When nothing else will do - Mornington Crescent anyone?

[NicolaMarlowsMerlin]

Feels like we could all do with a robust tournament round about now. May I start?

I know this is cheeky, but I’ll begin with...

...Osterley

Maud, the news has affected you and the incomplete naming rule must come into play, taking us back to the previous move and so we continue from Leyton Midland Road.

Arriving there and then leaving using the London Overground rule takes us to Willesden Junction. Hoping there is nothing untoward going on in the bus garage next door.

Dear me. I'm all for precision but haven't witnessed such pedantry since Leipzig in '58, when the principal clarinetist was disqualified for playing South Ealing when it was plain for all to see that she intended Ealing Broadway. I have been a little distracted, it is true, since the superinjunction was lifted and the news leaked out, but we of the House of Maud are made of stern stuff and so I offer you

Wapping

Maud - the clarinettist later received a full and frank apology. She later went on to be the signal controller at Northfields and never played a single note again.

But I digress.

Drayton Manor.

I was not around at Leipzig in 58, indeed I am not sure I am welcome in that fine city in any case. As for the clarinet, my attempts were recorded and have been decreed to be used only when torture is permissible.

South we should go and arrive at Watford High Street. Sadly the excellent cafe nearby may well be closed by now, even for takeaways.

Speaking as an amateur viola player, I can only sympathise.

Finchley Road & Frognal

Quite a lot of play under the diagonal here...but I suppose that in the Corona Paradigm main line destinations are wild.

I play Angel.

I think that a short move to Old Street.

Let's try a reverse Washington to Baker Street.

Rather appropriate today, I think.

Hmm. That stymies the move I had planned, but I shall instead play the Hibernian Variant to

Edinburgh Waverley

What a fantastic example of the Kobolovsky Gambit. There’s only one possible reply....Penge

Oh dear its early in the morning and for the second time this game the incomplete naming rule comes into play, so we will be moving from Edinburgh Waverley to Penge West.

Ah, dear Penge West. I remember the heady days when the speakeasy there (now, sadly, a kebab shop) used to host a late night tournament of the game of games - third door on the left, no questions asked, knock three times and ask for Fifi. Those were the days, indeed.

Beckenham Junction

One good junction deserves another - Norwood Junction

Not named as such but one nevertheless- New Cross Gate

Ah, Maud your story takes me back to my student days. It was after hours and a few of us were having a late night game in the college bar. A mysterious stranger walked in. He spoke only to introduce himself - “Call me Fifi” - before joining in, and won within remarkably few moves. One was a brilliantly subtle semi-lateral from Old Oak Common, IIRC. He left as suddenly as he had come, and I remember the roar of his sports car departing into the night, in the direction of Penge. It all makes sense now.

Southwark

Oh yes, DuckOnABike, Fifi was quite the character - went on to a very prominent position in the Diplomatic Service, I heard, and was responsible for introducing the game of games to many countries, where it soon became popular as an alternative to cricket in the rainy season.

Waterloo

The lack of a real cricket season this year just adds yet another reason to play the game of games, though why you need a reason when you can play the game seems to be something to say to someone who has yet to be so culturally enlightened as a regular player.

Swiss Cottage

Quite, nosswith. Being acquainted with the game of games is one of the measures of a civilised person. Speaking of civilisation

Stockwell

Fifi: black handlebar moustache and a pronounced limp? There was an awful fuss in Colombo when a gentleman of that description pulled a semi-lateral followed by a double rotation to Penge.

Piccadilly Circus.

Ohhhh that’s clever. I had in mind to play a Fortescue double twist derivation, but you’ve humbugged me. I see no alternative.....Sloane Square

My last visit stopping at said Sloane Square was not to the arboricultural feast each May, but to a strange houseboat party where the Major was expected but for some reason failed to show up. Unusual indeed. IN his absence no game of games was played that evening.

Battersea Park in anticipation of the extension there of the Northern line.

I'm not so easily duped

Shoreditch High Street

Ah-ha - straight in with South Wimbledon! Still has a Paine's Poppet vending machine (currently empty)

Nice move TwoLeftSocks. I see where you’re going there, but how about:

Hyde Park Corner

Not surprisingly, things seem to have stalled, but I think I can get us going again with the Foster-Morley swoop to

Lambeth North