midnight
Bread fights -- so named because the ammunition is more likely to be potatoes -- were extremely popular , and the dinner often came to an end with a pitched battle , in which coats were decorated from collar to hem with particles of that clinging vegetable . His evenings usually belonged to Joel to spend as he wished , though not unfrequently a blackboard talk by the head coach or a lecture by some visiting authority curtailed them considerably . He had always to be in bed by ten o'clock . But sleep sometimes , especially after a day of hard practice , did not readily come , and he often laid awake until midnight had sounded out on the deep-toned bell in the old church tower thinking over the events of the day , and wondering what fate , in the person of the head coach , held in view for him . And one night he awoke to find Outfield shaking him violently by the shoulder . `` Wh-what 's the row ? '' he asked sleepily .