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

I thought you were the one in the ra-ra skirt made of pampas grass, but there you go, we all make mistakes, as the dalek said as it climbed off the dustbin.

From Battle to - naturally - Peacehaven. The station there is nominal but this is MC where all things are real.

I think we should remain near the south coast as it looks like being a sunny day. So I move to West Worthing

No, no, no.

We are in haven mode.

Stonehaven

Tomorrow I travel north, to reprise my one-woman show Cockfosters or Bust? - a courageous exploration of my experiences playing MC, staged via interpretive dance, with an interpolated spoken word riff on my complex relationship with anchovies. Tickets still available - and the VIP option (a snip at only £45) offers audience members a private performance including free anchovies on toast.

So

Edinburgh Haymarket

I am sorry I am not travelling north this August, as IrenetheQuaint's show sounds delightful. Shows about the game of games are indeed rare, and through the medium of dance too.

The borders and the rail link bus abound for me, followed by the Tyne and Wear Metro, to take me to Jesmond

For reasons too obvious to need stating Corbridge.

Which irresponsible Crescenter went bail for the Colonel? I know she can't help it but the roses in the Municipal Gardens are there to be admired by us all, not eaten by retired officers with peculiar habits, you know!

There are members of my family who do not play the game of games. Strange but true. One prefers to help run a heritage railway, so let us pay a visit to Alston to see how it is getting on.

Saints You are very brave to admit to having non-Crescenters among your relations and I can only wish you good luck in your arduous task of teaching them better. Nobody is beyond redemption. I have heard of someone who kicked the chess habit and became an adequate amateur player of the One True Game.

I will - being all heart and in old softie mode - indulge you with Dymchurch.

I have just caught Irene's inspirational, although at times challenging, show. She failed to mention that it's being staged in an attic above a haberdasher's-cum-abattoir that can be found only by reaching the end of a dingy and somewhat aromatic alleyway and asking for Lennox. I managed the stairs but the Adjutant General had to be helped up by the St John's Ambulance crew. Anyway, it was all most diverting, especially with the free anchovies on toast. So much more toothsome than smashed avocado. All of which puts me in mind of

East Grinstead

East Grinstead- trains to there used to be heard across most of South London and the North Downs as they were the noisiest means of transport in the country. Some spoilsport then replaced them by modern trains, though they are still manned by dinosaurs (aka ASLEF and RMT members).

Before the latest toys out of pram overtime ban next week, I shall move back to the capital and Sanderstead, a place where I visited often as a child to meet family friends. The lately departed father of the family was I think the person who introduced me to the game of games, or at least the variant that Mr Dee occasionally remembers to play on his wireless show.

Sanderstead is Terry and June territory, and so it seems appropriate that we should move on to

Purley

I do not know who the persons are whom you mention and in any event I cannot imagine a question so absurd that Purley can be the answer. I therefore lead us all back on to the line of rectitude at Sonning.

Ah time for the Elizabeth line rule to be played, and a move to the centre of this capital city Bond Street. Before the shops open.

And we should pause a while to reflect on the career of the late, great Michael Bond at

Paddington

Before we take a Rhyming Special to.

Addington

Well played, Andrew! I thought you might fall into the Bayswater Trap but, no, you adroitly sidestepped it. And so on to

Tulse Hill

A fifth move on a Sunday morning" That must be a first since the attempt at a speed version of the game of games in 2004, which ended in tears after a move to Caledonian Road and Barnsbury.

An incorrect move with the tram rule means that we are back to Paddington and to avoid the Bayswater trap we must act quickly. So the short move to Edgware Road Met follows. The late Michael Bond indeed should be remembered fondly for his series of books which brought great joy to me as a five and six year old.

It's time for something subtly different - or do I mean differently subtle? No matter; either way we are all going to Chesham and that's all there is to it.

Indeed going to Chesham on a Sunday now that there are direct trains is indeed subtly different. On a day when for the first time in many years a team is playing association football at Wembley whose shirts are almost Metropolitan Railway colours.

So playing the Metropolitan Railway Pullman carriages rule for the very first time I move to Great Missenden

Until the first New Moon after the eclipse the Rule of Minimum Change remains in force so Little Missenden beckons.

Which logically if my memory of the late Sir John Betjeman's programme on Metroland is vaguely correct takes us to Wendover. A place that probably never uses that awful US term 'brunch'.

So, if I may be permitted to join part way through the delightful journey, I am minded that The Bennett Higginbotham rule comes into play on bank holidays in order to access the wider reaches of 'Ooop North'. So I give you Manchester Piccadilly

An interesting use of both the Bennett Higginbotham rule and possibly the closed lines one too.

I don't think during this game we have been to Chesterfield so let's go there.

Chesterfield, with the leaning spire; local legend has it that it will straighten up if a virgin ever gets married there.

Inevitably: Pisa.

Welcome, educatingarti. That was, if I may say so, an inspired move. I'm sure we've met before. In fact, didn't you play something similar at the Aldershot semi-finals in '77? I know things went somewhat awry once the Lords Spiritual and Temporal had been at the Brasso and creme de menthe cocktails, but there had been some excellent play until then.

If we're temporarily in Pisa, the next move inevitably has to be

Worthing