Mornington Crescent?!

[Eggsbutnobacon]

Will somebody please please explain to me what this is all about?

Bear Grylls? Forget it. I have heard a rumour, which I hope is not true, that he once played the East London Line after Brondesbury on a Tuesday in March. It took hours to get the spaghetti out of the Rolls-Royce.

WJ is all very well, but it's not yet three days since the equinox and I prefer not to risk it; remember, Rule 128(xvii) is still in force until the American election. Playing safe is not my usual style - remember the fried onions and the verger and the ten-pound note, Slinky? - but on this occasion I am going to play Littlehampton.

I had forgotten that there were such a thing as trains to Littlehampton at weekends. I thought after King George V's remark about Bognor Regis they had been withdrawn.

Via Epsom it must be on the journey back, and avoiding Clapham Junction, without a reverse manoeuvre, and of course Turnham Green is out of the question. Then of course Parsons Green is to be missed too. So complicated without the ability to play the engineering works rule.

Before I suffer from exhaustion and the London Bridge terrors, I alight at Loughborough Junction for a late Sunday lunch, of one can be found in these parts.

Loughborough Junction? How very bold! And quite inventive of you, Saints, given that rule 547 is in force (revised version, as reprinted in volume XXIV of the Great Almanac (Portuguese edition)).

If we are exploring the hotspots of south London, we must without a doubt adjourn to

Coulsdon South

I have to play the substitute buses rule to get out of Coulsdon South which given the Southern trains non-running is not difficult. A renamed station comes to mind and so Coulsdon Town it is. Hope I can get a cup of tea nearby.

Tea and coffee have not reached Coulsdon. More like mead. And they still wear blue woad. Uncouth lot.

Let's go somewhere a bit more up-to-date like Cleethorpes.

The Professor sends her regards. She will rejoin us as soon as the magistrates extend the curfew to more reasonable hours. They were very harsh on her. All right, it was a twenty-three-vehicle pile up and the M6 was closed for a week but it could happen to anybody. At least anybody with her little ways.

I am concerned that the weather may turn on the north Lincolnshire coast and so feel we must move inland. There may be no stump by the track even with the tree cutting of Network Rail, so i will go to Boston to view the church so named.

The brief lull in the game has enabled me to review my options. I was thinking of playing a Sanderson's Elongated to Camden Town, but George Clooney pointed out to me last night that, as we're only a day from pay day and the weather is overcast, I could add a Hollywood Hop to go straight to

Mornington Crescent!

I know we don't often play by transatlantic rules, but I hope he's right.

And so after 144 days of the game, it seems Maud is the winner. However, I would contest whether or not it is at the northbound platform, as a Sanderson's Elongated does not specify whether or not you have to go via Camden Town.

Oh well done Maud! A classy manoeuvre indeed.

Congratulations Maud - this has been a truly extraordinary game. I have not seen better since Vienna in '27 - and then they had the help of the viscount, the sheepdog, and the pot of congealed curry to make it easy for them.

Well, the opportunity was there and I thought it might be best to draw this incredibly long drawn-out game to a fitting conclusion and then start afresh. So, a new thread and a new game?

The honou of starting a new thread must be yours, but please do it in Other Subjects - 90 days is not enough.

Now, that has given me pause for thought. I had always thought it better to be on a thread that eventually went pfft, as we are sometimes rather indiscreet here - we have given away a great many of the arcana of MN and divulged some terrible secrets (not least, what happened in Split in '87 after the archbishop played Hainault on the down train) - but I guess you are right that novices might want us to retain an archive of these games so that they can read and learn.

Like MacArthur, I shall return.

Not like MacArthur je vous en prie. He was hopeless - he once played Rickmansworth when the DLR was in Quibbles!

We await your pleasure.