Mornington Crescent

In order to help you understand the rules on this blog re Mornington Crescent, I thought it best to post some of the more important rules that can be invoked....

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Recurrent themes

As the game has evolved, a number of common themes within the rules have arisen, and these are referred to in asides by the players:

* In general, a move to Mornington Crescent is not allowed very early in the game – the implication being that it takes some time or accumulation of points to reach. Tim Brooke-Taylor once started a game with "Mornington Crescent" and this was severely frowned upon as a breach of the general code of conduct of the game (the audience, however, found the whole thing hilarious and Tim was declared victorious after Humphrey referred to the "audience clap-o-meter"). An immediate victory did occur once on air in ISIHAC, but only after the player claiming it had spent four minutes explaining the particular "rules" he was invoking, therefore making the move acceptable, but the loophole was quickly removed.
* Varied rule sets such as "Finsbury rules" are invoked, generally being the subject for further asides in the game.
* Certain moves will be applauded by the audience, or greeted with intakes of breath. Audience reaction can also help shape the game. In one broadcast, a lone clapper applauded Willie Rushton, which resulted in Rushton being "huffed" by Graeme Garden.
* There are set and established plays, similar to openings in chess, occasionally named after players of the game on ISIHAC, such as "Rushton's Gambit". Knightsbridge to Ongar is said to be a favourite move.
* Once a player has named Dollis Hill, other players will often groan in anguish in anticipation of the forthcoming "Dollis Hill loop"; thereafter every alternate move will be Dollis Hill until the loop is "escaped" somehow.
* Players may be "in Spoon", which limits their actions in unspecified ways. During a game broadcast in 1995, the Chairman explained that this was a corruption of the original term, "in Spain". How this might occur, what effect it has or, indeed, as the chairman mused, what a player might be doing in Spain, however, remained unrevealed.
* There are similar states called "Knip" (or "Knid") and "prig".
* A move to Mornington Crescent may be predicted some number of moves in advance, as in chess: "Mornington Crescent in two."
* Aldwych is always a dangerous move.
* Real-life changes to the London tube network are sometimes alluded to in the game, most notably when the actual tube station at Mornington Crescent was closed when the lifts failed and a "rules committee" was said to have rushed through an amendment required for the game to stay playable. (The situation came to light only when Graeme Garden's triumphant winning move was declared invalid.) The ISIHAC team launched a spoof charity, the "Mornington Crescent Elevator Repair Fund".