If it's October it must be Mornington Crescent

[MarkWithaC]

@LlynTegid

@TragicMuse
@DuckonaBike
@Youngersis1
@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud
@VixenMortar
@GaudeteGaudete
@EmmaOvary
@thankyouforthedayz
@HazelBite
@Itisallgoingtobeok
@Useyourname

Although of course MC is a game for all seasons, I do have especially fond memories of an October championships in Wales and extracurricular… fun amid the greenery of a National Trust garden.

If I've missed anyone I do apologise; do round up any players you happen to see or hear of.

And I'll start with a lovely little move that the Reverend taught me.
Finsbury Park

I'm feeling adventurous so Arnos grove

Ooh, happy days. I feel inexorably drawn to

Dollis Hill

Phew. That was...tricky. I managed to extricate myself before the special services arrived but it was touch and go.

You will not be surprised to learn that His Excellency was involved. To give him his due he did act with speed once he saw which way the wind was blowing. Suffice to say, a 'diplomatic bag' isn't always a bag. Sometimes it's a cabin trunk...

I'm due to be debriefed (stop that sniggering. Yes he is very handsome, but he's the cultural attaché FGS. It's in his job description to be appealing!)

Pimlico. And then a walk over the bridge.

Thank goodness you escaped, TragicMuse. Exactly how capacious was the cabin trunk? I haven’t seen MarkWithaC for a long time, and am worried he might have one or more absinthes too many at His Excellency’s last cocktail reception and hootenanny and so needed to be removed unobtrusively from the premises. Again.

Sloane Square

Hmm, this is a hard one I don't want to end up in Nidd, so after much consideration I am going for Turnpike Lane

Well, the MC version of the Traitors seems a little racier than the telly one, @TragicMuse . Glad to hear you made it out of the trunk intact.

Turnham Green

The trunk was one of the older type, quite roomy, not bad really, all things considered. On the other hand, I do feel that porters have lost the art or skill of handling luggage. I didn't appreciate the bone-juddering moment when I/the trunk was dropped from the Night Mail's carriage to the platform.

Paddington.

After much consideration and taking the Thornton rules into consideration I am going to Kings Cross (quite literally I shall be out of the country for a few days!)

Well goodness!

I go away with His Royal Highness to Mustique for some much-needed R&R, (actually, I don't think he's an HRH any more after that nasty business in the Middle East, but we'll gloss over that), and the game has gone to pieces in my absence! At least two repeats (Pimlico and Paddington if you must know), in the last 50 moves and you're going round in circles. Why has no one won?! I think TragicMuse could have made the move but repeated!

This game is in need of a firm hand, (as the Prince himself said last week).

Thus we are heading north to North Wembley. That should free up the game a bit.

Well if that is your thinking @MyrtleStrumpet the only response is Harrow on the Hill

We can always rely on you, dear Myrtle, to tell it like it is. Your time in Mustique has evidently pepped you up (and the photoshoots in Tatler and the Police Gazette show what it did for the so-called Prince).

I agree we should be bringing this game to a conclusion, so offer a double Penhaligon to

Edgware

Were there photos? I hadn't seen.

He did seem to blossom while we were there. I must say the unexpected departure via speedboat, helicopter and chartered plane was very... exhilarating. HRH managed to bring a couple of very large suitcases while I was only in the clothes I stood up in. But he kindly paid for the personal items left behind in such a rapid exit - quite the thrill.

I did wonder why he asked me to fly into the UK without him. I think he's still in Zurich or somewhere. I'm sure we'll meet up soon.

Anyway, we are in the endgame now. Swiss Cottage.

In the endgame indeed. And at the end...

Mornington Crescent!

I could have gone for it earlier as dear @MyrtleStrumpet noted. But that would have left gates westward which is not permitted in my edition of Stovold's (1923. The extra pages are especially illuminating).

And I'm sure you'll see this is so much neater as an ending.

Brava!!!

An impressive move!

How did you get a copy of the 1923 edition of Stovold's??? I have heard of its existence, of course, but it was hurriedly replaced by the 1924 edition, which didn't have the extra pages. I would dearly love to see them. I imagine they're why it was replaced.

And you have a good point about the gates westward. Though clumsier, it might not have caused too many problems but does make Nidd more likely.

In any case, what a lovely finish.

Thank you Myrtle, dear!

My Stovold's 1923 came from Mr Norman in Perrin's Lane. A dusty little shop in Hampstead. It's what I always picture when I read The Shadow Of The Wind.

Anyway. I spent many happy hours in there as a girl, we were firm friends! He put it in my bag one day when I wasn't looking and pretended he knew nothing when I mentioned it the next time we met.

It's invaluable, frankly.

Oh, brava indeed! So exhilarating when a prolonged and (forgive me) occasionally rather plodding game comes to a climax as intense as that.

I await the first move of the next game with bated breath.

The next game starts with a slightly outré move, but I like it and I hope you will too...

Gospel Oak

Starting outside zone 1 and on the Mildmay or Suffragette line too. I'll avail myself of the Suffragette line and walking interchange rules and arrive at Archway.

TragicMuse’s brilliant opening move has turned my mind to matters spiritual, and so I am playing a truncated spin to

Angel

Thank you Gertrude, most kind!

Your move seems to have stalled play - not sure why, unless the convocation has something to do with it. I decided not to go this year, too soon after The Matter Of The Trunk for any degree of comfort. Small rooms, all those games of Sardines... <shudder>

Hit post too soon!

Hounslow Central

Ah, good to see you again, TragicMuse. I was concerned that my move had brought the game to a halt, so soon after you had kicked it off with such a flourish, but off we go again with a double lateral to

Hanger Lane

Oh perfect!
I can now "hanger" left to Boston Manor.

Get out of that one!

Boom tish! I think the Amalgamated and Updated Compendium (volume XXIV, appendix 7c) now sanctions a reverse Pinkerton to

Oxford Circus

I've always been fond of a Pinkerton, reverse or diagonal! Nice play.

Stockwell. IYKYK...