Oval was good, I admit, and many players would fall into the Thursby Trap, e.g. falling for Stonebridge Park, not realising that the next player can decline nibs and move south to Lambeth North (there are other possible lines but they all come out pretty much the same).
However, I will instead play…
Pontoon Dock !
Giles, I think you’ll find that Gundyayev has now formally withdrawn his so-called ‘proof’. There’s a rather brief announcement on his website to the effect that he is ‘refining’ it and hopes to re-submit it next year. The problem, as I understand it, is that when he wrote his software he included Shepherd’s Bush twice (because it appears on the Central Line and the Ham & City), thereby skewing his totals and rendering the final third of his analysis a complete nonsense. Gantt offers a rather wry but very amusing commentary on the whole sorry business in the last Winter edition of the Henley MC Gazette, if you’re interested.
I was at the pub and me and some mates were engaging in a bit of Team MC to pass the time. Naturally we had money on the match. My cousin Geoff (for my team) had just played Charing Cross, and he was being very coy about it, considering we were in the rounds of eight and double nibs had just expired. As any mildly experienced MC player would know that Charing Cross is considered absoutely lethal under those circumstance. Almost instantly our pal Henry called out Pontoon Dock being the obvious answer and one that produces double charges. Needless to say, Henry was quite pleased, having a good larf at Geoff, whom he thought had played a temendous blunder.
But Geoff was not so unwise. The clock read 12:03 and in facct it was no longer Thursday but had become Friday and the month had changed as well, from April to May…Blinder’s Time! Geoff had completely duped Henry. It wasn’t unitl his temmates let out an audible groan and Geoff answered for his team with, “Neasden” that Henry realized he had been had. I must say that they requisite pints that Henry had to purchase for the lot was among the tastiest I had ever had.
Alas, I fear the schoolboy humour upwelling and I have to say it: Mudchute. In my defence, dear old Willie Rushton would have agreed with me, though the purists would certainly say that’s no excuse.
Loved the history, Gangster Octopus - so many memories! No other game can claim the characters which fill the MC history books. Does anyone remember Carlyle-Smythe in the 1975 Oxford/Cambridge clash? I still laugh every time I think about it.
Much as I would love to triumph with a fourth** Paddington**, it is now obvious that you lot have stymied my Jade Quad - but that still leaves me the Ambrose Ambit.
I declare hassocks and decline to ruff motion West, hence leading rather inevitably to:
Chalfont & Latimer !
Lynne - good move, faintly inaccurate submission. May I offer a gentle correction? It’s only a double consonant if the letters occur consecutively. What you have there is a repeated consonant.
BTW, MC trivia fans, the Ambrose Ambit is the only known move by which a player can transition through all three of the ‘Queen-’ stations without actually stopping at any of them! At least that’s according to Coronel in ‘The MC Armchair Miscellany’ (Crescent Press, 92 edition). He offers a short analysis and cites the only two instances of this actually having been achieved in ranking tournaments. (Tensi managed it at the 2001 Masters in Marrakech, as did the great Karakolev way back at the 1951 European Team Championships in Salzburg.) The Zephyr Shift comes close, obviously, but as two of the ‘Queens’ are in Brent the player woud have to stop on at least one of them or automatically foul his next move.
I have now spent three hours struggling through Hanson & Eagles, 2001, chapter 3, Declarations and Declines (lets face it, it isn’t an easy read) trying to work out EXACTLY what happens in the combined ‘hassocks and decline to ruff motion West’ declaration mode. This is only a Friendly, isn’t it? Would it be alright for me to ask for an explanation of the implications of a Chalfont & Latimer play, when I want to try and force Delays on the Circle Line. I have shown my hand now, I know. Could have had MC in five. But I am just out of my depth here.
Lynne - H&E aren’t really your best source when revising declarations and so on. They know their stuff, sure, but as you’ve discovered they tend to go into far more detail than is strictly necessary. I think they clutter up what are essentially quite straightforward and elegant aspects of MC theory with too many examples and commentaries.
Try Brewster On Middle Game MC Strategy for a succinct explanation of the three main classes of declaration you’re ever likely to meet in real-life play, plus an neatly tabulated summary of the various decline options. All his strategic stuff is sound, if a little uninspired.
Some prefer MC My Way! by the wonderful Kristi Kroto, which is without doubt an excellent book. However, she does leave out the DLR options, and some of her commentaries on the openings are a little ‘shaky’ to say the least (Becontree in a straightforward Chavoisier Advance? I don’t think so!)
As regards my move, Maus has plainly been trying (and succeeding!) to build up a strategic advantage west of Oxford Street, forcing defensive lines along green and blue (as evidenced by Dead Cat’s cautious use of terminal 4). However, as we’ve already had motion south of a non-played park, clearly I could either accept the ruff over motion west and hope for some end-game advantage from my dominant parallel lines, or decline this in favour of keeping my nibs options for later use, which may well come in handy given that both Oval and Theydon Bois have already been played. I went for the latter, although I expect Maus has a ruse or two up his sleeve that I haven’t spotted!
I feel obligated to point out (for fairness) that the only reason Worthington could accomplish the hat trick was that the Saudi team boycotted the Tel Aviv Invitational that year, and indeed every year. He should have played against al-Hasim in the first round, after that worthy’s excellent showing in the preceeding Levant Triples (a now rarely used tournament format of three-person teams). The Arabian peninsula has produced some of the strongest players against the Hamston Gambit in the last ten years.
ETA: Maybe it was the 2003 Masters in Marrakech, not the 2003 Levant Triples. Thanks ianzin for the mental prompt. Does anybody have the 2003 Mideast results handy?
There’s a lot of kibitzing here (and I’m guilty of that too), but I think the last move was Dead Cat playing Heathrow Terminal 4, re-doubled. I think the only constructive response to that is Heathrow Terminal 5, but undoubled.
The obvious follow-up is Baker Street with a reprisal on Dead Cat. But that gives away too much position for too little gain.
I think I’ll go for the high-risk move and attempt the OP’s suggestion, Aldwych Station. As this is a Recreational Friendly and nowhere near an International Test, I think such an experimental move would be allowed, especially with this game still in an early innings.
I’m sorry to be late, but I was stuck in a fiendishly clever Canada Water retrenchment in my local MC League. Based on the sound drubbing I took there, I’ll gamble a bit on and anti-clockwise stirrups declaration off No Reprisals (yet) from Heathrow 4 and go with a District Line Diversion to Earl’s Court.
Although, I am exposing a bit of colonial impudence with that play, I admit…
Thanks, I am such a middling Cresenter but I do love the history, it is so colorful. Regarding Carlyle-Smythe, I was far too young at the time to make sense of what at happened, but I do fondly recall my father’s hearty laugh when he read the recap of it in the paper. Wasn’t that the match where probably the most famous MC Columnist ever, Jonathan Windsor, writing for the Sun famously described the play of Carlyle-Smyth as “straight out of the insane asylum and straight into our fondest memories.”
Good eye, ianzin. If I’ve been that obvious, I may have to rethink my strategy. With the new fiber lay going in along the Northern Line, and stirrups called, I think it’s obvious what my next move should be.
Whoah… sorry Giles, I know this is just a friendly, but we can’t allow East Acton, not directly after an opposite point of compass play. Perhaps you overlooked that Lynne played Paddington three times, ergo a triple play has featured in the previous 25 moves, ergo for consistency the so-called ‘compass’ stations must be non-consecutive. Sorry and all, but maybe you’d like to take another crack at it.
BTW, nice one, Maus! You’ve been reading up on the Azimuth Defence, if I’m not very much mistaken. Shrewd. Very shrewd.
Well, if you insist, though I thought it was technically correct. A similar play (North Acton) was allowed under almost identical circumstances in the 1927 Buenos Aires Invitational Tournament. You must allow Acton Central, however.