Mornington Crescent....

[BratFarrarsPony]

Well as I won the last game fairly and squarely despite not being as quick as the old lags....I will start another game.

Gants Hill

Sorry to be so long. When the Archbishops start talking about marine biology you just can't stop them.

Eastcote

I have been away trying to mediate in a dispute over the 1987 second game, to no avail. Perhaps the Archbishop can help.

So down the Met to Finchley Road we must go.

I doubt the Archbishop can help, what with it being Tuesday. She'll be at her regular table at the Hot Club de Buenos Aires (just behind Aldi, Harpenden).

I heard this move on the wireless yesterday (some sort of amateur tournament, I guess) and thought it rather bracing:

Monument

I am not sure whether that amateur show on the wireless helps the cause of MC or not. When I did the Beginners' Basic twelve year course nobody had heard of it, and we had a wireless set, we used to listen to ITMA.

I have fond memories of the Aldi at Harpenden. Dear William dropped in for a coffee after that troublesome business near Hastings in, if memory serves, 1066, and got into a game of MC although it was hardly worth starting, it only lasted a week.

It's a pity we've lost the alphabetical sequence - X is always a challenge - but so be it and I raise you Dawlish Warren. And don't be tempted by the obvious because, well, you know why.

Bloody hell this has got to be the longest game ever, only a couple of months until it's a year, if it gets that far will we be using the 'extended play additional rules'?

Oh dear, you have not been following the moves. This is the second game in a year, using the same thread. The first I think was about 159 days long, which compared to some games, is short.

Dawlish Warren when there have been thunderstorms is risky indeed and I am glad it was achieved in one piece. I play the closed lines rule as part of a move to Tavistock

I think it's time for a Tuffnell's Transfer (and don't tell me that the Council of Trent declared it heretical, they weren't quorate that day, most of them were watching the 4.30 at Bologna because one of the Abbots had a hot tip for an each-way bet which - in the event - finished nowhere, Andrew, stop rambling and play your bloody move) to Ripon.

Oh dear, sashh, we really should put you in stebbings for making a comment without actually declaring a move, but I'm feeling lenient so will let it pass.

Ripon is an interesting place, particularly as it leads seamlessly to

Birmingham New Street

Which leads us to Lichfield Trent Valley so we can visit the Cathedral. A bit late for St Swithin's Day though, but never mind.

Cathedrals is it?

Right-oh. Time for a double, as the Mother Superior said at the entrance to the distillery.

Dublin Heuston - hah!

Rouen Rive Droite - zut alors!

I think we should move a little nearer to these shores and so it is to Lille Europe

Nasty place, Lille.

Mechelen and the experts will know why!

Ok prepared to be told off again but can I introduce the Anglo-Nipon sidestep interchange with Ichigaya?

Or is that in contravention of the pan European amendment to the Tudor court rules?

Oh sashh - queen of my heart - that is beyond brilliant!

As to Tudor Court Rules - there are 19 Schedules to the Brexit Bill and the matter is elegantly covered in Schedule 20. A lot of midnight oil was burned over it - although once Brexit is in we will be keeping year round GMT. And the Julian Calendar.

Guangzhou.

I must play the reverse Anglo-Nippon sidestep. Never mind the Julian Calendar, whose abolition caused a great confusion over the length of the predecessor game to the game of games in 1752.

Ashford International

A reverse Anglo-Nippon in a month with four letters?

Gosh, and Gosh again!

Feet firmly on the ground, people, that only leaves one rather dreadful option. See you all in Cleethorpes and the last one in the fish and chip shop buys the first round.

Oh, and the Colonel says thanks for our support which he will wear all the time.

My dears, there you are!
Obviously I've been attending my usual biennial retreat discussing with the great and good all things MC. I sat at the feet of my teachers for long hours, going back to basics, learning again to differentiate a Maxwell Parlay from an Orpington Shuffle. It was tough on mind and body, but I am yet a player renewed! Pure again in mind and spirit.
But someone mentioned chips, so off we pop to Whitby. (Not the Magpie though, go next door,)but watch out for the gulls.

How marvellous to see this game and so many of its players revived and reinvigorated. After so many deft and challenging moves, I think the best I can manage is Bertram's Handicap to

Lytham St Anne's

You missed a trick there, Maud - and I apologise for using a metaphor from one of those wretched card games which like chess ruin so many potential MC experts. You could have specified which platform and put the entire Highland Light Railway out of bounds until 31 September.

As it is - and not without a certain je me said quoi -

Skipton

Oh, Andrew dear, you are a tease. Skipton in July is somewhat de trop, but I think I can restore some sanity with a swift Bedford's Bilateral to, well,

Bedford

Having consulted the barometer and the Viscount I conclude that the only possible move is Telford - and yes, I am aware of the risks, but hell, the alternative is Truro - no bloody thanks!

Incidentally Maud - where did you get the Maserati sprayed that shade of puce? And why?

You know perfectly well, Andrew, that I had to have the Maserati resprayed and reupholstered after you were expelled from the semi-finals in Marseilles for playing an illegal Belmondo and I - rashly, given your state of intoxication - gave you a lift to the station. Sadly, the sleazy back-street garage to which the gendarmes directed us only had that alarming shade of paint.

Didcot Parkway

Marseilles, oh the memories - although the hypnotherapy has suppressed most of them. Not the best, of course.

Parkway stations are all very well if you don't mind the smell of . . . well, let's leave it there.

So let's move to dear old Wallingford.

I knew as soon as we arrived, Andrew, that it was a mistake taking you to Marseilles when the Navy was in port, but we're all now wiser for the experience. That therapist was the best we could find, since all the others were unavoidably detained.

Wallingford's a dull old place, so let's move somewhere livelier

Wallington