So in the spirit of the season, I’ll start us off on a Holiday Jaunt Variant by declaring stirrups with:
Chalk Farm
I’m a pretty conservative player, so I’ll follow that with the standard
Goodge Street
that proved highly successful in the 2007 Argyll duplicate Mornington Crescent round robin tourney.
Well played. However, I’ve been mulling over a defensive response to a Chalk Farm-Goodge Street opening. It may be a tad early to go Zone 9, but I’ll risk it anyway:
Amersham
I think you’ll see echoes of Chandraswattasam’s play from the '02 Trans-Dominions with this particuliar move.
I always love watching this game, but I’m afraid to just jump in. Can anyone recommend a good beginner’s book?
Here ya go. Unfortunately, it’s temporarily out of stock and almost ten years old, thus doesn’t include the major rule standardizations put in place during the 2006 FIMC (Federation Internationale de Mornington Crescent) conference in Reykjavik, which, among other notable changes, outlawed the popular Sikorsky-Romanov maneuver, as well as permanently sanctioning skip-stop and widdershams declarations. At any rate, basic MC theory remains largely the same, so the above book would serve the beginner well, provided he keep in mind rule refinements may have altered the legality of certain plays in the book. That said, one may always play Mornington Crescent according to pre-2006 rules provided such declarations are announced in the initial move and agreed-to by all players. Of course, such games are not eligible in FIMC rankings.
Goldhawk Road
It’s probably best for the newcomers that I invoke the Speedbird Gambit early (Check your copy of Colonel’s, and the official transcript of the 1932 Darjeeling Limited Invitational match!) and play Heathrow Terminal 4, I think.
adjusts monocle 
Moves in and out of Heathrow in the first fifth have been of questionable legality since the 1957 Havana Revision; see also the rulings in Ames-Bagranov 1967 and the 1971 World Cup quarter between Bulgaria and Rhodesia. However, given that this is a friendly match and not a formally sanctioned one, I guess it’s okay for now. Still.
I’ll use the first jump on the Picadilly line to Hounslow Central.
You had me there for a second, RickJay.
Normally, that move would be a colossal blunder, leading straight to Mornington Crescent and a rare Golden Mule victory, but I just realized with Blackfriars out of play until 2011, the immediate jump to MC is prohibited.
Once again, I’ll play it straightforwardly (so as not introduce too many complications for beginners following along) and safely, with a tempo surrendering move to Cockfosters.
As an interested spectator, I am surprised at the depth of play. I was expecting something more like Gunnersbury, but I now realize that would be far too conservative in this crowd.
Attack from the 3rd dimension spotted a classic move, but I think the Priska Variant played by Hoppersfield-Smythe in the 1957 Manchester Open would lead to MC in 4, With that being said, and having revealed an obvious play, I must, must, play Bank.
The anticipation at seeing the next move in this shark tank is thrilling me all the way down to my toes!
I’m going to invoke the Nativity Wheedle - applicable during the month of December, and on November 30 in leap years - and claim a double approach to Shepherd’s Bush.
[/Slow Clap]
Beautiful! A Nativity Wheedle!
[/Slow Clap]
Well then, carry on. I’ll be back when I figure out whatever it is that is happening.
Now that I have recovered from the stunning play by Smeghead, I will do a National Rail Convergence Play, as popularized by Symmington back in the Roaring 20s.
Waterloo
No doubt that should open things up South of the River, especially since we are specifically not using the '06 FIMC revisions. If we were, then this would lead to a late early game MC in, oh, about 3 more moves. But since we’re not, I’m intrigued to see where this play will take us.
While normally I would challenge the Nativity Wheedle on the basis that this is not a leap year, it appears that the loose interpretation of the rule is the accepted one.
Instead I feel I would be lax in judgement if I did not attempt the Spaniard’s Gambit first seen in MacElroney-Huffenstein All World Tourney of 1978. I think we all know how that little match turned out, don’t we?
Elephant & Castle
Earls Court
Hoo!!! I see what you did there - very clever. I’m not sure how best to follow up a Trippling play like that.
Ummm.
OK, I make a semi-lateral shunt to Royal Oak, (and hope for the best)
Hope and you shall recieve. I just found this gem in an old edition of Nielsen & Bødker’s annual Bedre Mornington Crescent - I think it was originally proposed at the post-match plenum in the 1982 Nykøbing-Falster Invitational by one of the east block grand masters (possibly Zoltan, but that could just be hearsay).
This is, to me, anyway, one of the most elegant ways of preempting the (rather unimaginative) use of circle line tokens at this point in the game:
Pimlico
Hm, very tricky Panurge. I’m new to the game (in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever played) but my college roommate from the West End always used to go on about the Barrington-Knight defence that you’re employing. You’ve probably shut me off from the Bronze Transit, but I’ll give it a go anyway:
Edgware Road