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

Penningtons may be swift but never elegant. Crude is the word.

Let's restore the tone, which is not my usual role in any discussion online or in RL.

Aylesbury.

Mornington Crescent, chaps.

Sapphire I am afraid your last ill-considered foray to Crossharbour put you in Nidd for the duration. Therefore no, just no.

Burnt Oak

Brat, Crossharbour isn't recognised in the Puppington Convention under which you're assuming Nidd. (see section 5:iii).

I stand firm.

Sapphire Re-read sub-para (i) to reservation (2) to protocol (3) to article 4 of Rule 567 (as amended at Tegucigalpa in '89) and you will see the elementary error into which you have fallen. You are in good company: that Cardinal chappie who thought he was the cat's pyjamas art the Game of Games made the same blunder at Timisoara in '05 and got laughed out of court.

So we will make our way to Gidea Park and regroup.

No, the Cardinal in 2005 was playing under Hiromika rules (due to a foray to Leytonstone earlier in the game in question, if memory serves).

The sub-para you cite covers everything considered inviolable in relation to McGovern rules vis a vis the Northern (both branches). Which absolutely includes Crossharbour.

As the second Sunday in Advent has passed I believe double reverses are now permitted so ...

Uxbridge

If only the Rear Admiral were still sober enough playing. He knew this stuff like the back of his hand.

I think you need to accept, Sapphire, that your call of MC was premature and probably unlawful in several jurisdictions of the world. Be grateful that we're not the sort to hold a grudge if we overlook the cardinal, the Peruvian ambassador to the Court of St James and the air vice marshal.

I shall move decorously to

Hillingdon

I shall move courtesy of the Met line to Ruislip Manor. I could have claimed the rail replacement for the Piccadilly line but that is not cricket, or MC for that matter. I am not sure the Cardinal's diocese stretches this far into north-west London, but on the day of the feast of the Immaculate Conception I hope a Hail Mary will result in forgiveness if I have transgressed.

All right, but only because that quarter-bink from Saints allows me to essay one of my very favourites:

Aldgate East using a Lesser Listed Waddington.

You can't use the Lesser Listed Waddington on a Friday in December I guees you didnt take the time to read Gibson's Addendum (fourth edition)?

Off to Nidd for you!

Now, his to get out of this mess...

So we are back to Ruislip Manor and playing the bus replacement rule I move for the first ever time to North Ealing. It seems a bit of a strange place and you think at first it may be one such as East Cheam or South Riding, only to be found in fiction.

Oh Saints bless you; you have mentioned stations which although not found on the map are alive and well in the minds of all true players and you've mentioned them between First Quarter and Full Moon which allows me to knock one line off my bucket list by playing Barchester.

What ho!

Cranford

I think that all this fiction should stop now we are passing the end of Gaudete Sunday. Returning as if by magic to North Ealing and with the aid still of the bus replacements, it is off to South Acton.

Saints When you reach the highest level of consciousness in the Game of Games you will grasp that the places Maud and I mention are Real - it is places like S. Acton which are Fiction.

But in respect to all those who have not yet reached that degree of understanding: let's play a December Diversion to

Winchester.

Well if that's the game, from Winchester we shall proceed to the fair cathedral city of Lincoln.

I think a return to London in a couple of days should be achieved, as we are not in Southern territory. So to the fine Cathedral City of Ely it is to begin.

Thank you, Andrew, although I think you have been a little unkind to the other players in reminding them that you and I have reached a higher level of MC consciousness and are therefore playing on a loftier plain. We are all, after all, doing our best with what we have.

It seems to me that it's a very long time indeed since anyone dared play a Bolingbroke and so - bracing myself with some of grandmama's cherry brandy with a shoe polish chaser - I offer you

Kensington High Street

I think if you are looking for some cherry brandy should stocks run low, a short journey to Green Park for Fortnum and Mason should be a good move. There would be also be the opportunity for other Christmas food treats.

Maud Your grandmama's cherry brandy is legendary and not for the faint-hearted.

Reculer pour mieux sauter.

Maidstone West

Cherry brandy, eh? Most of us here know perfectly well that Maud and Andrew's 'higher level of consciousness' is nothing to do with their MC technique and everything to do with their weakness for absinthe before breakfast.

I of course lead a frugal, teetotal sort of life, so will make a symbolic move to

Sandwich

I think that we should move to Hythe to see the narrow gauge railway, just for a day away from the stress and trauma of London on a Southern strike day. I expect the buffet car if they have one serves a nice cup of tea.

It all depends what is in the sandwich so izzy wizzy, let's get busy, off we go to Ham.

Irene - if you really are teetotal try not to worry, you can get help, there are support groups. My name is Irene and I'm a teetoaller.