MM Links

[Gasbaggertie]

Now we have got to grips with the KM links, we are thinking of trying the MM, but haven't got a clue what it is all about. Can some kind person please explain what we do - in very simple terms please!

Thanks.

[gen2]

Yes. Put simply, it is the same as the KM links but the scoring is now different from the KM game since that one changed the system last month.

The Origin.
========
Originally the MM game was exactly like the KM game is now. The MM stands for Michael Mepham who was the compiler of the Saturday and Monday (Herculis) GK crosswords in the Daily Telegraph. All was fine intil he suddenly died and the Telegraph stoped publishing links between the two Xwords. We therefore created our own game where one of us chooses the pairs of links in advance and sends them to Crofter who scores and manages the game. The game starts at 9am Saturday. The results are revealed 7pm Sunday. The same setter does a complete month. The new setter is chosen by Crofter from the highest scorers at the end of the month.

About 6 weeks after Michael Mepham died, his daughter Kate Mepham (KM) took over compiling the Telegraph GK crosswords and re-introduced the links.

We now had a dilemma, ditch the new game and replace it with the newspaper one, or run the two alongside each other. The latter was what happened, so hence we have both the KM game and the MM game.

Good Luck with both.
gen2 (reserve scorer)

[Gasbaggertie]

Thanks - but we're still confused! do we choose any old words or the shaded words - in which case how is it different to the KM? I seem to remember there being some rule about the length of words. Maybe we will just watch it unfold for a while and then have a go when we are a bit clearer - we're away 2 w/e's in June in any case

[gen2]

To clarify:

1) the MM game now has NOTHING to do with the paper or crosswords at all.

2) The setter, an AB user (this month it is seekeerz chooses 4 pairings and reveals one of each pair on Saturday morning. The other half of each pair has previously been sent to crofter who marks and scores the responses.

3) In an attempt to simplify the game and reduce the number of possibilities (and hence increase the scoring opportunities), we always limit ourselves to answers having between 4 and 8 letters (inclusive).

eg. This week, the words revealed on Saturday were:
FOOD
WINE
FRIEND
COMPANY

On Sunday, at 7pm, crofter revealed that seekeerz had chosen:
FAST Food
WHITE Wine
Friend SHIP
LIMITED Company
and scored the game accordingly

Scoring:
First to guess each match scores 2 points
Anyone correct within 2 minutes of that also gets 2 points
Later matches score 1 point
Anyone matching all 4 pairings gets an additional bonus of 2 points.

[Gasbaggertie]

Thanks. That's pretty clear now. Sorry to be thick - it's called old age!