Senate House Passage

Senate House Passage is a lane in Cambridge, and a game.  This collection of pages should tell you a bit about both.
Senate House Passage (the game)
Senate House Passage (the lane)
The Senate House
Cambridge Graduation

Senate House Passage (the game)

Senate House Passage is a game based on Cambridge street names, similar to Mornington Crescent, which is a game based on stations on the London Underground.  In Mornington Crescent, players take it in turn to name tube stations, and the winner is the first to name Mornington Crescent. It's a lot more complicated than that in practice, but the basics are simple. (A bit like Go or chess, I suppose.)

Mornington Crescent has been popularised by BBC Radio 4's programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which gave listeners a chance to admire the style and technical excellence of such masters as Willie Rushden, Barrie Crier, Tim Brook-Taylor, and the deft (daft?) umpiring of Humphrey Littleton..  (In case you're wondering, my favourite move in Mornington Crescent is Heathrow Terminals 1,2 and 3, closely followed by Plaistow.)

The basics of Senate House Passage are similar to those of Mornington Crescent: players take it in turn to name Cambridge street names, and the winner is the first to name Senate House Passage.  See elsewhere for the complete set of rules, including which list of street names is considered canonical and the correct moves to play when the rising bollards in the centre are up to enforce the pedestrianised zone.

Both Senate House Passage and Mornington Crescent are amenable to play via email, and this is how I play most of my Senate House Passage matches.  Mornington Crescent can also be played via the world wide web, and there are several web sites devoted to it, including an official BBC Radio 4 server.  As far as I know, the only parts of the world wide web dedicated to Senate House Passage are this page, and a record of a game at the site of my best mate Paul. This game was played using the long-distance strategy first outlined by Micklethwaite (1896), which allows for street names outside of Cambridge. By consent between all players, we have excluded London (0171 and 0181 numbers).
 


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