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Surprisingly early hit on Wikipedia.

Schoolboy’s pal might be a synonymous phrase.

Thanks mattrom, that’s the structure I expected but I’m completely drawing a blank on the Scottish corpse. I wonder if I’ve made a mistake somewhere else…

hw7, I think I see: it’s Scud not the American baseball player I presume, who was indeed an M to an S who needed one! I was trying too hard to find a thematic connection and missed the pun… Many thanks — I don’t like to have a loose end even if it’s one that doesn’t affect the solution!

Mooncow, the synonym isn't in Chambers under 'corpse', but is in Bradford's.
Chambers lists 'corpse' as the last definition under the synonym. (Quite a scroll). Final (removed) letter is E

So it is! Thanks mattrom! I think I stupidly didn’t read through that particular word because it “obviously” wasn’t it :-) must remember never to do that with a Listener — always check even the obvious words…

Pedantic point:
the derived thematic word conveys a very specific Status in the thematic context, which I believe describes neither the explicit nor the implicit thematic protagonist correctly - except in a much more loose, all-lower-case, way.
Shame.

I still don't see the meaning of the title. I know get that at the conclusion of the endgame you have something that could be synonymous with "schoolboy's pal" as per HW7, but I can't find anything on Google that relates it to Harry East?

Harry "Scud" East was the closest friend of a schoolboy whose initials were TB. Google again

Okay, thanks Tatters. So Harry East and TB were friends at school hence Harry is a SM but, just to be clear, there is no connection to the actual game?

None at all.

Okay, many thanks Tatters, much appreciated:-)