"But he Thorpe soon looked at home, as indeed he should at The Oval, with thatfamiliar nurdle to the on side, skipping back from right foot to left, to the fore"
those little plastic pellets you find washed upon the beach after they've gotten lost on the way to factory where they make plastic water bottles that you buy instead of drinking tap water. They're also found in the bellies of poor sealife that mistake them for food. And they're plastic, so they don't break down.