Loop

1. If the gravitational attraction of a station exactly counterbalances the velocity needed to escape, then the game is said to have been placed in a holding loop. Escape may not be effected by a standard move or strile unless the player's line velocity is increased by other means. (It can be shown that straddles self-evidently provide greater risk to a player's position). If one player breaks the holding loop, then others may follow without hindrance (hence the risk involved in being the first out.)
2. If the available velocity is less than for (1) above, then the player (and others) are drawn closer to the station. In this case, LV increases the greater number of times through the loop, but the longer one stays the harder it is to escape (this can most often be seen at Morden? if anybody should manage to actually get into the station during the Morden Paradox, Ongar if an Ongar Denial is played too early or bifurcated, and in the Amersham-Aldwych loop.) This kind of loop is known as a spiralling or vortex loop. It is in this case, and the following one, that the Barons Court Manoeuvre is most likely to come into play.
3. The Dollis Hill loop is a special case, because it is the only high station among those stations capable of regularly hosting a vortex loop. Not only is it the strongest gravitational attractor of all the stations, it also has the capability to allow vertical gravity into the equation. As a result, if play passes just close enough that the downhill tendency is marginally greater than the holding tendency, then incredibly high LVs can be attained very quickly: however, this is very risky as getting too close will result in spiralling inwards rather than outwards, resulting in (2) above - and with Dollis Hill this can be incredibly hard to get out of. Ruttsborough was one of the first to master this manoeuvre, which greatly aided his high-LV strategy (and thus facilitated play outside the Circle, rather than inside where high LV can be a handicap in the confined spaces.)

[JLE]

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