Mind the Gap! (Mornington Crescent)

[Martini Enfield]

That's right, folks, the DoMeBo boards have been here a week and no-one has started a game of Mornington Crescent. In an effort to rectify this gross oversight, I'm starting our very first game, right here in this thread!

We should all be familiar with the rules by now, and if you're not, you can either get a copy of Postlethwaite's Commentaries on Mornington Crescent (which has been out of print for a few years, but check your local second-hand bookshop!) or, better yet, just follow along and you'll pick it up in no time.

I needn't remind everyone this is a Friendly match, and in an effort to make it nice and easy for everyone to get involved, I'm going to start us off with that perennial opening favourite, Victoria Station.

Mind the Gap!

[Petrobey]

In that spirit I'll make the standard reply:

Archway

Let's try and get through the opening quickly, and proceed to the real meat of the main game.

[Giles]

Well today is Thursday, and that has a T in it, so (using the standard rules) I think Tottenham Court Road is allowed at this point.

[CRSP]

Have we decided that we are playing standard rules, though Giles? Under some rule schemata, such a move isn't permitted!

[Giles]

Have we decided that we are playing standard rules, though Giles? Under some rule schemata, such a move isn't permitted!

Well, if we're playing non-standard rules, then someone should have said so. But I just realised that Tottenham Court Road station is located at St Giles Circus, so (given my name) I think I can play it anyway.

[Brewha]

Can we get a clarification on the rules?

If we're playing standard rules, I'd say Royal Gorge Bridge.

But, that obviously won't work with the non standard rules (who came up with that anyway)?

So, if it is non standard rules, I'll kick it up a notch to Alpha Centauri.

[Martini Enfield]

We're playing Empire Tournament rules, which are basically the standard rules but with a few outwardly minor amendments, as discussed at length in Brownlowe's On Mornington Crescent, if anyone has been lucky to find a copy of the updated edition. I understand there was a bit of a kerfuffle with the printer in Thailand and so it's not commonly available nowadays; which is a shame because it's a considerably more comprehensive text than the earlier edition, which was (as I'm sure we can all agree) in dire need of an update.

[Kaspar Hauser]

I think we're playing standard rules - I hope so, at least, because that will give me the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of the great Yalta school minds by saying Waterloo.

On preview I see we are playing Empire Tournament rules and while I don't have access to an updated edition of Brownlowe, a quick look in Rajendranath's Advanced opening gambits (1st ed. Calcutta print - my pride) asserts me in my rights to stand by my previous choice.

[Brewha]

HaHA!

But, by Empire Tournament rules, you are already disqualified, Martini Enfield!

Knocked out in one! That sucks for you.

[MisterDiskord]

In honour of our new stomping grounds, I'm going to play it a bit unorthodox.

I hangle to Charing Cross and claim 3 red tokens.

[silenus]

HaHA!

But, by Empire Tournament rules, you are already disqualified, Martini Enfield!

Knocked out in one! That sucks for you.

Didn't the Colloquy of 1912 admit Curtangle's Exception into Empire Rules? If I am right, Martini Enfield only loses access to Bakerloo Line stations for a fortnight, and has to turn around three times before playing Gunnersby.

In any case, from Charing Cross I'm going to play Dollis Hill and see if we can get Arbuthnot's Pyramid accomplished by the weekend.

[Giles]

Ah -- the Dollis Hill gambit, eh? Let's try Stratford and see if that opens things up a bit.

[Malacandra]

Ah -- the Dollis Hill gambit, eh? Let's try Stratford and see if that opens things up a bit.

Would that it were as simple as that. Dollis Hill. Sorry boys, it's unusual to see the Loop in play before there are even any prime stations in Nip, but that's where we seem to have got to.

[Giles]

Let's see if we can get out of the loop: Canada Water.

[silenus]

Well, bollocks! That throws my plans right out the window.

<sigh> "Gang aft aglay" and all that, I guess. Snaresbrook and since that's Central Line, all Admiralty tokens are now wild.

[Kaspar Hauser]

Hmm. The only sane thing to do now then is to cross water (as I've done once before, you'll notice), thus resetting all tokens hitherto in play. : Surrey Quays.

[Martini Enfield]

I'd only be disqualified if it Easter fell in March and I'd played at last year's Commonwealth Invitational, but since it doesn't and I didn't, then I'm still in the game and I'm going to play Ealing Broadway just to flummox anyone thinking of trying a Panhandler's Gambit this early in the game.

[silenus]

Ealing Broadway, eh? So that's the way you want to do this?

"Totteridge & Whetstone, and the Devil take the hindmost!"*











*True MC buffs will recognize the paraphrase of Lady Covington's immortal reply to Sheik Ali al-Hazenpfeffer's challenge at the 1894 Grand Nationals.

[PrecambrianMollusc]

Well I think we all know how that ended up for Lady Covington's traveling menagerie, so before this gets too acrimonious (and it is a friendly game) I'm going to pull a Hammersmith and City line down side lefter and call

Latimer Road


eta an o where it should have been.

[Giles]

Hammersmith & City? -- well, Farringdon -- see if you can get out of that spot.

[Martini Enfield]

Nothing a quick stop at Wimbledon won't fix.

[Kaspar Hauser]

We are using Hutchington conversion, right? - in that case: Bank seems to be the way to go.

[silenus]

Beckton Park. :shock:


Ha! Everybody forgot that in a non-hemispheral game, Docklands Light Rail becomes playable if the sun isn't over the yardarm yet. You'd better dig out the latest appendix to the General Rules. You're gonna need it.

[Petrobey]

I once met the immortal, but now sadly dead, Willie Rushton. His large and bulky presence loomed above me as I manned a till in a art supply shop on Kensington High Street. Upon realising who I was serving I struggled to find the words to adequately convey my respect and admiration. After a long and tense pause, whilst I tried to summon something suitably full of wit and pithy intelligence, I came out with the halting phrase, "I loved you in Jackanory". The great man hesitated for beat, before staring down at me from underneath his bushy eyebrows. "There's only one reasonable response to that", he said, before leaning forward and whispering straight into my ear:

"Mornington Crescent"




Most of this is vaguely true

[Giles]

"Mornington Crescent"

I'd like to see the rule cited that allows a play like that when most of the board is still wide open. It just seems, well, premature to me

[silenus]

I regard it as merely a story related to keep our spirits up during the match and nothing more. Since obviously we couldn't have gotten to MC at this point in the game without Queen's Intervention, it is moot as a move.

So it's still Beckton Park, and surely my uncle is Björn Stronginthearm.

[Petrobey]

Well I'm almost always premature, and it was just a story, and is definitely a moot point.

I apologise and recant, or possibly Brian Cant, and give you Gipsy Hill.

[PrecambrianMollusc]

I am missing my appendix, but Lannersbry and Kremlich Compendium suggest a call of Upney would be legal, but I am not sure if the earlier Charing Cross hangle would forstall that. I am going with a conservative Mudchute.

[silenus]

Mudchute. Of all the stations on all the lines, you had to play Mudchute.

Elephant & Castle. That ought to scupper your devious little attempt at Gronigen's Gambit (Variation 3c). Hah! You're not the only person to have read Montegue's Hypothosis & Synthesis, bucko. I'll have you know I own a First Edition of that monograph! Signed!

[Kaspar Hauser]

If you had paid a little more attention to your Jørgensen, Jørgensen and Vestergaard ("Mornington Crescent - Avanceret Trækteori", Gyldenflop 1973), you would surely know about the severe disadvantages in employing a Montegue gambit so (relatively) early in the game. The logical solution provided by J,J&V (and the only one to prevent prematurely disqualifying most of the above-ground stations): All Saints

[Malacandra]

A duffer's move.

Pimlico!

Really, it had to be done. I call imshi! and impose a penalty on Kaspar for not wearing a fez.

[Kaspar Hauser]

A-ha! Lured you right in there. Penalty distributions is a dangerous thing on Victoria Line, my friend. Cashing my late-night bonus cards and previously collected morning-rush tokens, I say Whitechapel. (This move is done very much in the spirit of the late great LeFèvre - I remember him doing something similar in one of the minor county tournaments once).

[jali]

Jumping in confused but determined!

Marylebone

Why?

Because my pronunciation Mar-lee-bone-ay sounds cool

[Martini Enfield]

Ah, the Cox's Bazaar doubleback! Nicely played, Jali! Haven't seen that one since the Colonial Opens in Madras some years ago.

Of course, doublebacks are notoriously difficult to get out of, but I think the most effective play at this point- and I remind everyone this is a Friendly match, lest someone try and invoke the Ishapore Switch at this juncture- is Pimlico.

[PrecambrianMollusc]

Nice call, I'll keep that going and take a double swither over to Dollis Hill, don't expect me to be so accommodating in next months Cylon Open Invitational. Have at it chaps (and chapessess)

[PrecambrianMollusc]

If we are keeping this light might I suggest someone pull the Amersham Gambit. That way we can have Silenus providing the musical interlude in 3.

Interesting piece of trivia , the Amersham gambit was not named thus because Amersham is used as the axis or the second rotation, but because it was first used to break a stalemate game up in the snug of the Iron Horse pub in Amersham. Bond Street would have worked just as well as the axis, but Jarvink Krunnt just liked the symmetry of picking Amersham. And yes that is the same Krunnt who developed the Scandinavian variant of MC, Hammersvald Fjord and lesser well know as the great uncle of the founder of Ikea.
The question is , does anyone have 2 blue tokens they are willing to sacrifice to be able to pull it off

[Malacandra]

If we are keeping this light might I suggest someone pull the Amersham Gambit. That way we can have Silenus providing the musical interlude in 3.

Interesting piece of trivia , the Amersham gambit was not named thus because Amersham is used as the axis or the second rotation, but because it was first used to break a stalemate game up in the snug of the Iron Horse pub in Amersham. Bond Street would have worked just as well as the axis, but Jarvink Krunnt just liked the symmetry of picking Amersham. And yes that is the same Krunnt who developed the Scandinavian variant of MC, Hammersvald Fjord and lesser well know as the great uncle of the founder of Ikea.
The question is , does anyone have 2 blue tokens they are willing to sacrifice to be able to pull it off

No, but there's a sub-variation involving a yellow token and some gravitas, so let's try Hainault. Remember, no giggling (Baden-bei-Wien, 1937).

[Hostile Dialect]

Has nobody been reading their 1972 Melbourne Conference on Antipodean Mornington Crescent? For shame!

Those of us who brought our copies *ahem* will know that, as it says right here on page 167, yellow tokens are strictly forbidden for the Amersham Gambit unless accompanied by a tasty scone, which must be eaten immediately afterward.

However, this being a friendly, I'd ask that the penalty not be enforced. I happen to have a yellow token, plenty of gravitas, and, since I've just returned from Rebecca's Coffee & Tea, a tasty scone. I'm willing to make the move myself and eat the scone if we all just agree that it was me who called Hainault. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[tirial]

Well since the 1934 amendment to the 1921 Vicarage rules allows a stop for a tea cake on route on Sundays, I'll get back into the spirit of the game with Parson's Green.

[Kaspar Hauser]

Beautiful, tirial. Simple and to the point. Allow me to follow up with the logical answer (perhaps deceitfully so) Hanger Lane.

[silenus]

All Saints.


Look, just back off, ok? It's been a long day and I'm too wiped to start a Ayres (redoubled) at this point in the game.

[PrecambrianMollusc]

Based on J,J&V commentaries referenced earlier and as we have just passed the 194th anniversary of the start of someones 100 days, it would be appropriate to end my turn with Waterloo. Empire rules dictate the next player must wear an eyepatch, a hook and a peg leg if their move initiates a T-Cross wrangle.

[CatInASuit]

Well as Charing Cross is already out of bounds, that only leaves Earl's Court and a forfeited yellow token to PrecambrainMollusc.

Well played Sir.

[Giles]

I've just checked the yellowing pages of my copy of the final communique from the 1936 Prague conference on the use of tokens in the game, and I believe that I can use a purple token to get to Shepherd's Bush Market. So that puts Hammersmith & City tactics back into play.

[silenus]

West Harrow.

In G Flat, no less. All together now...

When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Aro-o-o-ose from out the a-a-a-zure main,
Arose, arose, arose from out the a-azure main,
This was the charter, the charter of the land,
And guardian A-a-angels sang this strain...

[Kaspar Hauser]

Careful, silenus. I'm not sure going there will fit too well with this being a friendly game. I'll end the retro-colonial gambit by applying Banerjee's classical solution (and a major shock to Lord Luddington, who later admitted to being "stumped" by this wonderful play): Epping.

[tirial]

Epping? On a Tuesday? I thought you said this was a friendly game, Kasper Hauser?

Then let me counter with Barking. Unless we are using the hotly debated Overground amendment from 2005, which I believe is still unratified, I lose a purple token to silenus but it brings the classical Jubilee gambit into play.

[PrecambrianMollusc]

The Jubilee Line eh, well if you think you will fool us into picking the ever so tempting, yet unplayable, Dollis Hill again I think you underestimate the degree to which Fathershomes Fulcrum has been dissected and debunked. I'd recommend the Annals of the 1971 Port Dickinson Invitational for those who need a spot of light reading. So that said, I'll cash in my yellow token and go to Green Park , and call all change!

[Martini Enfield]

Unless I play Tower Hill, which I shall. Have a look at your copies of Miyamoto's Mornington Crescent and the Meiji Era (translated from Japanese, of course) for an interesting discussion of the possibilites now open to you all...

[Giles]

... Miyamoto's Mornington Crescent and the Meiji Era ...

OK -- this is no longer friendly -- you want Meiji Era, I'll give you Meiji Era (opened in 1890 according to Wikipedia, so it's right in the middle of the era): ???? (Akihabara)