Mornington Crescent Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Mornington Crescent is a parody of obscure and complex games. It was introduced to the British public by the BBC Radio 4 programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, which is itself a parody of panel games. It is named after Mornington Crescent tube station in central London, which is in turn named after the road called "Mornington Crescent" in the London Borough of Camden, near Camden High Street.
In the game, players successively name railway stations on the London Underground network (or sometimes just streets in Greater London). No player is disqualified, and the first player to say "Mornington Crescent" wins.
During play, players often invoke obscure but authoritative-sounding rules and names of gambits. These 'rules' are randomly conceived, and the more ludicrous sounding the better. For example "we're stuck in a Dollis Hill loop", or "once Tooting Bec has been declared, this move is not allowed unless two or more players are in knip".
The chair of ISIHAC, Humphrey Lyttelton, often introduces variants and alternative rules, for example "the French version ("Chateau d'Eau")", or "the King Edward Rules".
Although technically it is possible to win by simply announcing "Mornington Crescent", that would completely defeat the purpose of the game. It has happened at least once on air, albeit after the player concerned spent four minutes discussing the particular rules they were playing by. The true intent of the game is to be funny, and all other rules are invoked solely in the service of this objective.
Those in the know about the game enjoy pretending to others that all the rules are real, and that they really are in a rule book. The alleged rulebook remains eternally elusive, and this supreme obscurity of the rules is a source of humour to players. Players frequently make reference to the International Mornington Crescent Society (IMCS), allegedly the dominant rule-making body for the game.
Radio 4 once broadcast the first part of a "two part documentary" on Mornington Crescent, which gave a history of the game through the ages. The promised second part, which would give an in-depth explanation of the rules, was, naturally, never broadcast.
As Lyttelton has put it on the show, "[the rulebook is maintained with] inimitable accuracy by the lovely Samantha, who sleeps with it under her pillow. As it now runs to 17 volumes, she is running out of pillows.". (Samantha, the indescribably lovely scorer for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is equally fictitious.)
Not having a rulebook to hand, seasoned players will often encourage newcomers to watch a game for a few moments so that they can "pick up the rules as they go along". If Mornington Crescent is played well then an observer really will come to realise what rules really operate, namely those of comedy, and the newcomer's initial bafflement will be amusing to all concerned.
Among Mornington Crescent players, there is a taboo against admitting that the rules are fictitious. Some interpret this as an attempt to maintain the ignorance of outsiders. Another explanation is that admitting what's really going on is incompatible with actually playing the game: saying "but the rules aren't real" immediately spoils a previously engaging discussion of the strategy of shunting players who are in knip on the Piccadilly Line. It seems likely that different participants see different reasons for maintaining this silence.
The former interpretation of the taboo has led some to aggressively point out that there are no real rules whenever there's a possibility of someone being misled. Indeed, there is a hint of a reverse taboo: proponents of full disclosure see it as morally reprehensible to leave a newcomer in the dark. The debate remains unresolved, but it appears that all sides at least find it acceptable to privately explain the real situation to someone who asks.
There is some evidence suggesting that in the early days there were a few simple rules, which the panellists knew and the audience didn't. The fact that the audience didn't know the rules was an in-joke for the panel. Since no one would be able to tell the difference, these rules were only loosely followed, and were eventually abandoned altogether.
Two books of 'rules' and history have been published, The Little Book of Mornington Crescent (2001; ISBN 0752844229) by Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Humphrey Lyttelton and Stovold's Mornington Crescent Almanac (2001; ISBN 0752847295) by Graeme Garden.
Starting in 1997 an attempt was made to create an actual serious playable version of Mornington Crescent, by means of a nomic. This was inspired by the propensity of nomics to create subgames and the observation that nomic players keep tweaking their nomics to keep them interesting to play. Mornington Nomic was a successful nomic for a while, and indeed succeeded in producing an interesting and playable game that matches the form of Mornington Crescent. While the nomic is no longer played, the resulting set of rules for Mornington Crescent remains.
Science fiction writer Michael Moorcock included a reference to the game in a comic book which he scripted, entitled Michael Moorcock's Multiverse. Since the comic was published in the US, the reference was clearly an in-joke for any British readers who happened to get hold of an imported copy.
In the 1980s postal gaming hobbyists invented a variant of Mornington Crescent for postal play, called Finchley Central.
Calvin and Hobbes' Calvinball bears some resemblance to this game.
This is an Article on Mornington Crescent. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Mornington Crescent How the game is played
Rules and the culture of secrecy
Real rules
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