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

Maud I think it's a bit harsh to mention that at this time of the year. As you know the Colonel has turned his life round and is now living on a blameless diet of Shreddies washed down with dandelion and burdock and has reduced his household to twelve houris. And a Carmelite nun for Sundays.

So I make bold to bid you to St Neots.

The joys of the Hertford North branch where I am sure there are plenty of dandelions in summer, followed by a small town not immortalised in song, unless Hinge and Bracket or Flanders and Swann did so. On the day of the Feast of St Thomas a Becket no less.

Via the pre-Beeching rule I return to a scene of martyrdom near to a Cathedral and Southwark

Good evening all.

I'm not sure Southwark is an entirely appropriate move, since we are still within the 12 Days of Christmas and not one mention has been made of French Hens, 3 or otherwise, (as per Rule Xii, footnote 2, 3rd line from the bottom, 2001 revision - I know! So modern!). Still, it seems the game has slipped from it's purist roots in my recent, unavoidable, absence.

Allow me to rectify that somewhat gauche move with a spiral spatchcock to Bank (for Poultry, of course!)

So today is the 6th day- having forgotten the five gold rings yesterday a short move to Chancery Lane and a walk to Hatton Garden from there allows me to rectify this.

Pingu, dearest Pingu, no move of yours could ever be considered gauche - well, except that disastrous one to Gants Hill during Antofagasta '63, and we all make mistakes as the Dalek said as it climbed off the dustbin - and you are as ever on the ball. How was Mummy's wedding to number (if I have not lost count) 12? Did the Warden allow all her guests into the Institution? Even the Rear-Admiral?

Now I suppose we will need to get back to Henley for the swans.

Oh Andrew, you joker. You know full well I saw you at the wedding (wedding 12, husband 9 - she recycled a couple of them and there was a wife back in the 60s, of course, when she was in her free-spirit phase). I thought that hat looked divine on you. Who knew you could pull off both zebra print and peacock feathers with such elan!

Henley's bloody awful for swans these days, I think we'd be better off heading for Hyde Park Corner, rumour has it there's more than lyrically necesary on the Serpentine if one knows where to look. And top-class MC-ers always know where to look!

Do they have maids anywhere near Hyde Park? Well possibly along the streets near Piccadilly. More likely the chamber maids at hotels in South Kensington

So a short journey to South Kensington it shall be. Presumably the V and A has some servants costumes to look at as well. Now which of the marriages of Andrewofgg's mother ended when the husband had an affair with a maid?

Hmm. To see ladies dancing, I was going to suggest Covent Garden for the ballet, but since the latest tiresome and wholly predictable incident with the Colonel in his far too small tutu and laddered tights, the croque en bouche and the prima ballerina, I think we should probably steer clear, for the sake of discretion and to save having yet another whip-round for the bail bond. So, instead, I suggest we aim for

Tottenham Court Road

as, to see in the new year, Madame Jojo's is reopening for the night strictly for MCers only and some very lovely ladies will be demonstrating their unique dance moves.

Happy New Year to you all, good thin the Underground runs all night. Time for a quick nap so off to Russell Square and a hotel.

We face a grave crisis. There has been nothing like it since the matter of the Deputy Commissioner of the Met, the barrel of oysters, and the expired season ticket to Amersham.

It behoves us all to observe silence especially about the secret meeting of the Inner Select Circle of the Grand MC Council at noon today in the KFC at Leicester after which all will be revealed - well, nearly all, put them away, please, Pingu, they are good of their kind but this is not the time or the place.

Ok, I remember the last chorus of My Heart BelongsTo Daddy at Jojos, the conga down Old Compton Street, champagne in the Strangers Gallery,but I have no idea how that penguin got into the bath.
Fret not Andrew, under the Hailsham directive (chapter 6, subsection iv, para B obvs)any attempt at a coup (and we all know that's what's going on) will be subjudice until the 15th day of rotation, or the 50th day of Harrods sale, whichever comes first and will result in suspension from the MC council and banishment to Slough until Captain Faversham is released from his eternal Nidd.
If we are playing pre Beecham then on such a glorious day some fresh air in Barnard Castle is to be recommended.

Night has fallen on this day of the Grave Crisis. A trip to Barnard Castle with the aid of the pre-Beeching rule may have helped, but suspension of the game cannot be allowed to happen, as per the Hailsham directive.

We got over the sugar shortage of 1973, the bread crisis of 1978, and even the Marmite crisis in October last. Together the crisis can be resolved without the Grand Council having to meet again.

To Verney Junction it is with the aid of the pre-Beeching rule and not passing through Amersham.

Is there really a grave crisis, or are the Council Members just desperate to escape their families? I've had a tip-off that suggests that the Leicester KFC meeting was a feint, and they're actually all enjoying espresso martinis in a speakeasy near

Old St

Old Street was the feint, Irene, and some very fine lookalikes took part. The woman who pretended to be the Archbishop was particularly convincing, wasn't she?

Anyway, you will know that after the KFC the Jubilee Line is for the tiem being in Slammings for all purposes. I therefore play

South Beckenham.

Morning all! Wasn't it splendid of the KFC to serve champers for us all last night. I know it's generally held that one can't get a decent vintage north of the Watford Gap, but the chap in Leicester always delivers. Rumour has it he inherited the Colonel's personal wine cellar after... well... you know.

Now. Let me think, the old head's a bit fuzzy today (it was that final Jereboam that did it.) but if it's January 2nd and the Jubilee line is out, we're already ahead of ourselves with the ladies dancing then we must make haste to Westminster via the District and Circle - some call it old fashioned, some call it retro, I call it classic - where my sources tell me despite the Upper House being in recess, one might still find the requisite number of peers for the day in question.

Indeed, it has been said that the Upper House serves as a very well-appointed dormitory for those peers who, for whatever reason, can't get back to the family pile for the festive season.

I too favour the classic gambits (although I do try to keep up to date with all the latest developments in the game and was recently thrilled to be taught some novelty moves by an Olympic gymnast), so until slammings is over I think the best option is a Townsend to

Waddon

Elegant - but not quite elegant enough. I plead the 'eadaches and steer us by a Jenkins Jubilant Jump to South Ruislip.

Who is on the rota for the Bank Holiday visit to the Institution? It's not me - I was there last week and the ex-Chief Guide was in fine fettle. She told me the old story about the taxi driver, the take-away pizza and the plastic bucket with a twist in the tale which I want to believe is true.

Sorry to sound really thick, But I've no idea what all these posts are about. Cd someone please explain? Please...?

Those who need to know, know, and those who don't know don't need to know.

It is The Game, Molly, the finest game that ever there was. One either "has it", or one hasn't. While one's skill may be honed by diligent study, if the MC talent is not there, one will never truly be amongst the greats.

(google may be your friend, for the basics)

Ahem, Andrew, you posted, but did not play a move. Even with the festivities and goodwill of the season, that's an automatic 3-move Nidd for you, old chap.

While Andrew kicks his heels and reflects upon the error of his ways, I'll perform a jaunty January Jostle to Theydon Bois

Wrong again, Pingu - it's the first Monday of the year after leap year, and don't you forget it!

Not that it is not always better to move than not to, of course, and I play Ripon. You will know why and it has nothing to do with the Cardinal who is at present, or so I am reliably informed, in Nizhny-Novgorod testing out a new flavour of apple brandy. At least that's his story.

It is unfair to point anyone to google - the version taught there is so inferior to the Real Thing as to be positively misleading.

😯 Ooooh, curiouser and curiouser...and compellingly intriguing.

Hmmm... I'm going to attempt to play whilst not having the foggiest idea what the rules are. Or the purpose. But something tells me there might not be a purpose. But I'm like a six yr old on the edge of the playground, looking on longingly, wishing she could join in.

Here goes then ...

Wimbledon!

Does that make any sense? 😬

Molly, why not make it your new year's resolution to acquaint yourself with the basics of MC and then join us for a game?

To help you along, I'll demonstrate a very versatile move that I was taught in Murmansk in '77, shortly after the Nobel Laureate was rusticated from the quarter finals for playing Grimsby after dusk. Anyway, I digress. This is a quadruple lateral shunt (always a sound move for newbies) to

Goldhawk Road

I think Pingu was right under the Sevens rule (any year with a 7 in it means that Monday is counted as a second Tuesday).

Though as it is the first week of the year one should overlook such small indiscretions, and put it down to the meeting at KFC in Leicester.

Ripon reminds me of Rippon, as in Angela or her father Geoffrey, who was talked about as a challenger to Thatcher at one point. So we should head to a station near to thatched buildings, which by dent of the pre closure rule and a second use of the pre-Beeching rule leads us to Blake Hall, once of the Central line.

Crossing over the platform at Blake Hall to wave to Molly and hope that she acquaints herself with the finer points and joins us in this game.