Mornington Crescent rides again

[Andrewofgg]

Maida Vale. Just to make it difficult.

Not Lord Halifax - he was a worse Crescenter than Churchill; and those of us who know the inside story of Shanghai '31 and saw the business of the Russian consul, the otter, and the signed copy of Das Kapital wend its way to its inevitable if ghastly conclusion will know how high I put my case there.

It was the first Lord Hailsham and he was doing his best.

Milngavie and if you can't pronounce it you're in Nidd.

Phooey!

Dundee

The view from the Tay Bridge is magnificent. As is that from the Forth Bridge, which we now return over and down the East Coast Mainline to another lovely view at Durham.

From which a detour is obligatory (see the first protocol to the second schedule to the third amendment to Book Four of the consolidated rules in the recension adopted at the fifth meeting of the Grand Council in ‘67) and where better than Barnard Castle - where nobody has heard about the business of the Alderman, the copy of the Kama Sutra, and the Jack Russell terrier?

Why are you so averse, Andrew, to spending time in our bustling metropolis? Surely the injunction has long since been lifted and your probation officer has waived his right to object?

Elephant and Castle

There are so many escalator closures and diversions for station works that playing the game in the vicinity of the south end of the Bakerloo line causes all sorts of issues. So I shall make the simple move to Lambeth North.

Hmm. That puts me perilously close to Nidd, especially as the solstice has initiated treblings, but I think I’ll escape if I move swiftly to

Pimlico

It is a good job there is the Night Tube on the Victoria line, though what the Alderman would have thought of that is not recorded anywhere, unlike his G+T consumption.

I think that we can safely move to Warren Street on this Sunday afternoon.

As we are still in treblings with a heatwave forecast, it can only be

Kew Gardens

Excellent choice, Irene. I shall continue the rustic idyll with

Gidea Park

I think a short trip to Harold Wood on this warm evening would be ideal.

Has something happened to one of more of the players? Has the incident in 1957 in Prague been repeated?

I move to Romford to await news.

I’m sorry to have been absent for so long. An unfortunate entanglement with a handsome young subaltern in the hammock slung between the lime trees meant I simply couldn’t get away. We were there for a week before help arrived.

Mercifully, Prague is but a distant memory (unlike Vienna in ‘52, which still keeps the Director General awake at night)

Oxford Parkway

I wonder if there have been more entanglements or someone sneakily playing some pseudo version of the game of games. Only four players over a month- we did not even have this in the darkest days of the Blitz!

Dedham Golf Club

I fear that some players have been enervated by the heat, while others until yesterday were distracted by some lesser, minority sport hardly worthy of a mention.

Hayes & Harlington

Moving via the Elizabeth line rule to Bond Street

Playing the two moves consecutively rule to move to Lancaster Gate.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Play has been so slow that we’re just a couple of hours away from being plunged into knockings, with only a twenty percent change of reversing that through judicious use of the Copenhagen clause. Still, I can see a way through

Warren Street

Slow play in itself is no crime I feel, but there has to be limits- thank you Maud.

The east side of the Fitzrovia triangle needs to be negotiated, though I wonder why there was a staff shortage the other morning. I hope it was not a search by Underground staff for those who know the game of games (apparently not part of basic training anymore).

Goodge Street

Nicely done, Saints, nicely done. Let us pay homage to the Bloomsbury Set (Lytton was quite a player, I hear) with an ellipsis to

Russell Square

Let us move to Kings Cross St Pancras to visit the champagne bar.

Five days drinking is too much. Better go to Barbican to be temperate.

To avoid the risk of alcoholic excess, let us go somewhere more abstemious

Glasgow Central

Always difficult to know whether or not to play the Clockwork Orange rule. I'll be brave and move to Partick. I have never been sure how much the game of games is played north of the border, though think it must be a possibility given their education system.

Returning from leave of absence. The education system here is not what it is cracked up to be and skilled players are hard to find. If only McTavish could be coaxed out of his self-imposed seclusion but I fear the scars of 68 still run deep.
I play a Hootingtons Hairpin to Haymarket