# Mornington Crescent question **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 23, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794 "2010-09-23T17:52:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/161 "2010-10-01T13:29:04Z")
Since we’re getting into the end game, as **Bricker** suggests, I’ll go **King’s Cross Saint Pancras**. And that also might please the Harry Potter fans out there. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/162 "2010-10-01T13:38:46Z")
**Neasden** , knowing full well that the **Dollis Hill** Loop is forced by this play. But otherwise, we’d be done in 4 more moves. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/163 "2010-10-01T14:03:01Z")
**Angel /Islington** following **High Street Kensington** with **Euston Square** covering the reverse (nibs or not) inadvertently effects a full impede to the only re-entry to main play permitted to me. I mean of course via a _recasse_ at **Liverpool Street**. Shame. I palely loiter: **Adelstrop** Toodle pip. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/164 "2010-10-01T15:42:21Z")
**Dollis Hill**. And into The Loop we go, despite **Sevastapol** ’s yeoman attempt to avert it. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs\_McGinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6bbea6/32.png) [@Mrs\_McGinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs_McGinty)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/165 "2010-10-01T16:55:41Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > Now, it’s all very well cancelling loaded baskets, but if you do then situations like the above can creep up all over the map, including the Piccadilly split, the Wanstead / Snaresbrook ‘Y’ and so on… basically, anywhere where the definition of ‘continuous’ is going to become a matter of interpretation. This is, after all, the kind of problem that baskets are there to prevent. > > So, removing baskets from the equation tends to create more problems than it solves. For a more detailed analysis, see Hjalmar and Saavedra’s very scholarly article in ‘The Crescent’, Summer 2006. Having looked over Hjalmar and Saavedra’s article, I fear you’ve rather missed the point. Their analysis of loaded basket cancellation holds true only if Goodge Street remains excepted. If not, then loaded baskets will unincorporate as soon as any player resolves a Baker Street nomination. Excepting the wild alternate - a seven or nine repeat out of Kilburn, for example - there can be no sequential anomalies in any basket. In other words, it’s a logical impossibility, as far as normal tournament play is concerned. (The question of alternates is neatly sidestepped by the Troam Amendment, which restricts all wilds to five or less in competitive play.) What’s more, the beauty of the Baker Street cancellation is not only that it prevents any Wagstaffian spoilers: it also eliminates the Van Remmol shift (and, let’s face it, that move only ever results in tedium), along with Bertraud’s ‘recurring exceptions’ (which merely serve to drag out a foregone conclusion). As that old eastern master, Khalid Hajjar, used to say: “in Mornington Crescent, as in life, the best rule is that which rewards the wise, and punishes the foolish”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/166 "2010-10-01T17:13:11Z")
My warnings fell on deaf ears. **Kingsbury** ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/167 "2010-10-01T17:21:39Z")
**Neasden** ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/168 "2010-10-01T18:21:25Z")
**Dollis Hill** ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/169 "2010-10-01T18:47:22Z")
**Kingsbury** Ahh, the humanity! ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/170 "2010-10-01T18:52:12Z")
Since tokens are off, and shunts are on, and it’s the first day of the month: **Mornington Crescent**! ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/171 "2010-10-01T19:09:43Z")
Bravo **Giles**! You’ve applied the Alexandrian Solution to the **Dollis Hill** Gordian Knot Loop! And to think you reached MC without even using your Oyster Card! Your splendid play did remind me, a bit anyway, of Beckle’s side-shunt out of **Dollis Hill** in the Commonwealth Qualifier from '88. Did, you, by chance, happen to be thinking of that play? Of course, there are differences - especially with the Flag Settings - but, I think I see an echo of that play in your move. Well struck, sir! ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/172 "2010-10-01T19:36:56Z")
Well played, **Giles.** Great game, everyone. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/173 "2010-10-01T20:05:18Z")
Dang. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Looking back, I think my mistake was the Sudbury Town \> Redbridge \> Osterly confusion. I should have swept all tokens then with a weekday only entrance station. Had I done that, the Dollis Hill Loop could have been diverted with Swiss Cottage or Westminster, and I could have controlled the end play a bit stronger. Therefore, I blame anyone but myself. 🙂 Good move, **Giles**. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/174 "2010-10-01T23:02:13Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > **Adelstrop** Adelstrop is [not an Underground station](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_station_list). ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/175 "2010-10-02T14:17:16Z")
I’m still trying to find **Oxford Park**. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/176 "2010-10-02T14:33:21Z")
I think we have to continue from **Panurge** ’s play of ‘Victoria’, which occurred before the imaginary plays of ‘Oxford Park’ and ‘Adelstrop’ (??), which of course belong to the separate game of _Fantasy MC_. Incidentally, keen historians will have noticed that by playing Victoria in the way he did, at the time he did, Panurge created a situation that was almost identical to move 192 of the legendary Yevgenyevich .v. Sklodowska 1990 WC final in Alicante. On that occasion, as we all know, Sklodowska, being the genius she was, could announce MC in three by discovering the incredible PPT move (Perivale - Plaistow Transition) that earned her a place in MC history. Of course that can’t happen here because of that early Theydon Bois play, and in any case we all know about PPT now, but in most other respects the situation is identical. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/177 "2010-10-03T01:21:29Z")
Well, in that case, I will play my Oyster Card and go to **Swiss Cottage**. Looks like **Bricker** still has a shot. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/178 "2010-10-03T01:43:13Z")
**Oxford circus** - think that was the intention when Oxford Park was played, and it was a very clever strategy. So I’ll steal. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/179 "2010-10-04T11:56:34Z")
You have to feel for **Giles** in this situation - what looked like a brilliant coup foiled by two previous misplays. The most heart-wrenching thing about it all (sorry for twisting the knife!) is that had there been three misplays _in sequence_ without using the Circle Line, then MC would have been a valid play - the Triangulation Rule (an obscure but perfectly valid rule referenced in Cordingley & Philpott’s _Mornington Crescent Explained_, London 1973) ensures that the second misplay condones the first, the third condones the second, and, crucially, _the first misplay condones the third_, and thus MC is not only legal but actually forced. But that is all moot now - onwards, with **Ealing Broadway**! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794/180 "2010-10-04T12:38:54Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > But that is all moot now - onwards, with **Ealing Broadway**! **Tooting Bec** , vulnerable, and two red tokens down. (And in the spirit of fair play: players please note this station is in Fare Zone 3). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mornington-crescent-question/554794.md?page=10)