The 12 step double-A leads straight into the Fairlop Loop :rolleyes:
I don’t mind all you kibitzers - when you get the rules right, that is. The 12 step double-A only leads straight into the Fairlop Loop in games that start on a day whose name ends in the letter “y”. I remember this very fact catching out the English prodigy Merryweather when he played in his first world championship in 1994. It was, of course, held in Paris that year, and the sneering from the French spectators when he tried to claim a Fairlop loop after his opponent initiated a 12 step double-A can only be imagined. The poor lad tried to complain, saying that the game had started on a Wednesday in his native language, but a quick check of Bunson & Bodley’s International Rules (4th edition, 1978) showed that this was sadly irrelevant, despite the fact that the game itself was being played in English. Young Merryweather was never quite the same after that - such a shame.
Anyway, the preceding may not be strictly relevant to the current game, but I feel it is important to ensure these niceties are observed when teaching a beginner - it is all too easy to get confused otherwise. I will follow Maus Magill’s High Street Kensington with Finchley Central.
Accurate accuracy, my good Dead Cat. 12 step double-A only leads straight into the Fairlop Loop in games that start on a day whose name ends in the letter “y” in Welsh.
(At least, according to my dog-eared, coffee-stained copy of Preakness Stakes Mornington Crescent Abridged and Explained (Baltimore, MD, 2002). )
ETA: I replied before I read the whole post. I see you did cover B&BIR-4, which Preakness rules generally follow.
I would reply to your move, but today is Shemini Atzeret (hag sameach, all!), and I am restricted to moves entirely within my Shabbat boundary. This excludes all of Greater London, unfortunately.
(If we were playing Addison Road, I could use the western Orange Line, the Red Line up to Friendship Heights, and the downtown area. But this is MC. Such is life.)
Acton Central
And we’re in for an Acton roundabout play. I do feel however, we’re THIS close to reaching the early midgame.
There is no Acton Central on the London Underground system. * sigh *
Not only is she still around, but I have a signed copy of her earlier work Lager, Lime, and the Latimer Road Endgame Set – basically a collection of essays recalling key endgame plays and speculating on the local brews that would have gone well with the mood. I met her in 1993 in Covent Garden, having just seen a show at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. (Miss Saigon, for those interested). I just happened to have her book with me and recognized her from the author photo. Charming lady, and her slight physical handicap was hardly noticeable.
Ooh, this takes me back. I haven’t played MC in over thirty years.
Did they ever get around to barring the reverse-Germaine? I always felt that the potential for a Wagstaff paradox, however remote, demanded some action be taken…
We’re still waiting for a valid move, to get past the ‘Acton Central’ problem.
Bricker - thanks for sharing. Jemima is one of the greats, without a doubt. A wonderful writer, of course, and also a pretty sharp player in her own right. Not up to tournament level, maybe, but she certainly knows her way around a game of MC. I only met her once (she was covering the Euro Champs for the MC Gazette in '88) and she was utterly sweet and charming. Did you know that she has made a point of never visiting the actual Mornington Crescent station? She says it could never be as good as she imagines it.
Mrs McG - the reverse-Germaine (strictly speaking, ‘the Germaine-reverse’ or for purists ‘the Eniamreg move’), is still legal in tournament play provided there is prior agreement on its application to the Piccadilly split, which is where all the problems started. Most adjudicators these days will accept it as far as Sudbury Hill but no further, since it just leads to all that Wagstaff nonsense. Most club players simply dispense with it altogether, since it really adds very little to the game. Interestingly, Coronel notes that only five ‘Eniamreg’ moves have featured in the finals of ranking tournaments in the 20th century, and in every case the move was played by the losing player!
Perhaps Wargamer meant Action Town?
I don’t have many references here at work, but I do have a copy of the September 2003 issue of The Camden Authority Watchers Monthly, which indicates he has to forfeit his nibs for a misplay.
I recall Emile LeGastre suggesting something along those lines back in '72. It struck me as a bit of a fudge, though.
As I used to say to Mr McGinty, would it not be simpler just to cancel all loaded baskets whenever Baker Street is nominating? That way, the reverse-Germaine (sorry, I’m of the old school) is rendered moot, without compromising the Chalk Farm three-slip.
Thank you for the information** ianzin **and Maus. I am a little ashamed admit that I mistook Thwipington’s, *Guide to Mornington Crescent *with Thwipington’s Guide to Mornington Crescent, and was indeed, taking advice from a travel book. My reading reminded me of the Glaswegian Variant, so once we get back in play, I hope to steer things to the Circle line for a few rounds.
It also raised a question whose answer I could not find. In internet play, it is likely that many of us play in different time zones. When a player intends to follow an off-peak variety, is it proper to adhere to off-peak hours in London, in the time zone of the player who started the variation, or in the time zone of the current player?
Well, after my Over versus Under- ground missteps, I would be hesitant to take any advice from me, but I do believe the Centennial Guide calls for Peak Hour Plays to be based on GMT.
Since I have been called for a misplay, I believe I have to sit out for at least the next 5 moves and forfeit all Nibs and Tokens. I’m certainly behind the eight ball now. Anyone remember Graylock’s Fate in the '59 Worlds? I do believe I’m about to follow in her footsteps.
CAWGFFAP agrees.
You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Alas, it turns out to be not quite so simple. It all looks just fine until you get something like this from the 2003 Pacific Zone 3rd place playoffs between Laue and Tagore:
Laue: Finchley Road [ stirrups ]
Tagore: Stanmore [ direction declined + snit ]
Laue: Turnpike Lane [ direction re-doubled ]
Tagore: Aldgate East, nominating Hammersmith & City, token on station
Laue: Tufnell Park [ and loop ]
Tagore: Tower Hill and token!!
This was when Team Laue lodged their protest, asserting that the move to Tower Hill was impossible since it isn’t on the H&C. Tagore argued that the token was on the station, not the line, and no-one could find a definitive refutation in the rules (as they were then) so the move stood, leading to a simplistic MC in three for Tagore.
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.
Stepney Green
Well, I must admit that while lynne-42’s play of Stepney Green might be the most direct way of solving our little problem, I still find the solution aesthetically unsatisfying, particularly its negative effect on an otherwise engaging Peak Hour Play and token reimbursement.
I think I have found a solution that a: removes us even farther from the stalemate, and b: allows us to take full advantage of “Þorðurssón’s Oyster Card Carrousel” (as per the latest North Atlantic Invitational (NAI)): As per Siitunen and Päähjonen (1997), zones 2-4 can be considered off limits for all tokens blue through gold. In this rather special case, Þorðurssón’s brilliant suggestion is to fully engage the north-western quadrant “toll free” sub-tables by playing:
Ickenham.
I haven’t had the time to give this years NAI plays more than a cursory glance, but I hope I have read the development correctly and that this move will allow us to pull through the mid-play without further delay.
Panurge, my friend, have you been distracted? Ickenham is north of Sudbury Hill. See my earlier post about plays nth of SH.
You are spot on, ianzin - I must admit that the task of cataloging my extensive World War 1 MC correspondence archive (including some rather fascinating Verdun trench plays - completed without any reference works at hand apart from the usual battlefront library editions - something quite unheard of nowadays and a true testimony to the thorough schooling within the various UK organizations in the first decades of the twentieth century) has taken its toll on my attention lately. But I digress.
If we are indeed engaged in a situation where the Eniamreg is legal (and I think we are), my play is indeed both void and illegal. Please allow me to mend my error in the following manner: I release all northbound tokens, thereby triparting the Picadilly split, reverting the situation to a more standard “mind the gap”-gambit (or - as Zahawi Muhammad like to call it in his charming accent: “mind the gape” - perhaps alluding to the almost inevitably following zone/line switch) by:
Victoria
which also opens up for a decidedly interesting north/south exchange, I think.
Oxford Park
With green flags up and tokens off, if you please.
Questionable choice, given the High Street Kensington to Finchley Central play of a few moves back. No protecting tokens and Oxford Park leads to MC in six, forced, by playing Angel, redoubled.
In a way, it’s a shame, because now it becomes a kind of trivial “see who can post in the right order,” sort of affair. But the alternative was a Waterloo & City play that would have left open MC in two, unforced.
Unless anyone wants to toss in a play that triggers the Dollis Hill Loop, this game is nearly over.
Sorry.
Angel, redoubled.