The sport of kings: Mornington Crescent

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Good morning, all. What better way to begin the long weekend than a new game of the ineffable Mornington Crescent? All are welcome - veterans and newbies alike.

To set the tone, I will start with one of my favourite moves - a double shunt to

Kew Gardens

Please, NearCanongate, no false modesty! That was a very sophisticated move, played with great aplomb. It puts me in mind of the quantity surveyor’s winning ploy at the come-as-you-are tournament in Rutland last month; were you there taking notes?

Tooting Bec

I think we need a simple move now, so it is Colliers Wood.

I am visiting my old stomping ground (literally. I’m here right now!)

Hampstead

Wood Lane is of course Schrödinger’s station, being simultaneously open and closed.

After much consideration, I feel the best move at this junture, and taking into account how easy it would be to fall into Nidd, I am taking a double Churchill to Turnpike Lane

Oh, I didn't see that Nidd threat coming, so well done Hazel!

I'm a bit fried – the end of a long week, particularly in relation to the adjutant and the locum curate and their silly little spat (it was only a bag of Bramleys!), so I can only muster a simple proximal to Southwark before I totter off for the evening.

Your are too kind @ComeIntoTheGardenMaud . Alas no, I wasn't in Rutland last weekend, and it really was just a fluke. I grew up in a family where the sport of kings wasn't mentioned let alone played. (I believe it had something to do with a distant relation who had employment at London transport terminated after causing a scene with a customer playing in the middle of rush hour; it was never explicitly said, just whispers from the adults when they thought we youngsters weren't listening).
I'm now going to try for Farringon (Elizabeth line).

You can tell to an extent someone who plays the game of games by how they term the line between Reading or Heathrow and Shenfield or Abbey Wood. Anyone who calls it the Lizzy line and played the game of games would be in Nidd for a long time.

Romford

TBH, banishment would be a possibility @LlynTegid

Stanmore.

You’re quite right Llyn - I witnessed an unfortunate incident at a friendly at a community centre in Twyford last year. A participant did indeed use the term “Lizzy Line” and the collective shock was such that the scene resembled a Bateman cartoon. We had to hold back the caretaker, who was threatening physical violence, and calm him down with a double whisky (fortunately I carry a flask for emergencies).

Tottenham Hale

'fortunately I carry a flask for emergencies' was always the thatch surveyor's line. I've never been quite sure many people believed it.
I'm going to invoke Sleiman's Addition and say Devons Road.

Yes, the definition of an ‘emergency’ tends to be somewhat flexible (not to say elastic) on the MC circuit. I last heard it invoked when the all-you-can eat buffet had run out of macaroons - hip flasks all round!

Seven Sisters

There's quite an amusing bit of gossip doing the rounds just now about the verger, the postmistress's poodle and a box of macaroons. I'm not convinced that it's true; I'm inclined to believe it was a misunderstanding and explicable by the verger's encroaching astigmatism. But who knows?!

North Harrow

No, it’s not true. They were Garibaldi biscuits.

Ongar

Being out-of-fashion, has never been more in fashion.

Kings Cross

I was shunted into a siding. Or as ChatGPT would say

I - was shunted - into a siding-

Maud, that makes a lot more sense!

Vegimal, is that ChatGPT or is it Emily Dickinson?

I'll play a Vestigial Ninth to Oxford Circus

Emily Dickinson IS ChatGpt.

Clever Little, a Vestigial is so difficult to play, but your managed it with aplomb.

I can only manage a miserable two-step to St Pancras Underground, obviously

Too kind!
I'm going to try a Striped Cardinal to Kilburn Park. I think that avoids the potential triangulation scenario that could get us into trouble. Fingers crossed.

Oh!

Mmmmm

Nope, as you were,

I have gallumphed across to beautiful Arnos Grove. Brings us a bit closer with a lateral dash though?

I am exhausted just watching this exhilarating play, worthy of the most challenging tournaments from the heyday of the game of games. Who else remembers Garmisch-PartenKirchen in ‘71 and the Brigadier’s triumph with an inward Fuller on the Circle Line?

Anyway

Euston Square

I remember it well. The chaise lounge was never the same again after the Brigadier’s triumph.

We are getting close, if no one springs a Rushton that is Angel

Oh, a Vestigial! I've read about them, of course, but never actually seen one played. It has made my day, thank you Little...

A basic diagonal whip to WhiteCity

The less said the better about the chaise longue, I think. I always feel silk is an expensive folly.
Exhilarating play here. I can't really match it, so follow in all your wakes, modestly, with a squared-off Robinson to take us to Snaresbrook

EDITED for typos

Your modesty becomes you Bread, although it is misplaced after such sparkling play!

Blush prettily and demur all you want, I know a practiced hand when I see it, eh, eh…

The Brigadier. Ah! I recall the lights on Parliament Hill, the falling hush as we walked and murmured in the byways of darkest Hampstead Heath. The bustle in the hedgerow, I tried not to be alarmed.

We plighted our troth and he promised to call on my guardian the next day…

Oh perfidy! He was called away overnight, despatched to the far end of the Northern Line and transferred his affections to a popsy from Edgware.

Euston Square

Many troths have been plighted on the Heath.

And since we are becoming so romantic it is fitting that I wander over to Valentines Park to play Gants Hill