Being an Australian presented a challenge to Paul's progress to Mornington Crescent, since the I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue show had been rejected by the Australian Broadcasting Commission as 'too British' and never made the air. It was only the fortuitous introduction to British friends who lent him the first ISIHAC book that got him started as Mornington Crescent player. He grasped the elementary strategy early, and was soon competing on the alt.games.mornington-cresent newsgroup and the Monochrome BBS mailing list, but the lack of local players - the [Southern Cross Mornington Crescent Club]? barely existing at that point in time - slowed his progress.
It was like the line in Spike Milligan's story "The Bald Twit Lion": "The jungle grew upward from the ground until it reached the monkeys, who had been waiting patiently for this to occur, and when it reached them they invented climbing down." Yoz?'s server Delphi had just been started, and suddenly Paul found that there were other people that understood Mornington Crescent, Cheddar Gorge, and Limericks and began to practice in earnest. He quickly gained a reputation for winning games - he is quoted as 'still feel[ing] a little guilty about starting the Rankings page, because I turned out to be on top of it'. Then, due to a chance posting on Delphi, he discovered [Rob Bunting]? and his server at York and made his first move in game 87.
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