miserable without her twin sister," Pat breathlessly told Isabel and ran to the front door.
"I know it would be terrible for me having to go to school without you."
"I feel the same way," Isabel said. "I'm sure she'll be much nicer next term."
"I can only hope," said Pat, "that the two of them won't be twice as disgusting together."
When they arrived the front door, they saw to their dismay that the bus had just left. "Oh no," moaned Pat, "we missed the bus! And that means we missed the train, too."
Isabel ran out of the door and waved her stick in the air. The bus was almost out of sight. "Stop! Stop!" she cried desperately. To her delight the bus slowed down and finally stopped. She could see Mam'zelle waving from the back window. "Come on, Pat, they're waiting for us!" cried Isabel.
Completely out of breath the two girls climbed into the bus and found two seats.
"I hope you haven't left anything behind," said Mam'zelle. "It's too late now to return again for anything." "It's alright, Mam'zelle," they said laughing. "We have found everything – just in time!"

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for translating it, Wolfgang (and for beta-reading it, Daisy).

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hope you don't mind, Wolfgang, but I've removed the word 'Story' from the thread title so we can post about the board game itself. I've also moved the topic from 'Other Authors' to 'Miscellaneous Blyton' as it's a Blyton-related item using her characters (but isn't a book, so I can't put it in 'The Books').

I was surprised and pleased to receive the Hanni und Nanni board game (which dates from 1988) as a present from Wolfgang for my birthday, especially as he had gone to the trouble of making copies of certain items (e.g. the board and cards) and translating the German labels/instructions into English. The board looks nice, set out with various rooms and outdoor areas at St. Clare's, and there are cards with pictures of Pat and Isabel (Hanni and Nanni) on them. There are also cardboard figures of girls dressed in school tunics to move around the board, and cards with pictures of items (lacrosse stick, pen, jersey, etc.) for players to collect and put in their trunks. Needless to say, obstacles must be overcome on the way. The first player to pack her (or his) trunk and get to the bus wins.

My son and daughter share my love of board games so I look forward to playing the Hanni und Nanni game with them next time they're home. Thanks, Wolfgang!

[Wolfgang]

I don't mind, Anita .
I hope you'll enjoy the game. Will you ask Tony to join the fun?

[Anita Bensoussane]

If only it were practical it would be great to bring the whole of Blytondom together to play a range of Blyton-themed board games!