HW: Hawk help / OFF Mornington Crescent

[M Holmes]

Richard Lockwood writes:

> > > > 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.

> 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.

FoFP