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

Stockholm in 1971 is the event of legends, and in a sense I wish I had been there. Trouble was that it was the time when 'new money' came in, and I was spending too much time converting new into old for comparison (there was no Martin Lewis money show to help us then- I wonder if he plays the game of games?).

I digress though and move to East Putney.

Ah, Stockholm in ‘71. Heady days. The Colonel and I had just been promoted to the first team and we began that tournament with youth, vitality and the bookies on our side. Everything was going our way until, after the fifth bottle of snaps, the Colonel played a double lateral to Oxford Circus and, well, the memories are too, too painful but you must know the gist of it by now.

Goldpendant - don’t be deterred. Novice players are always welcome here and you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Moorgate

I understand Martin Lewis plays a very respectable game, under a variety of aliases as he hates being recognised (I think it's Martin Lewis. Maybe I mean Lewis Hamilton?).

Rickmansworth.

Metroland we are back in. So let us move to Aylesbury using the closed lines rule.

And let’s make a swift exit to

Bayswater

It’s a lovely day! Short hop to Lancaster Gate for a walk in the park.

Another short hop to Marble Arch to gawp at all the closed retailers.

A side shift to Bond Street for more of the same.

It's time, methinks, that we took a walk on the wild side, so off we go to

Tooting Bec

Not coming back into the garden, but venturing to the wood, Colliers Wood to be precise.

Keeping up the bucolic theme, Southfields

I have always been fond of a rustic ramble, and so on to

Cambridge Heath

Using the London Overground rule and a reverse to Stratford. More closed shops to walk past.

Hmm. I consulted the Colonel about my next move and he reminded me that the Cholmondeley-Featherstonehaugh Bypass can only be played on Friday 13th, so now (I think) is the time:

Chadwell Heath

Ooh, daring move Maud.

Dagenham

Oh dear the incomplete naming rule taking us back to the move before last, and on to Forest Gate.

Gosh, you’re strict, nosswith. Let’s sashay over to

Stepney Green

Think I'll go due west and catch a bit of Children in Need.
Wood Lane

Sorry nosswith I meant Dagenham East. Didn’t know there was a Dagenham Dock and a Dagenham Heath as well. WTF dot they need all those stations for?

Anyway moving on, I’ll make a slantwise move to White City

Lovely use of the interchange rule DuckonaBike which enables me to move to Goldhawk Road.

Dagenham is not the only place with several stations in London, and even more confusing is that there are three stations called West Hampstead. None of which has a proper waiting room, none of which a tea room. The makers of Brief Encounter would turn in their grave.

Sorry to hear that nosswith; I would clutch my pearls if I had any on. I shall endeavour to avoid West Hampstead, at least in reality.

With that in mind, Vauxhall.

Ah, Brief Encounter. A beautiful film, but Celia Johnson's accent is so refined that I had to watch it twice before I was sure his name was Alec (or rather Elec) and not Eric.

Not venturing far to

Battersea Park

Tea rooms or takeaways may be hard to find, but I will try with a move using the London Overground rule to Clapham High Street.

On a Sunday morning, we should take a moment, I feel, to reflect on the noble history of this game of games. I shall be spending some time catching up on back issues of the journal - there’s a fascinating article in the latest edition about Swithenbank’s swerve and the awful commotion in Tokyo the last time it was played. But for now

Oval

Mention of Oval reminds me of an attempt in 1982 to play a shortened version of the game of games during an interruption in a cricket match there. Given the Colonel's past and wartime colonial service, someone from Tooting though the game referred to Commonwealth locations and that Temple referred to that in Amritsar not the one on the District line. It got so heated that there was even someone who was about to get the cricket umpires to come and adjudicate. Fortunately the rain abated and the attempt at a shortened form of the game of games was abandoned, never to be repeated.

Clapham North