Random 15 - Round One - 4th September - Whitechapel

[JoeGJ1984]

Soup Dragon (Not Attending)
greatkingrat
Tangy (substitute BERC)
Andi (got his 'i' back)
scrxisi
mullardo (Not Attending)
Sam (Maybe Attending)
uefacup81 (Maybe Attending)
JoeGJ1984

[Going Underground]

Soup Dragon (Not Attending)
greatkingrat
Tangy (substitute BERC)
Andi (got his 'i' back)
scrxisi
mullardo (Not Attending)
Sam (Maybe Attending)
uefacup81 (Maybe Attending)
JoeGJ1984
Going Underground

[Steeevooo]

Afraid I'll be watching the Daggers lose at home to L'orient on Saturday so will have to give this a miss.

[jamesthegill]

Afraid I'll be watching the Daggers lose at home to L'orient on Saturday so will have to give this a miss.

They're playing a French team?

[Going Underground]

Afraid I'll be watching the Daggers lose at home to L'orient on Saturday so will have to give this a miss.

Don't forget darts after if you fancy it...

[palkanetoijala31]

Andi not attending but good luck everybody!

[Zoe]

So, how did it go?

[Sam]

Painful.... Note to self: Doing another challenge even just an alternative challenge the day after a Full Network Challenge is not the brightest of ideas!!

(Then again nor is then having to do a 5K on the Sunday)

[JoeGJ1984]

The stations drawn (with a live draw!) were (can't remember the order in which they were drawn, so writing them in no particular order): Whitechapel (starting station), Hackney Central, Haggerston, New Cross Gate, Paddington (Circle/District/Bakerloo), Turnham Green, Putney Bridge, Brixton, London Bridge, Bermondsey, Aldgate, Barbican, Hyde Park Corner, Green Park and Bow Road.

A difficult set of stations: I can't remember all the times, but I was last with a time of just over 4 1/2 hours (the other times were around the 4-hour mark - seems strange that these were longer than all of the times for this year's Zone 1 Challenge - surely it must take less time to visit 15 stations than 64?).

There were several stations around Whitechapel, which made it an interesting choice of where to start (sometimes there is one station really near the start station which becomes obvious to knock off first) - I kind of made it up as I went along, but Bow Road jumped out as one to knock off first, so I went from Whitechapel to Bow Road on the District Line, then ran to Bow Church and took the DLR to Stratford, then onto the LO (which seemed to stand for ages before starting off), passing Hackney Central to Dalston Kingsland. Then the run to Dalston Junction, and onto the new ELL through Haggerston (and back through Whitechapel!) to New Cross Gate. I then planned to knock off Bermondsey and London Bridge next so took the first northbound train available which was a Southern train to London Bridge. I then went from London Bridge to Bermondsey on a Jubilee Line train, then back to London Bridge (had to wait 5 minutes at Bermondsey). Then a Northern Line train to Bank and a run to Monument (I dreaded this run, but it wasn't so long as I thought it would be). Then I had a bit of bad luck: I took the first train available to Tower Hill, then waited for a Circle Line train. The indicator said that a Circle Line train was next, but then they changed it, and there were three or four District Line trains first before a Circle Line train (the announcements seemed to indicate a problem - incidentally, the indicators showed District Line trains as going all the way to Upminster, when they were actually terminating at Bromley-By-Bow). So I finally got on a Circle Line train, through Aldgate and Barbican to Edgare Road, where I got on a Wimbleware train (just across the platform, though I had to wait a few minutes for it to depart). This went through Paddington to Putney Bridge. Now I looked at bus maps, hoping for a bus to somewhere near Turnham Green, but couldn't find one, so went across Putney Bridge itself to Putney NR station (a long distance - it was a shame I couldn't have stayed on the District Line to East Putney, but unfortunately it was closed south of Putney Bridge). So got a South West Trains train from Putney to Richmond (remember reading others doing the same on a previous R15), then a District Line train through Turnham Green to Hammersmith, where I got on a Piccadilly Line train which I saw across the platform through Hyde Park Corner to Green Park, where I finally got on a Victoria Line train to finish at Brixton.

[Sam]

Right, as Joe has set the ball rolling, here is the route that we, we being Sam, Al and Matt took...

We obviously started at Whitechapel and headed north on the ELL to Dalston Junction passsing through Haggerston, taking on the short walk to Dalston Kingsland, knowing we had an easy 10 minutes to make the train. We headed east towards Stratford alighting at Hackney Central to take a bus to Mile End, unfortunately, we ran to the wrong bus stop so wasted valuable time finding the correct bus stop and missing a bus so waited around 5 minutes for the next one, however, en route to Mile End, I looked behind and saw a bus which would take us direct to Bow Road, so a quick switch of buses and we arrived at Bow Road.

From Bow Road, we headed west and jumped out at Aldgate East, a leisurely stroll (still feeling the effects of the full network the day before!) saw us arrive at Aldgate where we were reunited with Tangy, Kev and Peter (who we were told was further down the train!) as they had just missed a circle and had to wait the full 12 minutes, whereas we just had a nice 2 minute wait

The journey from Aldgate was not one of the best, as there was a signal failure at Farringdon so the train was very stop, start, we did however take out Barbican as well as Paddington, we changed from the circle to a Wimbleware at High Street Kensington (following some confusion at Edgware Road, where the circle train turned to a Hammersmith train and then back again!!) and made our way to Putney Bridge.

At Putney Bridge, we debated the option of taking a bus to Hammersmith but quickly ruled this out, and waited for the train to head back out again. We had a sexy change at Earl's Court onto a Richmond train and a nice double back at Turnham Green, (where we expected Kev to follow but he headed off somewhere....) saw us switch trains at Barons Court amd we made our way to Green Park taking out Hyde Park Corner along the way!

Again, a nice stroll through the station saw us walk straight onto a southbound Victoria line train and down to Brixton we went. Here a nicer double back than the day before took us to London Bridge, via Stockwell and another nice change (with a bit of a run at the end as I knew the train was in, which my legs did not thank me for!!) took us to Canada Water, taking out Bermondsey and a quick run up the stairs as we knew the connection would be tight, put us on a southbound ELL train to New Cross Gate.

We completed the stations in a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes and 57 seconds. I have to say, it wasn't the nicest set of stations and I was certainly feeling the effects of the day before which limited my ability to move as well as trying to stay awake on some trains meant that it wasn't the most exciting challenge in the world but I am hoping that next time will be better!!

[Sam]

Come on Tangy!! Where are the results??????

[Going Underground]

I headed North on the Overground with several others teams and then the plan at Stratford was to get the DLR to Bow Church, this showed a 6 min wait so myself and Tangy had the same idea to run to the Central Line platforms and double back Bow Road via Mile End. This looked good we got straight on a WB central but then had 4 - 5 minute wait at Mile End to go EB and just as were coming into Bow Road to again double back a WB district was arriving, we ran around and just made it and 2 sceonds later and exhasuted Peter leapt onto the carriage having taken the DLR route...

A run to Aldgate and then as per Sam's post above I was together with their team until Turnham Green where having been caught out with 15 min delays in this vicinty on previous R15's I deceied to stay on until Acton Town and get the Picc line straight back to HPK, & Green Park. The trouble was I was on a Richmond service So I doubled back at Gunnersbury and tried to catch Sam's team having exactly the same finish but to no avail

The inclusion of the Overground was really good and would certainly like to see a round again next year with them in the hat..

Well done to Tangy on being a top "BERC" we just await his final results to be publsihed on the forum..

[Sam]

Do you know your finishing time Kev?

A school boy error cost you badly then.... We thought maybe you had thought it was going to Acton Town but then we also thought maybe you'd chuck in the Richmond to Vauxhall link... ah well, we've all done it!

[tangy]

Here are the official results from the substitute "BERC"

The stations were drawn as follows: Whitechapel (start), Bow Road, Bermondsey, London Bridge, Barbican, Brixton, New X Gate, Hackney Central, Turnham Green, Putney Bridge, Green Park, Aldgate, Padd (main), Hyde Park Corner and Haggerston.

There were 7 challengers split into 5 teams, the teams finished as detailed below:

1. Sam/Matt/Al finishing at NXG in a time of 03:43:57
2. Kevin finishing at NXG in a time of 03:53:50
3. Pete finishing at Padd (main) in a time of 04:05:37 (having a route going via Zone 4!)
4. Tangy finishing at NXG in a time of 04:08:58
5. JoeGJ finishing at Brixton in a time of 04:37:11

I was a bit relieved when some NLR stations were revealed, would of been a bit silly to include the NLR system within this R15 yet no stations upon it to visit!

[Sam]

No idea how we won considering we could barely move but then again, maybe it was my beginners luck