Greetings. This year I propose we play with the new Global Railways DLC released last month. I realise this is a bit of a gyp for people who haven't yet shelled out the 50 quid for the addon, which arguably really should have been part of the base game, but I think we can all agree that it does add an invigorating twist.

Please remember that as always, local law applies, so, mind how you go.

In any case, I'll start.

Johannesburg Central. Yes.

Good luck. There's like 2 possible moves from there.

Fortunately i won a voucher to the add on in the RSA freestyle open 2022 narrowly pipping Ron Van Sledgewig famous for the "Hallsetter Manoeuvre" hence i know that one of the simple moves is a hop to

Krugersdorp

Oh my. This has gotten any strategy I would have had out the window. I can't even tell where the diagonals are!

Wing and a prayer time as I play

Hatfield

(Ugh... I tried downloading the Global Railways DLC on a torrent site and infected my computer with a virus. I didn't want to shell the £50 and now I have to reformat it a few days before FAWM. Oh well!)

While I wait for my (expensive and legit) download I'll play the traditional ruffle-shuffle from the core 1863 rule book:

Waterloo.

I can't get it to run on my Bewildertron 9000. Maybe I'll try decoking it and using smokeless nuggets?

I've got the update running but I think it's faulty. It's absolutely insisting that the western diagonals are *inverted*, as if that would make any sense at all. Or maybe I just haven't got to grips with it properly yet. Whatever, I'll blunder on and see where it goes...

Bristol Temple Meads

Global Railways DLC? Wow, I guess that means my next move must be (in accordance with the 5th Canadian Recension Ruleset)

Union Station (Toronto)

@dragondreams It will, actually, run on the Bewildertron 9000, but like an absolute turd. They claim it'll run on a Bemusalyser 55, but that's a lie.

In any case, run *all* of the updates, and it will in fact launch. Just understand that you're going to be playing Bus Replacement Service cards on a regular basis.

In any case, Oogies.

Didn't see that coming, did you?

Shinjuku! (Er, Sussmeyer's Gambit is permitted in this variant, isn't it?)

Right... I installed all the updates, but still not sure why I had to stand in a bath of porridge while running the installer for the sub-routines?
Anyway, it sort of works in a dot and carry one fashion... so...

Wood Green!

I thought that was standard ever since the "Teal v/s Salmon" edition? That's why I usually play offline with the hypercards instead.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

well its tough to get around the strikes, macchu picchu, picadilly, hmm.
Rare but a pleasure, needing not to break no picket line, Yo!
New York GrandCentral

well as Earl Leggy Dickworth once said the mind expands the world! or was it the other way around. I think @dragondreams you will find you need an Aunty board to go alongside the motherboard so they can communicate!

keeping it diagonal i must choose

Flagstaff underground station Melbourne

I suppose I should apologize for recusing myself from the 50/90 MC Game this last summer, as I was helping direct research on an updated version of "Scarne on Mornington Crescent" that has now been pushed back several years due to the emergence of the Global Railways DLC. Unfortunately so has my promised fee for the project. Oh well, we keep calm and carry-on.

Rainier Beach

I was part of the authoring of the Global Railways DLC, was being the operative word. I was forced to part company with the other authors when they all started considering including the network north of hadrians wall. As a devout purist when it comes to rule sets for MC, I can’t possibly put my name to such a sacrilege! On saying that, I give you

Tooting bec

Defiantly shunting north of Hadrian's wall, I give you Slateford. Not underground yet, but if there's an earthquake at Asda's it will be.

Slateford.

Ooh, sneaky. I think I'm going to need another blue token if the strategy I have in mind has any hope of success, so it's important to stay north of Hadrian's wall at this stage, but I reckon I can double my token count by straddling the border at the same time. So...

Alnmouth (for Alnwick)

Typical still making raids back across the border. to quote Hadrien himself "Frig off home" he did have a way with words for a Roman! I'm staying in the diagonal and using my scramjet token

Parliament - Melbourne

Not sure quite what I did wrong when downloading those DLC rules (which I got on sale for a measly CDN$70 (which is £42.30 going by today's rate)). It keeps asking me to install MS-DOS Version 6 before it will properly install the update. And I no longer have my 486SX computer from ~1994. Oh well, I guess if I re-write the config.sys file, I might be able to get it to work, but until then, I think I'll take a trip up the line to:

Bounds Green

See You In The Shadows…

Well, I see that those with a greater understanding of the DLC rules are playing quite a finessed game and there seem to be many different options here and the diagonals all seem to go into a vortex and shoot you out somewhere. I managed to get a tattered copy of the DLC rules on eBay, and when I looked at where I ended up after Bounds Green I ended up in

Berri-UQAM (Montréal)

Aaaah my young friends. what you fail to understand is, it's not the game, it's not the system, it's not the DLC that makes the thing...

it's the player,
and even running a bootleg emulation on my sentient ant colony, I can see the path to victory, it lies though...

Canterbury East

All this newfangled technology. All you need to play MC is a compass, a map, a folio of timetables, an astrolabe, a machete a magic 8 ball, and a Ouijia board. It was good enof for Grandad, it's good enough for me. Let me check the augeries... Damn. I'm in Nidd.

Hmm... my aunty board stopped talking to the rest of the family after that really messy incident with the potato masher and a frog...

I poured a cup of strong coffee down the back of the processor and that seems to have done... something. I also wired in some bits and bobs I found in @sapient's airship, more for dramatic effect than any practical purpose, but let's see...

W H Smiths, Pontefract?

Oh, so THAT'S why the navbot keeps humming the theme tune to The Wombles. Thanks a lot @dragondreams.
And I take it when you say "I found", you actually mean "the temporal displacement core that Geoffrey ripped out of the cockpit when he broke in last week looking for custard creams"?
And you wonder why it's STILL parked in the Castle grounds after all this time?
Harrumph.

Well I'm going to take the hint.

Wimbledon

"Found" is such a subjective word, Lord @sapient , dontcha think? As are the words "ripped" and "out"...

Wimbledon, you say. Fiendish (but I would expect nothing less, and indeed applaud you for it).

You leave me no alternative but to twiddle one of the knobs on this infernal box of yours that we "found" and let the fickle hand of time herself sweep us up in her treacherous vortex!

Oh.

We're back wherewhence we started.

Master Bedroom, Castle Dragondreams, overlooking the car park to the west.

@dragondreams Ah. Same place... But the question is WHEN are you there?
I bet it's around teatime yesterday, isn't it?
Which means that the game skips back to the last move made by @jtsteam.
Everything that happened since, now didn't happen, meaning that @ductapeguy is also no longer in Nidd!

And I guess the next move really should be Heathrow Terminal 5 as it's a surefire way to keep time-paradoxes in check, being as it is one already...

"overground, underground wombling free" - Can't get that damn tune out of my head now...
Anyhoo, how did we end up in gloomy godforsaken Upper Trendleby Down? And not only that, there's a flippin replacement bus service to contend with too.
Now let me see, with the RMT's vote on industrial action about to happen I think a little maneuvering is required, so I'm going to invoke the Cortez-Sholzstein Amendment.
Hold very tight please....Gospel Oak

Omg. Cortez - Sholzstein. I have not heard of that since mother got her upper appendages caught in the mangle. Fortunately having spent time in my youth on a portugese/ german man of war and having seen Cortez after a bottle of Tequila i know the correct move is to the deep dark East

Plaistow

Chat GPT, make the next Mornington Crescent move:

"I'm sorry, as Mornington Crescent is a fictional game and there are no actual rules or moves defined, it's not possible for me to make up a move. It's just a parody game for fun and entertainment."

Now, isn't that the most outrageous thing? Doesn't it prove just how much "intelligence" there is in artificial intelligence?

When the AI makes its attempt at world domination, make sure that you have your Mornington Crescent rule books ready - they will be the platform upon which humanity will organize its resistance, in a secret encoded language that the AI is not able to understand.

It reminds me of how humanity tricks an AI in a sci-fi story - William Hertling's Singularity, if I am not mistaken - by resorting to an outdated mysterious operating system called "Windows" whose APIs are so convoluted and arcane and badly documented that the AI is unable to grasp their meaning.

Now I happen to have a saxophone solo running around my head. Let's head to: Baker Street.

That's the problem isn't it? Using Windows has caused VAR notifications to appear, and now we're shunted in Baker Street. I'll play it anyway though.

Edgeware (Circle & District, obvs.)

I tried to get to Ebbute Meta, where I used to live, but it seems the Lagos Metro doesn't get built until 2204 (and only becomes necessary when the population of the city exceeds 30,000,000). That's the trouble with time travel, you never remember what exists where and when. I try to keep my head by having a year in my user name. That way I can remember how old my appearance suggests to humans that I am.

So, mere mortals, as this is apparently 2023, I will have to settle for a stroll down Barcelona's "Les Rambles" on this sunny Mediterranean Winter's day. For that I need to get to:

Plaça Catalunya

So, with that masterful gambit, my lodestones are all a-quiver and the diagonals just curve back on themselves like a stale pretzel, brilliant move.
There's nothing for it but to try Diatlov's famous 'Numberwang Defence', rotate the board and play:
Nevsky Prospekt
Just don't think of the event.

It seems we all missed the boat (or the train, mayhaps?), However, @florianhoffmann seems to have won the first round. Congratulations on a match well played. I guess I'll have to kick off the next match. Shall we dust off the Heatherington Byway Ruleset? I've seen a few tourneys using them & they are always full of interesting twists & turns. So, my opening gambit is this:

Marble Arch

See You In The Shadows…

Goodness, I’ve come in at an interesting moment, don’t see a lot of options from here, but I do need to get on the board, so…let’s see…ah, yes, of course! Blimpton’s Sideways Stutter should land me nicely at…

Shepherd’s Bush

As I recall, the Heatherington Byway Ruleset says nothing about the use of fictional locations...

Walford East

I thought the Heatherington Byway Ruleset had been superseded during the Gateshead Convention in '08? However, I stand to be corrected. In the meantime, I've drawn a five of cups, so...

Starbucks, Doncaster.

I refuse to be dragged into this Charlatan version of the beautiful game!! I’m which lies nothing but misery, disagreement, and ointment - trust me I know!! I will steer this debacle back to where we all should be heading; the brand new Lizzie Line (god rest her weary soul) and

Seven Kings

Ah, if @celineellis has invoked the departed sovereign, we must be in for a sedate, and peaceful game.......or a complete cock up. I'm guess that @dragondreams invoking the Gatehead Convention would bring me to mirror the play by Sir Huntley St. Vitus. I actually got to meet him at the 2008 Shropshire Regions. Marvelous chap:

Tooting Bec

So, like @florianhoffmann, I asked ChatGPT about Mornington Crescent strategies, and when it told me it was fictional I explained otherwise. It said:

"I apologize if my previous response gave the impression that the game of Mornington Crescent is not real. I understand that it is a live action
role-playing game, which is usually played in a radio shows, podcasts and other forms of media. It's a game of strategy and subterfuge, where players must use their knowledge of London's underground train system to outmaneuver their opponents and be the first to reach the titular station of Mornington Crescent."

So that's it told. I'm not about to ask its opinion on anything important. Like, say, what move I should play here. I'll make my own silly mistakes thank you very much. Speaking of which...

Elephant & Castle

Congratulations, @jtsteam on winning this round, possibly unintentionally. 🤣😉

Three times, even! I'll take E&C as the new round starter.

East Garforth.

Looks like we've entered a quickfire phase!
Everyone have their copper tokens at the ready...

Gants Hill

I'm no regal fella but I am surprised that the DLC has offered me this move in particular.
Kings Cross.

Well I'd like to pretend I won that deliberately and it was all a carefully planned strategy, but I'm not sure that would fool anyone. So, let's see...

Wanstead

It's all good @jtsteam, we've all bumbled our way into a win at some point. Take it & celebrate, I know I would.

@sapient, I seem to have played my last copper token at the East Manchester Regional's this past fall. I'm at a serious disadvantage, I reckon… oh well, that just means I'll have to rely firmly on strategy to see me through. As such, I think I'll start out at:

Hanger Lane

See You In The Shadows…

So, with the swiftness of this new round (are we playing the Swansea Invitational Ruleset or the Brighton Jubilee Ruleset? I'm not sure). Anyway, my patented play should work for both:

Cockfosters!

Hanger Lane followed by Cockfosters? Methinks perhaps @candle and @beacon have joined forces and are trying the infamous, and devilish, Pincher Play that caused all that fuss back in '69...

I got caught out by that once, and my therapist's bill was stratospheric!

So...

Whetstone.

@beacon Given the time of day, I'm pretty certain that it should be the Brighton Jubilee Ruleset. Whether it's issue (viii) or (ix) depends, as usual, on how much cake all the players have eaten in the last 8 hours.
So I'm either getting this spectacularly wrong and we all owe @candle a copper token, OR I'm a genius and @dragondreams' therapist is back in business when I say:
Fenchurch Street

Kings Cross? Really?? After Wellingsworth's debacle at the Penzance World Qualifiers only 24 short years ago? I have good friends who still wake up in cold sweats at night just thinking about that move. Not so much Kings Cross itself, mind you, but the line of play leading on from Gants Hill through Kings Cross.

Oh well, let's see if I can avoid making the same mistake Wellingsworth did.

Wood Lane

Akasaka. (No, I am not going to turn localisation settings back on. That'd just leave me trapped in DLR country!)

@candle, I see that @dragondreams and @sapient are suspicious. Must make a play that no one would expect:

Seven Sisters

Invoking the Clegg clause, I am abandoning fair play, indeed all conventional morality. Thus...

Hainault

@sapient, I have no problem if everyone owes me a copper token. However, indeed, if @dragondreams' therapist requires them more then I do, then I'll happily donate them for the cause. Afterall, without sportsmanship, this beautiful game does tend to get rather ugly.

@beacon, yes, they might have their sights on something, so I agree that a diversion is in order.

Ergo, I think I'll take a jaunt into the city & make a stop at:

Lancaster Gate

See You In The Shadows…

@hornesgiftshop you cad, sir, to mention that name here. Have you no shame?

Though it should be beneath me, I am forced to respond in kind.

Hull.

mmm....the upgrade crashed and i nearly ended up in Nidd, but i think if i can roll a 7....yes, yes....

Sutton Hoo please Bob

So I've never played this game before, and I'm trying to digest the rules. I tried consulting the manual, but I couldn't take it out of the library, what with it weighing the same as the Statue of Liberty, however careful study has highlighted to me a long forgotten play that can cause severe disorientation, vertigo, nausea and unfortunate bouts of diarrhoea at the most inappropriate times. So stock up on toilet paper as I invoke the Rainbow Road pass and hopefully cease your progress to enable me a fair shot at victory.

Dagenham East

"I couldn't take it out of the library, what with it weighing the same as the Statue of Liberty"

They only have the abridged version? Pity that.

"careful study has highlighted to me a long forgotten play that can cause severe disorientation, vertigo, nausea and unfortunate bouts of diarrhoea at the most inappropriate times"

Damn, I was hoping I'd managed to bury my very earliest games. Oh well, nothing to be done for it but carry on.

Aldgate. Now if you'll excuse me . . .

My, we have gotten into some quite hairy situations here. I must study all the past diagonals, and exceptions in this Ruleset. As she hasn't played in a few rounds, I will invoke one of @celineellis's favorite plays (which have won her many accolades):

Shepherd's Bush

Daring, @beacon. Very daring.
For with a simple reverse shunt we can skip one stop closer to the end, or at least one step closer to @hornesgiftshop having to miss a turn for his morality infraction...

Bank

Leave my Bush out of this @beacon - and my name isnt Shepherd anymore either. Anyway, we digress. I’m not sure many of you are aware, but when the faringdon invitational was boycotted 2 years running, it was me that instigated the compromise of letting Chancery Lane be an equivocal side chain when wanting to avoid the Bakerloo line in totality. Something that earned me the EmSee award that year. It’s with that in mind that I play….

Paddington - circle / district line side only

Miss a turn? I laugh at such...

Unhand me, scoundrels, I will not be dragged away!

*distant screams of anguish*

(distant voice, echoing from tiled walls)
"Rayner's La..."

I just noticed half a hole in the tunnel with 4 oddly familiar, somewhat animated individuals waving me onward. Just ducking topside with my four new moptop friends to follow a chicken across the street... Abbey Road

Oh my, a bush in Paddington and a fellow player dragged away by scoudrels… this is certainly not my grandfather's beautiful game. No sir, there is much going on this round & all the diagonals seem to be heading in the wrong direction (tho, some seem to end at the loo, given @scarletswalk's Rainbow Road Pass). How to make a move without sounding a brown note? Hmmm… well, when all else fails, there's always the crossing of the Central & Piccadilly Lines at:

Holborn (I guess…)

See You In The Shadows…

Leicester Square.

No, I'm not proud, but you have to play the game. Don't you? Isn't that what it's all about? Tell me I'm not a monster [sobs]

I've never had to carry my set square before but its come in handy this year! not of of course an ordinary set square but a "Hansbury double Bluff version" - tricky to hold but awesome on those diagonals - and yes clause 7 "Michelton amendment 73" declared them non steroidal and therefore allowed in normal play

so i must go to platform 4 northbound

High Barnet

[salutes] An exemplary play! You shame me for my earlier unsporting behaviour. And so, in accordance with both the spirit and the letter of Supplement 12 to the 4.512nd Edition Handbook (revised), I play-

Hoboken Terminal.

Well, I've practically had my tea kettle knocked over with so much excitement and challenging play here. While I don't apologize for my bold moves, I believe they were delivered with the utmost decorum and the approval of Mrs. Trellis.

And with that, I play:

Snaresbrook

Since I also am new to the great game and my library also has only the abridged version, I'm unsure of the deepest ramifications, but I believe that my application of the Hornsby Harrier Hop rule should take us to ...

Clifton Forge

I'm tempted to go international here, but I have just realised that I can autostraddle here. I don't often get the opportunity to do that.

It's a risky move, but it often opens up the game if pulled off correctly. I can't win with an autostraddle, but then I'm not aiming to win.

One, two, three...

...

...Custom House.

@pooka, It hasn't been since the Haliburton Invitational of '73 that I've seen someone execute an autostraddle, (I think, iirc, Mrs. Trellis was in attendance at that wonderful tourney, @beacon) That's a bold move! How to counter such an unique attack? Well (thumbs through Mercers Guide To The Rails (1964 Black Rose Cover Edition)), seems my best bet in this situation is:

Liverpool Street

See You In The Shadows…

The obvious move here is still the best one, I think. A simple 5-dimensional mirror transform taking us to Mumbai's Western Line and, let's see -

Andheri.

I feel obligated to attempt to restore a semblance of order into this round. I'm not entirely sure why, since I am obviously swimming against the current, but I feel safe in invoking Wellesley here and cutting over to

Bayswater

@tuneslayer I think we are far beyond restoring order here. This is the wildest game I've played since the 1993 Upper Trendleby Down Invitational where Sir Horace Upingham-Smythe was caught with an exploding crumpet in the player's green room. Jam everywhere!

And, throwing caution to the wind, I play:

Walthamstow Central

Ah... @beacon. I'd quite forgotten that incident! And we never did find Sir Horace's monocle during the clean-up operation. My suspicion is that one of the bulldozer drivers pocketed it. I knew we should have relied on local labour. Not that they're any more trustworthy, simply easier to torture without arousing the interest of officialdom.

Crumpets are now banned from the Green Room of the Werewolf and Afterbirth, as are any other potentially unstable bakery products. The Castle negotiators had to agree to that as a condition in order for future tournaments to be held there.

I've consulted our resident mage, who read the runes, the tea leaves, and the entrails of a stray llama. Following their advice,

Barking!

Some of you (I am looking at you, @dragondreams) might be aware of my relationship with a certain bulldozer driver, and I'll have you know that the monocle in question was won fair and square in a game of strip Russian Roulette - itself played under Northallerton Rules as codified in 1952. Thus, and in a state of dudgeon:

Theydon Bois

I'd forgotten all about Northallerton Rules. I tend to play street-level mostly, unless of course I'm blocked, boxed or in Spune. In those cases, I tend to cheat a bit by invoking Albright.

And that reminds me: Angel.

@pooka, some would argue that the Northallerton Rules were best forgotten anyway after the red hot cock-a-leekie incident.

@hornesgiftshop! So that was you in the back of the JCB GT?! I had an inkling, but you've confirmed my worst fears. Oh well, I'll apologise to the padre next time he calls for his stipend.

And with that thought...

Canons Park!

Well I've drifted away from this game over the last couple of days and I can see I'm already well behind, but I do seem to have an opportunity to play my interchange card and take the escalator link, which at least shouldn't do me any harm.

Monument (for Bank)

Funnily enough, using the GR DLC expansion in combination with the Northallerton ruleset, you can actually play Northallerton right now. So.

Northallerton

Digging deeper into that abridged version of the rules in my library (I'm in over my head already), it appears that an application of the Great Northern ruleset to the little-used NB ruleset lets me take us to

Hutchinson

Oh, that's MY name. How appropriate!

VAR confirms that Hutchinson's lateral self-invocation occured *after* the Very Reverend's whistle had peeped, and is thus legal. Disappointed, not to say embittered, I play...

Herne Hill

My connection to ChatGPT was reset and now I've got something on the line that's calling itself Wintermute and it has strongly recommended I call

White City

and I am not gonna argue with it

Wintermute, oh my. That means I must forfit my next move (since I was last seen in Liverpool Street). Too bad, I forgot to pack my goloshes… paddling down Nidd I go 🙁 'Tis an annual occurance, I'm quite used to it now. I'll watch for the towers of the @dragondreams castle, I've heard the gargoyles have been especially hungry of late…

See You In The Shadows…

OK, that's an awkward position. There's probably quite a few solutions outside of London, but my hyperbolic trigonometry is so rusty I'd risk making an illegal move. So I'll go with the safety shot.

Russell Square.

I fired up my Commodore 64 earlier this week, to nostalgically play a round or two of the beautiful game that I was developing with Neville Smith back in the day. It was just impossible for him to keep up with all the rule sets and it drove him to an early grave in the end. A grave loss if you ask me… the commodore game that is, not Neville. He was devious in his prime.

West Ruislip

Reminds me of the time I played strip ludo with Commodore Monty "sweaty hands" Thumpion of the HMS Placenta. Nothing to do with Mornington Crescent though.

Barnes.

I didn't have a Commodore 64, but I did have Acornsoft Mornington Crescent on my BBC B. It was a pretty decent - if limited - implementation of the game, but it did have a tendency to get stuck at Dollis Hill if the game got even slightly complicated. Speaking of which:

Dollis Hill

And @jtsteam wins this round! Fiendish play, Sirrah. 👏👏👏

Oh for goodness sake, I've done it again haven't I? This is getting to be a habit. Let's try again, and see if I can manage to win deliberately this time. I'll take a two token handicap (blue and green only) and restrict myself to the upwards diagonals, and then at least I won't fall into the trap again.

Dollis Hill

Oh dear, @jtsteam, what have you done...?

Dollis Hill

I regret nothing.

Dollis Hill

Dollis H-
No! No, I will not! Leave my mind alone! My thoughts are my own, I need fear no demon!

Paris-Montparnasse. (Damn, I thought the new edition had fixed that exploit!)

There seems to be a terrible echo in here.
Either that or someone’s Boss DM2 pedal is self-oscillating.
Talking of loops, I’m off for a quick turn round the circle line….

Temple

I'm Canadian so that means I'm 5 hours behind GMT, always trying to catch up.
Dollis Hill

D-d-d-no!-d-Wimbledol-dol-dol no! Hackney Dol-dol-dol please! no! Caledol-dol-dol-

Dollis Hill. Dollis Hill. Dollis Hill.....

I can fix this!!! Fear not…..

Ddddddddddollisssssss Hilllllllllllll

Wtf?!?

I never had a C-64, never upgraded from my Vic-20 & there was never a version of the Beautiful Game available for the Vic-20, unfortunately (tho, it had an amazing version of Donkey Kong!). And yes, there does seem to be some strange delay loop here. I keep hearing the word "Hill" whispered like some disembodied reverberated chorus. I'm trying my hardest to ignore it, tho, so I'm going to play:

Royal (Dollis) Oak (Hill)

Darn, it still seems to be happening :(

See You In The Shadows…

I have checked my rule set and the DLC and I am forced to go with... Dollis Hill.

WAIT?!

You seem a little stuck, so here goes....

Union Station, Vancouver :)

Well this seems to be a bit of a mishap here, and I shant be taken down the cesspool so I will play:

Dollis Hill

*Crap*

Whatever this horror is, it looks like you can fool it temporarily by selecting somewhere outside of London, such as Dollis Hill.

If this madness continues past February 28th, nobody will ever get to Mornington Crescent... I mean Dollis Hill.

Did @ductapeguy just win that round?? Sneeeeeeeeeaky.

I will make my next move regardless. You'll just have more options if it's the start of a new round than if it's a continuation from Dollis Hill, thanks to the Contiguous Continuation Rule (see Snyder v Snyder, Preston 1986, for a good example.).

Hammersmith

As we appear to have abandoned the international aspect and returned to admirable core values, for pure nostalgic reasons (I courted a lover nearby) I will join this round by plumping for my opening move today

Leytonstone

it appears that my set of rules has the famous misprint and as such i can only travel with a cucumber today - hence Camden Town

Congratulation @ductapeguy on your sneaky win, and to get us out of that trap.

Ah, this is refreshing to get off the Dollis Hill Merry-Go-Round, and back to the beautiful game in all its niceties. I'm looking forward to a leisurely review of the 2004 Hemsby Regionals Ruleset to bone up on my strategies, and see where I can challenge myself on additional diagonals on the Bakerloo Line.

That being said, my play is:

Charing Cross

Dollis Hill...

Oh don't! I can't! I shan't! I…

Baker Street!

(I did I did I did!)

See You In The Shadows…

Dol.... No. Stop it. Play properly.

Brixton

I am convinced you are speaking English....but I understand none of it. WTF is this about? Some sort of...what? Hardware? Software? VST? Plugin thing? What is?

I'm playing on my phone and the autocorrect keeps changing Dollis Hill to Dollis Hill.
Even if I try to play Dollis Hill.
Or Dollis Hill
Or even Dollis Hill, which is *still* shut for maintenance.
Sigh.
Oh well then.

Farringdon.

Excuse me but if you add Charing Cross to Baker Street when it is promiscuous, you end up in a lateral block. These are mainstream rules, not some hipsterish variation harking back to pre-Lyttelton days. So while it's not my turn, I have to say...

Dollis Hill

I'm sorry @candle but the shadows won't help you in professional Crescent.

Okay. Time to be sensible, if only for the sake of @andyt13's sanity...
This is a time honoured game, whose name I can't mention here because I would actually win this round, when all I want to do is play my ultra-sneaky strategic move to keep the other players from guessing my true intent.

So...

Dollis Hill!

I think we may be able to break this, but some of us need to make illigal moves. Like this:

Hollis Dill.

Right, I'm off to sit in the custard for the next 10 rounds or 13.5 Jublilee Points, whichever comes sooner.

Okay. There has got to be a way out of this, to save @davidbreslin101 from the custard. So I'm going to share my favourite useless London Underground fact, which was at least true a few years ago but there are new stations and I haven't checked... the only station on the underground which doesn't contain any letters in the word "mackerel" is:

St John's Wood

In this situation, it's also quite a nice inverted thrattle, if I say so myself, and generates at least a couple of Jubilee Points.

Hillis Doll!

Enjoy the custard. 😉

Well, I've left all the promiscuity behind (pun not intended…) back in central London & have fled west, hopefully to get away from the hill that shall not be named (I see even Mrs Trelis is dotting upon Dollis…), therefor, if you'd like to catch up to me & double-check my bronze tokens (thank you again to those of you who nicely donated them to me a few rounds ago 😀 ), look for me in:

White City

See You In The Shadows…

Oh well, it seems the children have run amuck and are making a mockery of this highly refined and cultured game. Harumph, and get off my lawn!

I will play the most dignified play I can muster at this point:

Green Park

Well while you lot were off goofing around like it was Saturday night at Humph's house, I was carefully watching the moves, and wouldn't you know it, @candle set me up for a double up and under and . . .

Ta-da! Dollis Hill for the win!!

Wait, what just happened? I meant to type Dollis Hill just now. It is after all the name of this game.

Well, it seems that for some reason people have been a little distracted fo rthe past few days, so I'll take the opportunity to make a play that is so clever you could brush your teeth with it:

Heathrow Terminal 4

Oh well you might think you can sneak that little trick through while nobody's paying attention @beacon, but you know what? You probably can actually. That's what. I've no idea what you're up to. But let me see if I can counter it by confusing things a little...

Dollis... NO STOP IT.

Tottenham Court Road.

@jtsteam: Tottenham, yes a lovely play, if I've ever seen one. But that opens up a number of diagonals that gives certain players holding the right tokens an opportunity that I just can't allow. So, after thumbing through my re-printed version of Stocklebaum's Essential Moves Of The Game (I could never afford an original printing on my poor salary), the best option I have to prevent such a catastrophy is:

Willesden Junction

See You In The Shadows…

Yes, @jtsteam, I figured I can do whatever I want when no one is looking. It's my way of cutting off the obtuse diagonal while no one was looking....

Oh my @candle, I haven't seen that play since the 1983 Cheshire-Shropshire Challenge. So nuanced and putting my mind to fits just to try to figure out where the next possibility might be. I think I'm just going to throw all caution to the wind and play:

Battersea Power Station!

Newbury Park

Oh! This is my opportunity to pull a Park Stop Manoeuver! Thank you @tomslatter 😀

Manor Park

See You In The Shadows…

@candle - Three can play that game!

Belsize Park

And that's 14.1 Jubilee points - I'm back in play!

Bedford Park Boulevard.

Excuse my absence, I've been playing some kind of music game in which one is required to make up "songs" for a visibly inebriated audience who listen to them on pocket calculators. Where was I? Oh good Lord.

Bethnal Green

Given that I am slowly sat waiting for one or all of you to make the mistake that will allow me to win, you can be safe in the knowledge that one of you has made a move I find threatening! Well played, you know who you are! So in light of this, I will take a little used caveat move which was banned from play from 1996 through to 2001. A shameful back story of an underground swingers association being exposed within the MC community led to the ban. Anyway, enough about my background

Cockfosters

I have to confess my Mornington Crescent skills are a little rusty but under Section 23.1 of the Original (Revised 1986 edition) Lyttleton Guidelines I am going to invoke the Cryer Manoeuvre and suggest

Birdcage Walk

@andygriff -Well played and congratulations on winning this round!👏👏👏

Congrats @andygriff!

Shall we begin another? I propose the Hampton Reverse Signal Ruleset, first used in the Southampton Local Invitational Tournament in 1994. Diagonals give bonus points & you get extra bronze tokens whenever you land on stations with the letter "Z" in their name. I'll start us off then?

Croxley

See You In The Shadows…

Yes, @andygriff for your cheeky and sneaky come from out of nowhere play and win. It does always seem that those who are least enmeshed in the intricacies of the play tend to pull it out of their inside-outside pocket. Well played.

Given that we are starting a new game, I would recommend that we start with the Tottenham Hotspurs Jubilee Ruleset (1989 edition, not that blasted 2003 revision!) where players must follow with a play that includes at least one letter from the previous play and diagonals are only allowed that have openings for transfers. I'll start with:

Barbican

'Tis a little known fact (ie, I just made it up) but a famous pair of dolls were actually named after Barbican...

Now I'm confused. It appears we are now playing to TWO rule sets, courtesy Messrs @candle and @beacon...

My tokens are only the older, wooden semi-groats, which, if I interleave the pages and peer at them through my spare monocle, leaves me with...

Crouch End.

Newbury park

Oh that was both underhand and genius at the same time @andygriff - I doth my winter bobble hat to you sir!

I also see that we are now playing dual rules. This is my kind of game!!! Let’s go with…

Temple

Ah, @dragondreams, it seems that @candle and I simultaneously played at the same time, and both proposed different rule sets, but since @celineellis is in favor of this combination (although I fear it will give her yet *another* advantage), I say we play on, and maybe this should be deemed the 2023 Kelowna-Boston Ruleset?

Anyway, given that I need to use a letter in the previous play and get extra points for a play with a "z", and get the triple for the Park Stop Manoeuver, I will be bold and go with:

Belsize Park

Well, I guess I just gave up one of my bronze tokens to @beacon. Can't be helped, I guess. Still, I'm way out in left field (literally & figuratively), what to do? Oh hey, there's a bright spot on the board! Maybe I'll try that & hope for the best:

Maida Vale

See You In The Shadows…

High st Kensington .. nice

Thos is altogether too civilised. I'm using @deacon and the bronze coins to slide lubriciously into nidd.

Zampa Rd.

Nidd?! At this time of night? I can see nothing but trouble with those sort of manoeuvres in the vicinity of Zampa Rd. I shall keep my powder dry, for now at least, and head directly to

Elephant & Castle

For heavens' sake! Nobody seemed to have noticed my habit of occasionally playing stations taken from the Sydney Metro rather than the London Underground but now it's actually LEGAL to do so? That's just not cricket, i'm afraid, so back to old Blighty it is, for me...

Alright, if i may jump the turnstile and play a late entry, it'll have to be Didcot Parkway, considering the haphazard state of play just now, and i'll need to be quite vigilant, since my self-imposed handicap may put me at a disadvantage...

PS - actually it seems that i was hasty and misread the ruleset currently underway, mind you it has been fortuitous, since Didcot Parkway is definitely within the field of play, in that case.

Didcot Parkway…… just as I predicted. Well, caught in the slips there Old Boy, I’m afraid……. you’ve fallen into my trap….

The Oval

Well that was an interesting turn of events (ovals not-withstanding!). I think I see where this is headed, right down a service branch into the roundhouse with cold tea & a crumpet for your smoke break. I do say, that really puts in kink in my strategy (what strategy I have at this point). Well, I guess that means I'm going to have to sacrifice another bronze token in order to not get spun around on the roundhouse. Therefor, I play:

Perivale

See You In The Shadows…

Hmm. If you're all going to behave like this I might have to play D****s H**l again. But perhaps it's best if I play my wild card now before it loses its impact.

Vauxhall

What a minute…. Oval, Perivale, Vauxhall…. on a diagonal…. can it possibly be? *checks transfer availability*……. oh, no, sorry, it’s a Tuesday… as you were…

Marble Arch

OK, test, test, is this working now?

Oh, that's better, the repairs were expensive but I seem to finally be able to type the name of the station I want instead of . . . Well, you know.

Anyway thank you @blindsheepdog for reminding me that today is Tuesday, I was about to make a move that would have caused a pile-up on the Bakerloo Line and probably gotten me disqualified from this round, or at least caused me to forfeit a sizable number of Green Stamps--and you all know how rare those are. So I am going to do the in-game equivalent of shoving the puck to the other end of the ice. Good thing this game does not have anything like the "icing" rule.

Carpenders Park

Ye Gads, don’t mention icing! I’m still dissecting the complexities of what happened in Sweden in 93…. had my intuition in ruins for nigh’ on a decade.

Couldn’t happen in today’s game

Cockfosters

Well, I think with all this craziness going on (I blame @candle and the cold tea), I think I need to bring a certain air of refinement to this all and get up back to a proper game and hopefully a spot of tea, and maybe a cucumber sandwich...and a Victoria sponge....and some Battenburg Cake. Ah it is tea time here after all....

Camden Town

It's always teatime somewhere.

I wonder up the escalator, through the barriers and out under the barrel-vaulted marvel of the bus shelter. 1930s I think. A concrete and copper masterpiece.

So much history here, for the place and for me personally. The tunnels round here were used as a munitions factory and an air-raid shelter in the 40s. There are information panels just along the line at Wanstead that tell you all about it.

My first proper girlfriend lived around here too. Haven't seen her for more than 20 years. And what about that American exchange student? Had to explain to her how the buses worked. She stayed with us, then later I went to stay with them in Virginia.

And there's the bus that goes from here to my mum's house, through the grounds of the hospital. Plenty of memories attached to that place too.

I've been here more than five years now. Is it time to move to another station?

Maybe soon. Next year. The year after, maybe. But not right now.

Newbury Park.

Today i have spent hours sat in front of a computer with someone telling me what to press and click. i had to wait to be told to press and click the things, i couldnt just do it like it said int he book he gave us. i was so frustrated it reminded me of Clement Forgreen pipping me to the triple crown at the MC regional in Leamington Spa in 1993 - but even so i think today was more frustrating.

Roding Valley

In the prevailing mood of nostalgia, I am reminded of my youth: dead rubbers in February, when all we had to play for was pride, and pride led to brutal manoeuvres rarely seen in today's professional game.

Woolwich

Hmm... there are some interesting corner moves being set up with the plays I'm seeing develop in this latest round. So, in the spirit of Major General Arthur Knorpington-Knorpley (retired) and his remarkable double back regurgitation move in the quarter finals at Shepherds Bush in '76, I have no option but to sharpen my ball of Cobbler's Wax (blunted by prolific brass rubbings) and stick a fresh carnation in my buttonhole.

Farringdon!

I never thought I'd get the chance to play Orion's Gambit outside of the Chorister's League! Can't pass it up, so it's back to -

Cockfosters.

(N.B.: true Cockfostorians pronounce it "Coafters.")

I must callout @davidbreslin101 as Cockfosters has already been played this round by @blindsheepdog, so I believe that by the current ruleset you must now perambulate around the building doing silly walks.

I don't make the rules, I just read them....

That be said, Cockfosters is one of my favorite plays, but I don't believe we've been on the Jubilee line for a while so

Canada Water

Well well well @davidbreslin101 Orion’s Gambit ay? Left field, for sure, but possibly foolhardy, and I think I’m right in saying, technically a now a felony in 12 of the United States. Lest we forget poor old Chubby “The Professor” McMackintosh…. lessons were learned, limbs were lost, albeit temporarily. The game was in it’s infancy, and yet still, at times, I find myself yearning for the rawness of the play The Professor and his erstwhile nemesis, Brian, entangled themselves in. Strange that Brian was called Brian really…. his name was Tim.

Angel

Tsk, tsk, tsk. I am surprised to see Orion's Gambit surface in an august top-level match like this one, especially considering that now it is an actual rather than technical felony in eight states, surprisingly split evenly between Democratic and Republican control, making it a rare example of bipartisanship in this day and age. My state does not happen to be one of them, but this could be only because the legislature is hopelessly deadlocked over a bill declaring the Hog Island Sheep to be the official state flower.

But, unless there has been an update to the rules in the last six hours of which I am unaware, Cholmondley's Refutation of Orion's Gambit is still universally legal, so . . .

Harrow-On-The-Hill

Cholmondley’s ROOG…… my hat to you @tuneslayer …. it’s so obvious, yet so fiendishly obtuse. This leaves the field wide open on the flanks, and seemingly impassable through the middle…..*sucks teeth with contemplative admiration*. Welp….. fortune favours the fortunate ones…..

Bromley-by-Bow

Having lost a game of strip backgammon to the fiendish @beacon, I stand before you naked as the day my good lady wife hung a two-bar fire over my bath and smiled menacingly.

Arsenal

I wish to make it perfectly clear to @hornesgiftshop and anyone else who might think to tarnish my stellar reputation that I suggested we play Split Backgammon, which is an alternative that I learned from Lady Evelyn Effervescence in a break in the 1988 West Yorkshire Invitational. My intentions were as always pure.

Yet, I won, so that be it.

Uxbridge

And yet here I stand, upon a hill looking axross the river Nidd in anguish. Once upon a time, a lark sang woo hoo & you could hear the trains rumble in the distance. Yet here I stand, & here I pray, that my next move does not delay. For at this hour, with all my power, I wish to cross the river in the daylight.

Baron's Court

See You In The Shadows…

Baron's Court, you say?
Blow me if that doesn't remind of the time Lady Fanshaw asked for my assistance with a rabbit problem at her stately pile in the neighbouring village of Baron Norpling!
She was aware of my reputation as a pest controller here in Upper Trendleby Down (though, blowing my own trumpet a little here, our pests tend to be larger, more hirsute, and have more fangs than rabbits) and sent her butler to request my assistance.
I duly arrived at her place, all guns loaded, and spotted the cabbage patch adjacent to the greenhouses where Lord Fanshaw entertained the au pair with his collection of rare orchids each Wednesday afternoon, between 3 and 3.10pm.
Throttling back, I eased the nose of the Spitfire on to the target and cut loose with the Brownings.
Problem solved. Cabbage patch completely destroyed! Along with the greenhouse and half of the croquet lawn. With no cabbages, the lagomorphic blighters would simply have to find fresh fodder further afield.
I can only assume this was a successful mission, as Lady Fanshaw has never been in touch since.

Biggin Hill.

True story; In 1991 I went to the Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington. AC/DC, Metallica, Queensryche, ah... And in between sets, the 4 of us who had gone to the festival together lay on the grassy hill, drinking watered-down lager and playing Mornington Crescent, quite loudly, to the apparent bafflement of pretty much everyone walking past.
The heathens.
I'd mutter something about "the youth of today", but it was 32 years ago and I don't want to create another temporal disturbance that either bunts @dragondreams back to several teatime ago, or gets @tuneslayer stuck playing D***** effin H*** again.
So I have won't.
You're welcome.
And with the scent of squirrels and freshly mown grass in the air:
St James's Park

St James? That means local rules apply. Thus I am required to add VI after every utterance of the word "James", carried over into the next round.

Viking's Cross.

@sapient wins! Possibly without realising... 🤪

Well played @sapient! I think that makes @hornesgiftshop's the opening move, and it sounds like we're playing Edinburgh rules this time around.

St James Square (sorry)

Thanks @jtsteam . He more than anyone will be aware that since devolution Arthur's Seat has been clockwise only, owing to the time differential. Laterals are forbidden unless strict.

Leith Walk.

Oh, gosh. A win, after 8 years! Hurrah! 😍
And if it's Edinburgh rules then I feel like I'm on home ground, as that's where half my family is from.
So I feel fairly confident following Leith Walk with Portobello.

Erm... what day is this? And is it teatime yet? 🤔

@dragondreams I am having my tea here across the Pond where we had this thing about tea, so I will posit (with the Edinburgh ruleset) that it is teatime. Have Geoffrey get you a pot.

And well played @sapient ! It shows what years of patience, hard training, and dumb luck will get you.

I'm not as familiar with the Edinburgh play, so I'm going to try to play it safe here, and not replace @candle in Nidd (as we are on a new game, I assume he's be set free to start anew).

Saughton

@beacon, sadly Geoffrey is our "special" gargoyle and would be more likely to either eat the teapot or attempt to mate with it.

Unable to roll a six (because the die lost all its spots during an incident with an aggressive poker chip a couple of nights ago) so I'll play safe and avoid the diagonals.

Waverley.

Hoorah! I'm out of Nidd :D That means I'm going to start afresh with a new strategy.

Stanmore

@candle Stanmore? On a Sunday? Well, that's awfully brave of you. I mean the opportunity for a reverse-phase shunt was there, but hey, you play what you see, right?

Canongate

Ooh. Sneaky. Although the thing about Edinburgh Rules is that the z-axis comes into play a lot more than usual, so given that my last move put me next to a ladder, I can get myself to...

South Bridge

Well now, a ladder bridge convergency you say?…..my my, it’s been some years since I encountered that level of creativity this early in an Edinburgh ruleset scenario… damn the z-axis….damn it to hell… and then damn it just a tiny bit more to the left… not too much, we’re not playing prison rules….not yet at least….

Maida Vale

Sorry chaps and chapesses, I have been AWOL too long. How many games must I have missed and how many arcane discussions on the finer points of the rules of our beloved, but overcomplex, game ahve I not been able to join in with.

Ah well, after the example of Walters versus Cholonski (1978/3.5) I am going to enter this game in the middle and jump straight to:

Cockfosters

Oh wait a minutiae.... I just read that we are playing Edinburgh Rules. then it has to be

Arthurs Seat
(a station that will be built in 2065 to commemorate 20 years of Independence. Handy having access to a Tardis).

Arthurs Seat in the future eh? Mmmmm - i'm afraid you missed a trick there and the only move i can make is - Mornington Crescent!!!!

Good lord….walked straight in to it……. Edinburgh rules notwithstanding, that was overwhelming.

Congrats @fb2studios …… Well, that’s me left holding the jack for another end before the winds change. Good fortune one and all…. Hrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnggggggaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh…..

Angel

Bravo @fb2studios ! I have to say it didn’t see that coming. I would like to suggest that we go back to the Original Ruleset that our grandfathers played (page 1 of the first tome).

With that I will do the more long-standing play I can think of…

London Bridge

Ah yes, sometimes we get so wrapped up in these entertaining variants that we forget that the classic version is, well, classic. So, one of my favourite opening gambits:

Goodge Street

I could tell you a thing or two about our grandfathers approach to these early rulesets… I won’t….. but I very most certainly could….. suffice it to say, the word “Peacock” had many a strong man crumble in the fields of play… I’ve said too much….

Marble Arch

Original grandfather ruleset? I remember when all of this was fields but they don't make Fields like they used to. Does anyone have a foxes glacier mint?

Fro Marble Arch I think the only move I can make is to Middle Wallop. Be careful whoever plays next as that's one move away from nidd

Surely you don't mean the original ruleset, from the days when there were only two stations on the Underground. I remember reading an article from an early edition of Punch in which Henry Mayhew recounted a spirited hullabaloo between two distinguished gentlemen playing the earliest version of the game, each trying to persuade the other to go first.

Acton Town, unless we are using a set of rules from before 1900, in which case, Mill Hill Park

My grandfather was an anarchist and would certainly have never played any game with strict rules. But he did have a soft spot for MC - though he kept getting beat by a Russian emigré Count, which infuriated him on several counts (pun intended). The least of which being the fact that the chap in question was a Tsarist, born in Tbilisi and the greatest being the shame of being beaten by a man, who, unlike Grandfather had not been born within the sound of Bow Bells.

As we're back in "The Smoke" at last, I will open this round with:

HIGHGATE

I mean you've got to visit old Karl from time to time, haven't you?

Bold. Highgate opens many corridors, not to mention old wounds. Have I ever spoken of Tilly, who fell whilst executing a blocked lateral? We took the game too literally in those days.

Bow

Bow? Who the hell do you think you are? King Charles? I bow to no one!
If there's one thing that get's my goat it's people who get above their...er...station.

I propose a temporary adoption of the Bach Variations. Let me enlighten those unfamiliar - all destinations are required to have a song or musical connotation.
And where better to start than a bit of ABBA....

Waterloo

I haven't played the Bach Variations since that time Felicity "Firebox" Fergusson was ridiculed for claiming she'd invented the left-handed pork pie during the quarter finals at Broughton Hall in '43!

Baker Street.

Ok, well, three can play at that game!

Luton Airport (ooo-eee-ooo)

Ooh, Bach variations are always fun. Four can play at that game. *And* I can put everyone in Spoon into the bargain. Anyway, I'm sure many of you know who could have been the ticket man at...

Fulham Broadway

No amount of spooning is sufficient to excuse this move, and I do apologise, but, I'm so awfully competitive, you see. Not my best trait. Nevertheless,

Hull.

You all deserved it, and I regret nothing.

Ah, Bach Variations is it?!?! Well, you've all fallen right into my trap. *smugness*

Since our own @jtsteam has written a song about it (https://www.jtsteam.me.uk/mornington-crescent.html), I will play

Mornington Crescent!!

Oh, well played @beacon, and an excellent choice if I say so myself. I didn't spot that trap. And there was me about to post a song inspired by this thread that would have made the Bach variations particularly... something. It's probably just as well I didn't. https://write.fawm.org/songs/18025

Maybe it could be the opening move to the next round, but you're not going to like it. It's called... no I can't do it... no...

Dollis Hill

(Sorry not sorry)

Well played indeed, @beacon!
Quite a quickfire round, that one. Quite refreshing too.

I'm going to suggest we all take a look at our copies of old Colonel Cholmondley-Cholmondley's 1926 classic "The Fiendish Blighters". In particular, chapter 17, wherein he describes the perils of the repeat reverse, and how inventive play can often come from sidestepping reality all together. Yes, I know that there were accusations of impropriety involving hallucinogenic toilet paper and a member of Parliament, but I like to think the old fella was somewhat set up, and he was really just searching for ways NOT to play D*l*i* H*l* ever again.

And with those thoughts pushed firmly to the backs of our minds:

Upper Trendleby Down Parkway

Stap me vitals! I was only at the UTD Parkway yesterday, checking to see how the renovations were progressing! 😳


With only one platform currently in operation, my only (legal) move now is to...

Norpington Central.

mmmm Norpington Central eh? Now, I have to say here that I have the infamous 1846 Misprint Variation of the rules that say that in this situation you have to proceed with a chicken under your arm and as such i guess I'm only left with...

Cockfosters

Ah yes, 1846 through to the late spring of 1847 was utter chaos for Smith and Smith who qualified in the doubles against the Smith brothers. Cocked hats and magpies aside, it was only by fotune that the horse survived. Who calls a horse “Smith” anyway.

Were it not for the 1847 revision, we would not have the game we play today….. I know…. gives you goosebumps to think about doesn’t.

oh well, for Smith & Smith, The Smith Bothers and the horse ( not related)…

Hammersmith

Well, I enter in with all the smugness I can muster after my masterful play last round and will proceed to draw upon all the humbleness I can muster in such as situation, as I remember the tragic downfall of Harvey Effingham, Esq who followed his masterful win of the 1961 Nationals with a trip and fall into a tub of Eton Mess. Tragic.

Charing Cross

Charing Cross allows me to invoke the soothsayer globe rule and so my move in three moves time will be Centenary Square, Birmingham so whoever goes around that time will need to invoke the Dudley accent and am yam awa' from Nidd

uuuuuhhw look at the chimbleeeeyss, must be passing Duhdlayy

By my assertion, with the Soothsayer Globe rule in play, and this shiney golden ticket in my hand, i’m 2….. no…. wait a minute… 341 moves from victory…. Peacock indeed!

Waterloo

See, this is what happens when I dilly-dally in the markets & miss my train. As Sir Sigfreid Von Klump once noted after a particularily spirited match at the 1974 Munich Invitational: "One must concentrate in order to not get distracted by the train's whistle." I guess I have failed on that front. So let's see, where are we? Waterloo via a Soothsayer Globe rule… well, that means my only viable option is:

Royal Oak

See You In The Shadows…

Wood Green . . tra la la la laa

We're on 28.792 Jubilee points, which gives me enough for a worldline transform!

Perdido Street. (All change please for the New Crobuzon metropolitan area.)

Ah, so we've gone back to international rules have we? I thought Bartlett and Mugabe (not that one, his gay cousin) had laid the foundations for the overturning of that rule set. But who am I to question genius? If that is how this larger field version is to be played. I will plum for

Tarragona

(not the mainline station in the city of the same name, but the metro station in Barcelona).

Oh, this always gets tricky at this stage. I have enough line velocity to get us back north, but not enough thrust to control it. So, that only leaves me...

Cowcaddens

I believe the similar move, carried out in the historic match between Brown and McFly in 1955 required 1.21 Gw of thrust. I can’t blame @jtsteam for choosing the alternative. Things were not right for some time after 55, and there was a chance of the very fabric of the game, as we then knew it, would be so distorted, as to effectively…. disappear altogether.

Luckily, a letter from 1885 was discovered, a short time after, which offered details of a mysterious “flux capacitor paradox ruling”…. There was some to and fro for a period, but in the end all, was put right…. and still hoverboards don’t work on water …..to this day.

So with that being said, I’m going to make like a tree and….

Baker Street

Space, time, a delorian & a police box… seems we're back to those TARDIS cards from a few rounds ago. That being said, I hear the Cybermen are coming back to Canary Wharf. Better steer clear of the area. Therefor, I think I'll saunter over to:

Vauxhall

See You In The Shadows…

I shall definitely avoid Cybermen, assimilation is truly a fate worse than death (and I wouldn't look so cool in a MAGA hat 😜).

I am not sure if it's my turn, so I shall invoke the 12th amendment of 1946 which followed the disastrous arguments emerging from Jinnah Vs Ghandi which led, eventually, to the partition of India. And as a consequence, plum for:

Goulders Green

If we're bringing plums and other soft fruit into the game I'll have to say

Bushey

Which reminds me of the time... no, we'll leave it there, ripe, as it were.

*tilts board 45 degrees… offers up thumb*….. Hmmmmmm

So… following a 12th Ammd and some “ripe” fruit…. thank you @hornesgiftshop … that leaves me in quite the quandary. Convention would suggest that a defensive tickle would be the correct play. But I didn’t come here for a long time, I came here for turkey damnit!

I’m playing a Maple Leaf retribution….. without the twist, I should add…. we should really keep things friendly.

Sheppard-Yonge

Good grief! 😳
I turn my back for a couple of days to take an expedition down to the foot of our stairs, and mayhem ensues. I'm beginning to regret not boiling those parsnips after all.

Dollis Hill.

Do - do - do....

Dombivli.

Right. This is getting out of hand. Let's remove any possibility of D****s H**l from at least this round. It might put me out of contention, but it's worth it. If I'm not mistaken (and to be fair, I often am) this puts the Jubilee line out of play:

Wanstead

My, I go away for the long weekend, and I come back to find decorum has gone ass over teakettle! Oh the havoc!

Time to bring some refinement back to our storied game:

Bank

Ass over teakettle indeed (never mind the chaos on Sheppard Ave in T-Dot (as the locals call the place)). Maple Leaf Retribution indeed (& I'm a proud Habs fan, so that makes for an interesting twist). But, I think I'll stick with Jolly Ol'London (minus the Jubilee Line, it would seem) with a nod to the aforementioned Toronto area & hunker down in:

Shepherd's Bush Market

See You In The Shadows…

oh many’s the time when one’s ass has been held over the tea kettle, but I digress. Let’s save a little something for dessert …

Brixton

So I need to avoid the Jubilee line (and my points have been wiped out, worse luck.) The next move would usually be Bermondsey, but that's a fowl ball. Specifically, a quail ball. OK, then,

Chaussée d'Antin - La Fayette

ok so i looked up the rule about Chaussee d'Antin in my, admittedly misprinted, copy of the 1986 rules (the one where it tells you you need to shove an alligator into a cupboard of whelks) and my moves are extremely limited.....however I bought a Get Out Of Nidd card from Greme Garden when i saw ISIHAC on tour which allows me to go straight to Wimbledon Common providing i stop in for a cuppa with Uncle Bulgaria - so:

Wimbledon Common it is

Wimbledon Common? Really?

I can do a simple sidestep here, so it's not a massively original move to do, but it might work...

Elephant & Castle

Ah yes, old Eric Bulgaria…. a fine player himself, in his time of course. His ability to remember- member-member huge move sequences really gave him an edge in the mental game. I saw him clear up a number of times. Do give him my regards.

Having once seen Eric storm a castle with an elephant …. a bold move, I think we can all agree… I feel it’s only right to pay a fitting tribute

Oxford Street

Ah, the play is returning to the old gentlemen's lounge vibe that I remember so well. Reminds me of the party after the 1995 William Kemp Memorial in Norwich where we had a jolly good time in the Nine Days Wonder Club. Memories.

Anyway:

Tooting Bec

Tooting Bec…. my word.…. There’s a blast from the past. Pull up a wingback my friends and let me tell you the tale of Flatulent Bec …. no, best not, not on a Thursday.

Pimlico

Pimlico? My goodness . . . The nostalgia is so thick tonight you could cut it with a spoon. Actually you could cut just about anything with one of those Nine Day Wonder spoons, up to and including your cheek if you weren't paying attention. In fact I seem to remember Sir Eric doing exactly that during the Mill End Invitational (you know the one) but to be fair it was his own fault, he was trying to shave with it.

Charing Cross, of course, as if there were any valid alternatives.

Yes, I do remember Sir Eric cutting his cheek at Mill End. At the time I thought: "That's one way to distract the competition, I guess." It worked. I mean: he went on to win the Invitational that year & still has possession of their Upper End Trophy (sources tell me he refused to give it back to the tournement organizaers after someone stole his beany…). I learned a lot about the game during that tournement. In fact, I remember a match that had a similar series of moves as the ones we're currently experiencing. Edgar Kay Cecil of Lower Saxony had played Pimlico, & his opponent, Dr. Sir Thaddeus Isaiah Yorke Esq. then played Charing Cross. E.K.C. countered with an ingenious move that led to his eventual match win. So following in his large footsteps (he's know to wear size 14 sneekers from a store in Manhatten), I think I'll play:

Kentish Town

See You In The Shadows…

Well, while everyone's getting a bit complacent, it's time to break out my "shock and awe" move that caused gasps from every member of the crowd at the 1993 match with Sir Harold Everett Halligan in Stoke-Upon-Trent. There were many soiled knickers in the crowd...

Heathrow Terminal 4

Well, after "shock and awe", how about a quiet response that might well turn the balance, and the flatbed.

Winslow

Neither shocked nor awed as I remember that move backfired on good old Cholmondeley Jr in the Eton old boys league in 2009 IMS. He lost out to a certain chap who is now a leading Tory backbencher, if that is not a contradiction in terms. You all know who I am referring to, of course.
So I shall follow his stroke of genius in his penultimate move and plum for

Walthamstow

Well i've done the washing so all the undies are spotless. As Sir Reginald Plumley III" once said Alls fair in love and .....

South Kenton

I apprenticed under Sir Reginald back in '94. I was tasked all the time to wash his undies, & believe me @coolparadiso, I made sure they were always spotless. In that vein, I think we need a clean break from the last set of moves, therefor I'll skip my play piece over to:

Farringdon

(Which means I get a bonus Bronze Token according to the 1957 Revised Slowbeggers Ruleset).

arrrr @candle that 57 token came out just after i was born and some experts have alluded to the fact that the profile might be my father , i rather think not as he had 2 chins and only 1 eye - but he was a slowbegger!! and always carried a rule set! i have no choice but to play

Chancery Lane

Well, as the assumed son of a slowbegger, you could have played Holborn as opposed to Chancery Lane, but it would have been a cap move, which is unwise according to whichever ruleset you are playing.

I'm going to use a street-level move on account of the fact that nobody has told me I can't. Under the Prendle Convention, without declaration of any restrictions, rules are flexible and I'm usually a street-level player.

So please excuse me for playing... Highams Park.

Well, I still have my piece from an earlier game, and I think I'm going to keep it close as I'm not sure that I can play it without getting perilously close to Nidd, so I'll also try the street-level gambit and play:

Walthamstow Queen's Road

Street-Level plays, oh my. There's a midnight conductor rolling in his grave somewhere, I'm certain. But, alas, such is the game we play & I must carry on despite any above ground advantages. Therefor, I think my best bet is to mozy on over to:

Kennington

See You In The Shadows…

One last romp through the Global Railways DLC - it's the only way I'll get to see Paris.

Musée d'Orsay.

I've been busy the last few days, what did I miss? I'm not sure I can take the street level-global railways crossover, but let's see if I can get back in the game anyway.

Châtelet–Les Halles

Ah, I did warn you that I was copying the penultimate move of a champion. I have checked current diagonals and blocking moves, but I can't find fault with the checkmate move I am proposing. It certainly was used three times in the last 50 years. I spent several hours wading through old games in Wisden's MC Companion and believe my move to be valid:

Mornington Crescent

PSA for FAWM https://write.fawm.org/songs/24847

A Cheesy Lorem Ipsum Generator

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Bocconcini macaroni cheese babybel. Fromage frais the big cheese blue castello macaroni cheese brie cheese on toast pecorino cut the cheese. Cottage cheese macaroni cheese jarlsberg swiss chalk and cheese cauliflower cheese cut the cheese croque monsieur. Taleggio chalk and cheese melted cheese monterey jack everyone loves.
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The long tone following 5 seconds of silence signifies the end of FAWM.

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At Mornington Crescent.

Ah @berni1954 what a masterful finish, and the timing is brilliant! I have to say I didn't see it coming (what with a mad dash to the finish line) and you elegantly brought it home. Marvelous!

Well I invite all of you to join in the reception at the end of the first MALM Listening Skirmish at 4pm EST today, and for a nice virtual tipple in the BeaconBeats Kumospace lounge at https://www.kumospace.com/beacon following at about 4:30-4:45pm EST and going until none of us can hold our champaign flutes anymore.

Following @berni1954 's thoroughly deserved heave for the line, I hope we won't be shaking hands - disgusting modern practice that it is. Instead we should hitch up our supporting garments, check for leakage and say a firm farewell. May your God go with you.

Erm... Dollis Hill?

Next time @dragondreams …. Next time.

As old Eric Bulgaria said, “Always leave them wanting mmmmm…..” ….. terrible shame him going like that… but still, he’d have wanted it that way.