Mornington Crescent Contributions Section
Page 2

The dog has eaten my 14th walk card from the second deck. Could someone please send me a photocopy? I really don't want to have to buy a new pack. Tommy.

Are you sure it was the dog? If you play the Real Geography version it's obviously rather useful to have a walk card or two up your sleeve. Watch your friends (wife?) next time you're playing a game with them. Bet it was one of them who told you the dog ate it...

I read your illuminating rules for MC and decided to try playing the game by them but it was soon evident that a problem was inherent. To put it simply if a player starts at Edgware Rd he can within three moves find himself being forced to toggle back to Euston Square. Once there if there is a fourth player he can force a very obvious Dick Turpin on any player already on Hammersmith & City line (Eastbound).

As you can see the game can become very restricted within a few rounds and gives an unfair advantage to any player starting on either the Jubilee Line (Westbound) or the East London line (especially Canada Water). I am aware that both players can agree to a 'Robin Hood' round the back of Fulham Broadway.

My suggestion would be to amend the rules slightly to allow each player a Percy Thrower if arriving at either White City or Aldgate East within the first two rounds.

Edmund Mund (Rev)

Edmund, it is a rather minor loophole but now you have pointed it out people may well start to exploit it. Well spotted. I think you are absolutely right that allowing a Percy Thrower in those circumstances would solve the problem. I will put it to the committee.

My mother recalls playing Mornington Crescent when sheltering in tube stations during the blitz. She didn't claim to invent it - it was a well known game among the people who used the shelters, used to pass the time and entertain the children. Everyone knew the rules (which are after all quite simple) and because there were large underground maps on the station walls it was easy to play with no equipment - useful if you've just run into a shelter. A number of other similar games using little or no equipment were also played.

Whether the game was invented during the blitz or is older I don't know, but it certainly wasn't invented for ISIHAC. Simon

Any other early players out there?

During an extremely heated discussion between ex-patriot members of a Chinese equivalent of a Mensa meeting in Singapore, to which I had been invited by a business acquaintance on the understanding that I sat in the background solely as a spectator, I heard, though my understanding of 13th Century Han which is the preferred language of the group is limited, what I believe to be strong agruments that a version of Mornington Crescent was played in the Emporor's Court during the Ming Dynasty and that even Marco Polo may have been introduced to the game, bringing it back to Europe. The game was based upon a famous cherry tree maze in the gardens of the court and the moves were between shaded and secluded arbours and resting areas, each of which had unique names such as the ' Restful shade of the scented bowyer, hard by the fragrant lake of solitude' or 'The abode of gratitude for the maiden's smile'.

The winner (or loser depending upon which of several hundred complex variations was being used) was the player that reached or was forced to reach the 'Arbour of a thousand vices', the vices to be proclaimed by the Emporer himself at the completion of the game, which upon his whim could be an actual vice in which the 'winner' was crushed or it could have been a series of pleasurable activities for the 'winner'.

Due to the immense size of the maze, games were known to take several weeks and one, apocryphal possibly, game between twelve masters was said to have taken over 13 months.

Though, as I have previously mentioned, my knowlege and understanding of the language is a little shaky and the group may have been discussing a Chinese Tea ritual from the late 1960s.

I would be grateful if anyone else could shed light on this. RG

RG, I'll try, but I think you may be a little confused. It was Yüan Ti's widow in the first century AD (she who was essentially responsible for the coming about of the second Han Dynasty) who popularised the cherry tree maze game. It was only when Kuang-wu Ti became emperor in 25AD that the game became the game of the court. The penalties and rewards for players you describe are certainly consistent with the brutal time that was the early first century in China. The language of your Singapore group is probably first century Han (not 13th century).

Your suggestion that Marco Polo brought the game to Europe may well be the case. However, the suggestion that he came across the game when he saw it played at court during the Ming Dynasty cannot be correct. Marco Polo was in China before the time of the Ming Dynasty - indeed Marco Polo died before the Ming Dynasty began. Nevertheless, a variation of the first century game was probably still in use when Marco Polo made his amazing journey over 12 centuries later.

Good joke about the discussion possibly being about a Chinese Tea Ritual, but unlikely as the Chinese tend to call them Chinese Tea Ceremonies, and it's the Japanese who are into Tea Rituals.

I met one of Mr Mandela's guards in 1998 at a conference in SA, and he confirmed this rumour about Morning Town Pleasance. The guy's name was Jonty Carr (or something like that) and he was a skilful player himself. He told me that in his view, Mandela had made an error one Thursday afternoon about five years in when countering Prester John Avenue with Bloemfontaine Terrace. It should, according to Jonty, have been Bloemfontaine Avenue, which makes sense. That would have ended the game, in my estimation, the day before he was released, and avoided his disappointment. FH

Frank, fantastic. I'm not familiar with the Pretoria(?) version of the game but will take your and Jonty's word for it.

There is a truckdrivers web site at www.trucknetuk.com which has a fairly active game in progress. The site is a bulletin board type site and you need to register to gain posting rights but can read without registry, registration is free. The game can be found in the Bullys Bar forum. SP

Good game. Thanks, Simon.

For the record, the Japanese do refer to the Tea Ceremony, not the tea ritual. Cheers. Dave.

Many thanks.

We decided we would have a game where if you started at Borough you could only go to a station beginning with B or ending in H or a two word station with B at the start and an H at the end. You could only change lines at intersections and therefore it was imperative for the player not to "set up" the next player with the correct start or end letter. We were still playing 12 hours later. Have you ever heard of this? Mike.

No.

Er, I think Mike is having you on. Starting at Borough and only going to stations starting with B or ending in H or a two word station with B at the start and an H at the end? It just doesn't work! Try it! "Johnson"

Johnson, will try it this evening.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it... What’s a Dick Turpin please? Keep up the good work, Nancy.

Nancy, a Dick Turpin is simply a loop. Loops were at one time known as spins and Dick Turpin was MC rhyming slang for spin. It's mainly, shall we say, the older generation who still call them Turpins.

Sir, I thought you might be interested in knowing that Mornington Crescent is played in The Sheridan Club, the online 'chap-room' for readers of The Chap magazine   www.thechap.net   www.sheridanclub.co.uk.

I am sir, your most obedient servent,
Charles, Duke of Cornuallis

Cripes.

I should like to propose a variation of Mornington Crescent for the British Military. Three of us are currently attempting a Military version of the Game: I am in Iraq, a colleague in Afghanistan and a third in Chad. We are attempting the Basrah 2009 Variation where Muscat is Wild, Verticals and Diagonals are permitted with weekly subtle variations due to opposition activity. Just a bit of fun - any other British Servicemen out there?

Jon, Wobes and Tom.

Let's hear from you, chaps.

Only just discovered your excellent Contributions page and much enjoyed reading it. Could respond to many comments but my novice playing status really opens me up to complete ridicule if I were to try a too ambitious opinion!

However, one thought did occur to me as an aficionado of the Olympic movement (presumably not in itself an MC variation?): if MC were to become an Olympic event, would there be a play-off for the Bronze medal or would two be awarded as in other combatant events like Boxing?

John Chapman

I have heard that the IOC is considering admitting MC as a "fringe" event at the Winter Olympics. However, since medals aren't awarded on the fringe, the question of one or two Bronzes won't arise.

NY version of Mornington Crescent.

A friend of my father, born and raised in London, taught me the game when I was a kid and to make it relevant to us he used the names of neighborhoods like Hell's Kitchen, ABC, Tribeca, Red Hook, Dumbo, Nolita. We created a club in high school and got quite a following by the time we were seniors in college. It all fractured of late (three years ago) over a schism with the "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" variation (also called the WTF variation), whose adherents identify each other with grips and truncheons (a real sight to see in Union Square). "Goombah" and "Gotti" were also popular variants.

Last I heard there was some kind of purist movement among British expatriates uptown, who would roll over their opponents with broad powers and arcane knowledge of popular toilets in upscale bars (think "fish tank above the urinals"). I have not played in years (that's almost a winning move!!).

Paul

Paul, thank you. Interestingly you highlight similarities and differences between the British and American versions of the game. For example, whereas the WTF variant is allowed (though seldom used), the Goombah and Gotti variations have been banned from our perhaps more genteel version of the game.

Mornington Crescent - is it Cricket?

I read recently that Cyril Washbrook, when bowled for 98 by Benaud in the 3rd Test at Leeds in 1956, put his loss of concentration down to his preoccupation with a loop move played by P B H May in the team hotel the previous evening. Apparently, May had wanted to follow Washbrook's "Oval" with a move to Tufnell Park, despite the fact that Laker had preceded Washbrook with a move to London Bridge.

Although I can understand Washbrook's annoyance, was May, as a Gentleman, entitled to pull rank over Washbrook and Laker, both Players?

Steven

Steven, Good question, I don't know. The surprise is that Gentlemen deigned to play MC with Players in the first place. Perhaps Wisden might throw some light on the etiquette of what would clearly have been a ticklish situation.

Mornington Crescent Annual Get Together

For details of the annual get together please click here: Mornington Crescent Annual Get Together

To add your comment or question here please email mike at mornington-crescent-rule.fsnet.co.uk.