Once more unto the breach, dear friends: more Mornington Crescent

[MyNightWithMaud]

Now we have had a little pause, in which to mull over the highs and lows of the last game and possibly rethink our strategies, might it be nice to start again?

I've been reflecting on what the vice-consul said in Ouagadougou in '67. She was quite right, after all, and so I shall disregard the naysayers and offer you a Musgrave's Collateral to

Oxford Circus

MaudOnceMore I am beginning to wonder if Bibs is you-know-who on a name change. But perhaps that is unfair. Bibs, if you are who I think you are, be in no doubt about it, plenty of us know all about the Archdeacon, the Dalmatian, and the tinned rhubarb - and not everyone is as discreet as I am!

The best, nay the only policy here is reculer pour mieux sauter and accordingly Huddersfield - a very good place to sauter out of.

You lot are cray cray!

Huddersfield !! a very daring and controversial move if I may say so....
I am going to invoke the Sloane Square jink and play....
Earl's Court

Westminster. Simply due to the fact that had Mr. Fawkes not been such a blabbermouth, it might not exist today to which to jaunt.

Fie! As we are embroiled once more in legal controversy, we must speed to

Chancery Lane

No, no, no. That is near the new Courts which have not even been open 150 years yet. Dreadful new-fangled modern nonsense.

Let it not be forgotten that while Blackfriars is on the site of the court where the early hearings of the case of Henry, King of England -v- Catherine, Queen of England were held the decree of nullity was pronounced at Dunstable and if there is no station there now, and I know not, there was once.

Goodness, I spend a few weeks ensconced with the Good Sisters of Eternal Damnation on reflective retreat, and come back to outrageous play and a missed European tour! Did I hear correctly that the Archbishop hs been released? Again?
Bibs I can only apologise for the lack of a warm welcome and suggest you gird your loins - the ability to loin girdle being a prerequisite of playing MC - and hurl yourself into the fray with a station of choice.
To ease your passage, I take us all to a safe Victoria for bacon butties and builders tea.

Ah, dear Victoria, the very best of modern womanhood. I refer, of course, to our dear and recently-departed monarch, not some yodelling virago most celebrated for being conjoined to a gentleman who found fame kicking an inflated pig's bladder about.

I'm feeling quite adventurous this morning - one might even say frisky - and so I've been trawling the back pages of the Compendium, to remind myself of what was promulgated at the Salzburg conference last year. Which leads me to

Finsbury Park

Promulgated? That's a new word for an old game, and in homage to taht thought I give you Bat and Ball.

Bat and Ball at this stage would put you firmly in Nidd, Andrew.....surely you must have known it would be a rash move?
Arnos Grove

BratFarrarsPony It depends whether you accept the High Court's interpretation of Article 50, doesn't it?

Anyway, I will play safe. High Wycombe it is. Not so much safe as deadly bloody boring.

Nearly a whole day has passed since the move to High Wycombe, where the local association football team known as the Chairboys have someone managing them who engages in the devilish pursuit known as rock and roll in his spare time. and- perish the thought- has long hair. The Grand Council will have thoughts on such modernity.

I feel the genteel pastime of golf is called for, and playing the communication cord rule so as to avoid a fine (as no train stops there at this time on a weekday) move to Denham Golf Club.

I feel the need to escape such stifling gentility and go somewhere more rough and ready - more rock and roll, even - such as

Cheltenham Spa

Under the Metropolitan Accord (Amendment 4) of 2016 I call

Osterley

The Accord of 2016? Too modern for me! I'm still digesting the Zanzibar Memorandum of '54 (not the palimpsest of '76, which was later proven to be a hoax propagated by the Ambassador during one of her less funny turns) and I'm the one who wrote it!

But, in an effort to keep up with you youngsters, I'll play a truncated Bieber to

Calgary

I'd forgotten what a child prodigy you were, Maud... is it true that your first word was 'Leytonstone', at an MC soiree organised by your dear papa?

Calgary is a hole, though. If we're going to go trans-Canadian (and why not?) I'd prefer a dashing Trudeau to

Prince Rupert

Not quite. "Leytonstone" was the first word of my dear brother StJohn. I'm sure you remember meeting him at the soiree in Val d'Isere after Maurice Chevalier won the heat with his cunning Arc de Triomphe. Your elegant Givenchy gown and snorkel combination quite won his heart.

My first word - well, more of a phrase, really - was Totteridge and Whetstone.

'Tis true that the Trudeau is a very dashing move indeed. The best I can manage now is a rather feeble Thatcher to

Finchley

Maud Don't try to fool us. The Givenchy and snorkel was you and we all know it. You tried to ring the bells on my fool's cap but I wasn't having that.

My first words were Reading, Reading, change here for the slow train to Goring, Wallingford and Oxford but of course you all knew that.

A Thatcher to Finchley allows me to play an Origins to Grantham which i do with great glee!

well MY first words were goo goo gah gah Woking Woking this is Woking...

I have decided to bring Cadwallader's Interpretation into effect.

Willesden Green

Am not convinced a Cadwallader's is permissable after the first snows of winter....certainly not if we are abiding by Amendment 56 to the Seasonal Shuntings.
With snow on the line, I play a slippery sideways snurgle to Inverness.

Sorry to have been so long - when the Cabinet Secretary calls, the Cabinet Secretary calls, and the call must be answered. He wanted some advice about the workings of Rule 123(6)(xiii), or was it about relations with some bloke who claims to be in charge of the American colonies, or perhaps both.

Be that as it may - and don't we all love a good snurgle - it has to be Dingwall.

I actually had breakfast with the Cabinet Secretary yesterday and he seemed in fine form. My worry is the under secretary to the treasury. The fishnets and the satsuma we can deal with, but the goat and the leather corset are just going to attract media attention.
I suggest we all lie low at Stranraer until the fuss dies down.

Not Stranraer - they still talk about the Rural Dean and the boiled macaroni and the day return ticket there, just as if the Deed of Oblivion had never been passed at Lerwick in '73.

Douglas, Isle of Man - and the last one on the Laxey Wheel (whatever that is) is a sissy.

Hmm, if it's islands you're after, we can do no better than

Island Gardens

The Isle of Dogs leads to Cockermouth

The Vice-Admiral was allowed to go to the Remembrance Service in . . . well, you know. She agreed to leave the hamster in her cell, which is a good sign. And she hasn't asked for Kendal Mint Cake for a week!