HW: Hawk help / OFF Mornington Crescent

Richard Lockwood rich-l at GEOCITIES.COM
Mon Feb 19 10:08:04 EST 2001


> > > > BTW - if anyone fancies playing a bit of online Mornington
> > > > Crescent,

> > > Does it do both Standard Rules and the Chiswick Rules (Amended)
> > > Game?

> > > Yep - and takes the Finsbury Option as Standard.  There's also
> > > built in functionality for the Holland Park 2000 ruleset.

> > I've always wondered: how does this treat the Eurotunnel link?

> > Ignored, unless overground lines - including Silverlink - are
> > specifically allowed or brought into play.  Then it counts as a
> > standard line in quadrant 4 until the actual tunnel, which is the
> > extent of the allowable moves.  A standard token weighting of two
> > red applies, and a Becks coefficient of at least three is generally
> > regarded as the safest minimum to avoid the possibility of putting
> > yourself in spoon or wrench.

> >That's most interesting.  However Garden, in his 1998 exposition of
> >the Paddington Gambit, argued that the downside risk could be
> >mitigated by a blocking move at Camden South supported by a feint at
> >the Angel.  It's undoubtedly true that even limited availability of
> >the Chunnel Link in overground games (and to a certain extent
> >Docklands Light Railway) has destabilised conventional approaches to
> >aggressive strategy to the extent where a whole new approach may be
> >required.  What's needed is an experienced attacker with a
> >theoretical bent to provide the basics of this.  Unfortunately there
> >seems to be no player of Garden's reknown who's willing to make a
> >start at such a worthy endeavour.  It's quite criminal that no
> >National Lottery funds have been allocated to supported local clubs
> >playing the Great Game.

> Mrs Trellis perhaps?

>Well, while she's quite brilliant, she's unconventional when not
>actually eccentric. While she certainly has the experience (I've heard
>she plays as many as 5 games every day with her maiden aunt) I'm
>unconvinced that she has the aggressive streak necessary to develop a
>new attack theory. Conversely, having developed her own variation on the
>game (though quite shockingly not following purist traditions) she
>clearly has the passion and intellect necessary, as well as the spare
>time denied to us armchair fans.

Hmm.  Of course the mighty Ruttsborough was always good for a new attacking
strategy (See "The Ongar Denial With Spikes" - 1947, "Controlling Your
Quadrant Through Fear And Intimidation" - 1948, and his classic article in
the International MC Journal
(Spring 1950 edition), "The Suspect Package and where to buy the nails").

> Garden's theories have always been fascinating -
> but remember, this is referring to Holland Park 2000, which obviously
> was only in a very early draft in 1998, and wasn't at that stage
> greatly different from the Chalk Farm 1984 ruleset, with which Garden
> was far more familiar.

>Well quite.  This is of course why I believe that the game will move
>forward only through encouragement to draw in younger players.  Sadly,
>with the decline of the Daily Game on the wireless, I have to wonder if
>today's teenagers will even have heard of Mornington Crescent.  Soon
>they'll start to believe that it's just another Tube Station that's
>always closed at weekends.

Hence my joy at the growth of the game on the internet.

:-)

Cheers,

Rich.


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