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Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 19 Jul 2006, 16:36
by Root
**This post is no longer being updated, for the up to date leaderboard please go to the South London Challenge page on Explorer Ticket. This post will be retained for historical reference.**

The challenge is to visit every tube station south of the River Thames in the shortest possible time. Usual rules apply.

1. 2:22:33 - John Stark
2. 2:27:23 - Philip Brown, Jamie Brown & Antony Brown
3. 2:39:05 - Oliver L
4. 2:40:03 - Philip Brown, Jamie Brown, Antony Brown & Kevin Brown
5. 3:02:09 - Mark Hazel

I'll continue adding every time set to the list for now.

Posted: 28 May 2007, 10:16
by Soup Dragon
I needed to get to Twickenham yesterday to watch the Rugby Sevens (a good cheap day out by the way) and decided to make a slight detour enroute from Hatton Cross to Twickenham. I managed to work out a route going via Kew Gardens and North Greenwich which could potentially beat Starkeys "South London Challenge" record.

Myself, Ping Pong & Dr Who all set off from Kew Gardens at 08:49, this immediately put us 1 minute up as the train was scheduled for 08:48.

A good connection and a good run (giving it the beans) got us out of East Putney, 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

At Wimbledon we got straight on a 93 bus to Morden and with limited Sunday morning traffic we were now 10 minutes up on schedule and a couple of minutes inside Starkeys time.

Some lightning fast double backs at various points on the southern loop, including one very sexy change, kept us snapping at Starkeys heels, but then disaster struck. We had made an excellent connection at Stockwell onto a Northern Line northbound service and made swift progress as far as Kennington, then we were held for 5 minutes, accordining to the driver "we were too far ahead of the following train, and had to let them close the gap on us."

The next problem was at Elephant & Castle, we ran straight onto a Bakerloo service and very quickly had a green light, but the train just sat there. 5 minutes passed before the the driver (called Tez) turned up late and got a right telling off by the Station Supervisor for being late.

We were now slightly behind schedule. The East London Line went OK and we only had a couple of minutes to wait at Canada Water for the Jubliee line eastbound.

We eventually finished at North Greenwich in a time of 2h 27m 23s

I would say Starkeys time is close to perfection, so a hard time to beat, I think the best possible is around 2h 17m, which we would have been close to with a bit more luck. Still at least we now have the 2nd best time!

Posted: 29 May 2007, 00:43
by Soup Dragon
I've now posted the pictures and full report from our challenge this weekend. This is about the only challenge possible on a Sunday.

http://pic5.piczo.com/tubedragon/?g=40162720

Posted: 29 May 2007, 12:50
by Root
Great to see that you guys are enjoying taking on some of the challenges I devised - it's probably about time I tried to claim this record. As for the Mouse, I haven't even tried that once yet!

Posted: 30 Jul 2007, 00:44
by Soup Dragon
For my second challenge of the day (once the Arsenal match had finished) myself & Phillip met Kevin & Jamie at North Greenwich for a crack at the South London Challenge.

We had near perfect connections until the end. We got a fairly slow train to Richmond and then had a 9 minute wait for the final train to Kew Gardens. We enjoyed a nice pint at the pub on the platform to celebrate our fantastic time of 2:40:03.

I would say that Starkeys time for this challenge is almost impossible to beat. I'll wager a shilling that nobody beats his time before the end on 2007. :wink:

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 12 Oct 2012, 21:39
by tangy
South of the Thames times now posted up on the Top Times website.

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 17 Jul 2016, 15:26
by tangy
This lowly challenge (which has only seen five registered times post ELL), has a new record holder. David Edwards (xcooler123) who has completed the challenge in 01:45:53 on 9th July 2016.

How long will this record last for?

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 23 Jul 2016, 19:01
by palkanetoijala31
Probably years as its the most uninspiring challenge and nobody can give a ****

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 05 Feb 2020, 17:49
by tintin
I had a go at it today.

...but I was way off, and can't see how 1h45 is going to be beaten.

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 09 Feb 2020, 18:41
by DavidC
tintin wrote: 05 Feb 2020, 17:49 I had a go at it today. ...but I was way off, and can't see how 1h45 is going to be beaten.
Well, I certainly surprised myself by managing 1.51.07 back in 2016 with only brisk walking and despite a missed train. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3364&p=100195#p100195 Even that involved significant alignment of the planets, though. A decent runner with better positioning ought to be several minutes faster on interchanges, let alone their choice/timing for Wimbledon/Morden options, so it probably then becomes simply a case of how many failed attempts you're willing to put up with until everything outside your control coincides. If even I can make 1.51.07, I'm sure many on here could get down to around 1.45 on a good day. Meanwhile, I am delighted to have held a top three position on an albeit-unpopular challenge for over three years :D

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 27 Dec 2020, 14:04
by tangy
Notification of a new record for the South London Challenge- Chris Lewis and Adam Cady on 23rd November 2019 (yes, 19) in time of 01:45:40. Beating the previous record held by David Edwards by just 13 seconds!

This one slipped through the net in my email inbox and I only just discovered it today when I was having a clear out of my Explorer Ticket account!

Re: Top Times - South London Challenge

Posted: 27 Dec 2020, 19:44
by trains 500
shouldnt this topic be moved to zone 3 . is that even possible??