# I don't understand the game Mornington Crescent.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [December 24, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306 "2015-12-24T23:48:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/1 "2015-12-24T23:48:13Z")
I mean, I get that it’s naming subways in England…and that it’s acting like everyone is a perfect gentleman and making it out to be like it’s one of the most important discussions in the world, all dressed up with pretending there are huge strategies and good plays and gamebits…
…but is that it? Am I missing something here? It just doesn’t strike me as a very fun or interesting game. What am I missing that seems to make it fun for those who love it?
Is it just one of those things that you have to have the right humor for, like Monty Python?
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/2 "2015-12-25T00:40:40Z")
Clearly, you need to read Lord Montwood’s musings on the subject in his foreword to the Sixth Edition of _The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Out of Nidd On A Sunday_.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/3 "2015-12-25T02:21:46Z")
I prefer the “Collected Essays on the Thursday Forecoft Line Schedule, Appendix B” by Matilda Worthington-Smythe. Try to get the much superior 1924 edition, with maps.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/4 "2015-12-25T06:32:16Z")
You’ve actually got the point. The show that included Mornington Crescent was a show called “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue”, a show on Radio 4 that satirized panel game shows. Another one of the games on there was “Jigsaw”, which had the contestants putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
So Mornington Crescent is just a fake game the panelists all have to adlib to sound believable.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/5 "2015-12-25T06:54:11Z")
Which reminds me **Telemark** , I need to return your copy of the '24 edition … I borrowed it after that smashingly boozy knees-up on the chamomile lawn last summer. Cracking read, that too.
I believe Baroness Sturgess of Lynne Regis was the author of the definitive text on the subject (_I think those who claim she plagarised Bertie Montwood were being quite beastly about it_). It is a question of aligning future expectations with past experience and navigating a path through the gap in the middle.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/6 "2015-12-25T07:48:46Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> You’ve actually got the point. The show that included Mornington Crescent was a show called “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue”, a show on Radio 4 that satirized panel game shows. Another one of the games on there was “Jigsaw”, which had the contestants putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
>
> So Mornington Crescent is just a fake game the panelists all have to adlib to sound believable.
Just so.
I recommend “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue” as being immensely amusing.
Other regular features include:
- one song to the tune of another
- punning definitions
- late arrivals (more puns)
It’s hard in a post here to explain the humour, but it’s been running since 1972 and the BBC has published at least 20 DVDs (all of which I’ve got 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/7 "2015-12-25T10:20:51Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> … Mornington Crescent is just a fake game …
Come on, next you’ll be telling me that there is no Santa Claus, or that [Aldwych tube station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldwych_tube_station) is permanently closed (and hence not available as a move under the High Holborn variant rules of 1932).
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/8 "2015-12-25T16:18:57Z")
I suppose some people consider “High Holborn” a meaningful rule set, but then , some people also consider it acceptable to serve a rooibos at afternoon tea. We should try and maintain some standards in our discourse on this subject.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/9 "2015-12-25T16:40:04Z")
I think you’re both forgetting that the Royal Commission of '83 settled this matter by taking Aldwych off the table in exchange for permitting the Holbrook-Exeter exception to be applied during Lent.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/10 "2015-12-25T16:50:10Z")
Ugh. As usual, any serious question about this cursèd game devolves into a round of playing it. I, like the OP, just don’t find it funny.
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### Author:  [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/11 "2015-12-25T17:31:32Z")
Oh well played Sir; I haven’t seen anyone open with the Miserabilist Gambit since Morrissey in '84. A bold move indeed.
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/12 "2015-12-25T17:40:36Z")
Well I am sure good manners will Perivale and the OP will get an answer, although I wouldn’t Pinner my hopes on it.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/13 "2015-12-25T18:29:16Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#):
>
> I mean, I get that it’s naming subways in England…and that it’s acting like everyone is a perfect gentleman and making it out to be like it’s one of the most important discussions in the world, all dressed up with pretending there are huge strategies and good plays and gamebits…
>
> …but is that it? Am I missing something here? It just doesn’t strike me as a very fun or interesting game. What am I missing that seems to make it fun for those who love it?
>
> Is it just one of those things that you have to have the right humor for, like Monty Python?
…if you’re saying you don’t find Monty Python funny, then yes, the appeal of Mornington Crescent will be inpenetrable, you [snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y)!
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/14 "2015-12-25T18:48:56Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Come on, next you’ll be telling me that there is no Santa Claus, or that [Aldwych tube station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldwych_tube_station) is permanently closed (and hence not available as a move under the High Holborn variant rules of 1932).
We played [that variation](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=579345&highlight=aldwych+mornington).
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### Author:  [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/15 "2015-12-25T20:40:26Z")
> [@robardin](#):
>
> …if you’re saying you don’t find Monty Python funny, then yes, the appeal of Mornington Crescent will be inpenetrable, you [snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y)!
I fart in your general direction.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/16 "2015-12-25T20:54:23Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#):
>
> I fart in your general direction.
_Surely_ you’re aware that acts of aggressive flatulence on Christmas Day were declared a violation of the Laws of the Game in King George VI’s 1948 Christmas speech, unless Notting Hill has been played no less than eleven but no more than seventeen times during the current session.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/17 "2015-12-25T21:52:16Z")
I don’t want to jump into the game. I’m not skilled enough to join in myself having only just started to learn some of the finer points of the recent variants.
I was curious if Idle might like [Number Wang](https://youtu.be/abCg6X9E0uo) a bit better. The math is quite complex but the basics are much simpler so it’s a bit easier to follow from the outside.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/18 "2015-12-25T21:57:26Z")
> [@NAF1138](#):
>
> I was curious if Idle might like [Number Wang](https://youtu.be/abCg6X9E0uo) a bit better.
1.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/19 "2015-12-25T22:04:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> 1.
That’s number Wang!
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### Author:  [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-game-mornington-crescent/741306/20 "2015-12-26T17:56:23Z")
> [@NAF1138](#):
>
> That’s number Wang!
it’s time for Wangernumb, let’s rotate the board!
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