goeniegoegoe: eatcake: Then you've got the gist of the game :D

Despite your insidious use of a smiley in a MC thread I feel the need to differ with your simple minded opinion here.
Mornington Crescent is a strategy game of wit that has been around for centuries. I'm afraid that the rules would take far too long to summarize in a thread, but a basic understanding of the game can be had by watching a match. In fact, most of the non-tournament players will be happy to allow you to join in and try some maneuvering of your own. If you'd like to join our mini-match here, you're more than welcome. We'll give you a friendly correction if you play out of bounds or try to use any of that claptrap from Smythe-Davis et al. vs. Whackerton Livery Ltd.

That said: Ruislip Manor (+3)

Fine, try as you might, that move only works if you don't know that it's possible to take the 10:32 Highgate to Marble Arch, switching to the Bakerloo Line. And I do know. And thanks to the time difference I can. Now turn around and go back the way you came in.

++RIP Geoffrey Perkins, you left the world a little better than it was when you came in++

bikkurikun:

No, no, no. You are forgetting that is the last sunday of the month; which means -following 1998 Winthrop/Westchester convention- that you can only enter the Bakerloo Line on stations starting with the letter W, like Willesden Junction ,Waterloo or Wembley.

Ha! I, like many more enlightened players from the southern hemisphere, refuse to recognise such a flawed document. If you had attended last year's International at Olympia you'd have seen the controversy about the most egregious conflicts the 1998 Winthrop/Westchester has with the firmly established 1964 Rules of Polite Play by the master James Hestington III and the less known 1984 publication Egg Benedict and MC: How I Learned to Stop Taking That Turn at Tooting and Love the Circle Line.
Nevertheless, I will show you that I can still end up on the Bakerloo Line without that move; as I still can take three stops past Tried-on-Kent and get there, since I am fairly certain I saw earlier that there are Canadians playing today. It doesn't get me to Marble Arch, but the fact remains.

Tirian: Ha! I am playing all five of my aces, thus invoking the OK Corral amendments. This leaves you all in spoon, and means that all Picadilly line interchanges are wild.

And with that, I am taking the rail replacement service to West India Quay. HAHAHHAHAHA!!! Did't see THAT coming, did you!

Now I know what you're going to say - that when playing Rowen's gambit, moving to West India Quay leaves your flank completely exposed. BUT, you would be forgetting that when in spoon, flank attacks are strictly forbidden. (Spitalfield variations, section 12, paragraph 4 clauses 1, 7, 8f and 21d ... read 'em and weep!)

HA! And here is why you should keep up with your newsletters and emails people. The DLR now extends past West India Quay, meaning that while we are in spoon, I'm fairly certain means you can't stop...
I may need reference on that though. Can anyone back me up here? Do we have an Arbiter in the house? Perhaps someone at Conductor level or above? And don't go flashing your Oyster Card around like it means something.

bikkurikun:
Ha, you are shooting yourself in the foot there. Even if you can get on the Bakerloo Line,the 2nd appendix to the records of the 12th Paddington conference clearly points out that in case of Canadians in play anyone on the Bakerloo line is forced to change to the Victoria line as soon as they reach Oxford Circus, after which there it is mandatory to travel at least until Blackhorse Road before the next move can be made.

I know the man who is the reason for that 2nd Appendix. Do you know the story about it? He attempted to make a second-to-last move from Fenchurch St to Chadwick St station ... get this... by taking a black cab!!! Seriously! The problem was that because two moves earlier someone had declared that Tower Bridge was closed for lift maintenance, he was able to invalidate years of convention, tradition and unwritten law! He is no longer able to play, of course, but he has told me that he considers it worth it: to have made such a memorable move that they had to add to the Paddington conference. While I don't know if I could ever pull such a move (and I promise I won't today!) I must admire his boldness.

So, I'm all the way out at Blackhorse Road then. Well, then, I best catch the 1:52 into Heathrow and wait for the Express. Your move.

goeniegoegoe:
Reference to the actual A-Z is of course forbidden during matches. New Farkers are loaned a copy to bone up on and the Referee uses the 1971 edition for Dispute Resolution. However, since a Challenge to the Referee's decision leads to expulsion from the site if the Referee is proven to be correct on reference to the hardcopy, we have very few Disputes and we haven't had a Challenge for years. This, and the fact we've banned playing for money means we have a very harmonious website and avoid the problems I know some websites have.

Good call. But what happens to those caught fare evading? Or wait, don't tell me you've gone completely over to the Oyster cards? Am I playing in a post-paper-ticket game here? You have to put warnings up if you're going to do that... the tourist jam alone renders Oxford Cicrus, Covent Garden and Tower Bridge almost completely useless! Not to mention the moves that allows under Section IV, para.12 of Stanley's Guide, 3rd Ed....

bikkurikun: Sorry I am out for today. I was planning to change to the Watford DC line at North-Wembley in an attempt to aim at Harrow & Wealdstone, but I encountered two Russians at the platform, and since I am bound by Glaston-Fordyce rules I now have to travel back and forth between Kenton and South-Kenton for 15 times. So there is no way anymore for me to catch the 17:15 Midland train today.

Well, I'm afraid that geography has me bound here; I'm no better off as I have miscalculated and missed the last Express for today. I hand my moves over to any player willing to take up the mantle: Under Rule 7 of the Geoffrey Perkins Definitive Guide, I step aside. Good luck to whomever takes over from here. I just hope you Mind the Gap... heh heh heh

/seriously, it's 2am Monday morning where I am, I have to go to sleep before I go to work!
//bikkurikun, you play a damn fine game, and for that, I hope you enjoy wasting more time on this site over the next month than you have before ;-)

++And most seriously, Here's to Geoffrey Perkins... Look at the fun he let us have!++

bikkurikun: whoah, thanks ghost!

No worries, enjoy. Sleep time for me now...for reals!

goeniegoegoe: Nice one ghost, great move.

I'd almost let you win for that. But unfortunately there is no credit given in love, war and MC.

Rutheridge (+4)

Arrgh, backstabed at the last! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! It's the 2001 Rothdam Convention all over again! Well, as I said there, I'm out anyway, so you used up a perfectly good Sideways Slide for nothing really. It's cold comfort for me, but perhaps using that up may save some other poor soul who plays with you!

[[ghost retires]]