RIP Humphrey Lyttelton
 

Mornington Crescent

product

The Little Book of Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent is a panel game that was played irregularly on the BBC's Radio Four show I'm Sorry, I Havn't A Clue (ISIHAC). The game has achieved cult status amongst fans of the show because of the way it combines a game of great tactical depth with the opportunity for the panelists to amuse the audience.

The game is named after the Mornington Crescent station on London's underground train network (the tube). The station also forms the objective of the game.

The history of Mornington Crescent is uncertain. It's been played for so long that no-one really remembers its origin. It's just a great game.

The game of Mornington Crescent was so popular that in the 1980s the UK postal gaming hobby devised a variant for postal play entitled Finchley Central. This was essentially the same game but with the necessary modifications to allow for postal play and diplomacy between turns.

How to Play Mornington Crescent

Rules & Strategy

Many newcomers to Morning Crescent find the game baffling. In fact the basic rules are relatively easy to pick up - although the strategy is deep. Many sites on the web contain the full rules in detail, you should have little trouble finding them.

What makes the game so confusing to beginners is not the basic rules but the number of variants. These add extra levels of depth to the strategy and most games played on ISIHAC incorporate one of more of these rules variations. However it must be stressed that you can play a perfectly good game of Mornington Crescent with no reference to huffing, diagonals or even being in spoon. That said, advanced players will find that subtleties such as making mainline stations wild will add greatly to their enjoyment.

There are a number of Mornington Cresent books on the market, one that many people buy is Stovold's Mornington Crescent: Rules and Origins (not to be confused with Stovold's Mornington Crescent Almanac 2002).