R15 Championship 2012/13: Round 4

[The Raven]

Hang on, does the Thameslink side of Barbican still have rails?

[tractakid]

I believe the physical rails are still in place, not that they're much use any more.

[MylesHSG]

Im in

[tractakid]

On my way, hoping to alight at Queens Park on London Midland.. unsure if calling at the minute! Lol

[Going Underground]

Not a very nice day in SW London, cold and spots of rain around... See you guys at Clapham S

[palkanetoijala31]

stations drawn out of that were thus

clapham south (starting station)
oval
borough
bermondsey
liverpool street
moorgate
arsenal
chalk farm
edgware road bak
edgware rd circ/dist
regents park
kensal green
bayswater
white city
kensington olympia

[palkanetoijala31]

Well i start the ball rolling on this walking up the escalator in Clapham South is bloody cold as the wind must have a rush straight down tunnel wise on to the station.

Everybody rushed down on to the platform presumably i thought seeing as it was on the edge of zone 2 i thought northbound must be the way to go this was before i even looked at the stations drawn out but i didnt need to as team Rhys were given a running commentary on them anyway .

So no surprise that everybody headed to London bridge on this change everybody made the jubilee line train eastbound except for poor myles whom was left behind.

at bermondsey the teams decided to seperate with some doing the double back (i had thought about it but decided against when i saw no train there although it turned up really quickly apparently) and others like me carrying on to canada water we rose the escalator to a welcome site highbury & islington 1 minuter Rhys & Rhys going whoop whoop and bowing on the platform was the highlight of this change!

Whitechapel saw the departing Team Rhys whilst me and tangy continued on to Shoreditch High street and ran to Liverpool street I had a quick look at the circle platforms and saw nothing there so preceeded down to the central line where i missed one by 10 secs so ran back up to the circle and rejoined with Tangy and the Team Rhys whom got lost on a Aldgate east to Aldgate run.

Departing at Moorgate ran down the corridors so fast or all i can hear was team Rhys in the background god he is so bloody fast got on to a waiting train and shouted back up to the others whom all got on.Using clever tactics got off at Arsenal checked the other side and decided it was better to stay and catch victoria back down.

We were in a differant door position to team Rhys at finsbury park and were surprised that we actually came out in the same corridor as we were far apart?bundling some people out of the way with a pushchair down the steps we all got told off!

Highbury & islington we in the front for Kings park Team Rhys were wiv us but a few doors out of position why they decided to get out there i think cost them a better time me thinks? at kings x we made a nice transition on to northern line with a little wait which gave me another time to figure out how to get across to Willesden Junction way.

Discussing the option wiv Tangy seeing as we were obviously going to be on similar routes we discussed various options like Chalk fram to Swiss cottage Belsize park to Hampstead heath and finally decided on Hampstead to Finchley Rd & Frognal just because its downhill and very easy to remember it as u think of open all hours!

easily making a train we had a little wait and got in the door position for Willesden Junction a quick check we had forgotten a simple trick of taking the corner of a quick look at my map Kensal green at the back of the train was the best idea so we walked to the back and ran down and made a lovely sexy change just right for a bakerloo line train to regents park.

Knowing the times for kensington Olympia in and out of we came up with the doors that would give us most success doubling back regents park to edgware road we ran to the other Edgware road with 3 stations left (joined by myles and Kevin brown and Andrew Chilcraft and peter we all turned up there on 3 differant trains though) looking at timings we knew it be tight for Ken o train out of hsk we were in a resonable door position for a bail at bayswater nhg or hsk passing nhg we decided against carrying on and pegged it down to the central line.

catching a nice db at White city we alighted at Shepherds Bush with roughly a 6 min run probably the most angriest run to kensington Olympia from that side i have ever done i ran into ken o with the train still thinking its got to go it didnt i made i was surprised myself (apparently Kevin was on this train but as i was so knackered i didnt go up to his carriage) pulled in to earls Court and stopped the watch at 2h 48m 13s

[hopeful traveller]

I took four videos on the challenge (and I deleted one of them because there was no sound and it was on the way to Clapham South anyway), and if I can find the cable I'll upload them later!

So Andi's already listed the stations, and, yes, we were shouting the stations to each other! It would have been better for Tangy to give one each to us. We were thinking of getting out at Clapham North, taking the overground to Kensington (Olympia) and doing that first, but we saw Oval on the list and thought we'd better do that one as well as Bermondsey. Kevin and Peter became a rolling road block at London Bridge meaning RJ could get there a long time before me. We went on to Bermondsey, where I think Myles and Andrew bailed out. Andi, Tangy, and us went on to Canada Water and took the overground (and yes, RJ was ecstatic!) We got out at Whitechapel and then the disadvantage of the "sexy change" hit us. We could only travel one stop on this District line train, meaning we did not have enough time to get to the correct door position, leading to us getting lost on the Aldgate East - Aldgate run, although we were greeted by a friendly station member of staff when RJ expressed his displeasure at "3 MINUTES?!"

On to Moorgate, meeting Andi (who looked like he'd just stepped out of a sauna) and Tangy at Liverpool Street. At Moorgate we had to all do a swap to the Northern line.

Three... Two... One... GO!

"Away they go, and RB is in the lead as they go down the stairs! Now Andi is coming up alongside as they go into the right-hander, and Andi is in the lead! Andi first, RB second, and Tangy is up to third position ahead of RJ, and challenging RB as they go down the straight, into the right-hander. Tangy is up to second! RJ now trying down the straight before the escalator to get past RB, and... HE CAN! Andi leads going down the escalator, Tangy is second, RJ is third, and RB is fourth. As they go past the bemused pan, leading into the right-hander, Andi's through, Tangy just brushes against the wall, RJ's through, and RB's through as well. Onto the platform, over the line, and ANDI WINS! Tangy is second, RJ is third, and RB is fourth!"

On to a packed Northern line where we all bailed out at King's Cross (where the race wasn't as exciting) onto the Piccadilly line. We all bailed out at Finsbury (which Andi won, RJ second, RB third, Tangy fourth) even though we all clattered into a crowd, and I had to weasel our way out of it. Politician skills coming in handy.

Team Rhys then bailed out at Highbury & Islington, as we thought we could "cut corners" onto Chalk Farm. However, we had to wait seven minutes at Highbury and Islington, costing us dearly. We got out at Camden Road, ran to Camden Town, had a sexy double-back at Chalk Farm, and we got out and ran at Euston to Euston Square, where we had just missed a train (and I'm still convinced it's my fault!), which enabled me to go into the Virgin Media WiFi and check to see whether the efforts of anyone else would be curtailed. No, they weren't: aside from the engineering works, a good service.

We ran from Great Portland Street to Regent's Park. We went down the stairs and had to wait for six minutes for a train to Kensal Green. We double-backed to Edgware Road (Bak), ran to the other Edgware Road (Cir/Dis/H&C), took the District (with lovely new C Stock floor) to Notting Hill Gate, took the Central to White City, ran to Wood Lane, took the Hammersmith and City line sexily to Hammersmith, ran to the other Hammersmith and just missed a train. We consulted the timetables on the tablet, and we realised that we would have to run like hell to catch the 1544 from Earl's Court to Kensington (Olympia). We missed it.

We consulted what to do next. The options were: wait 20 minutes at Earl's Court; go to West Kensington, run to Kensington (Olympia), come back down; run to Kensington (Olympia) from Earl's Court; go to West Brompton, get the overground to Kensington (Olympia) and depart from Kensington (Olympia) on the District. Not surprisingly, we chose option D.

At Kensington (Olympia) I clattered into a lady (sorry!) but we made the train. We stepped out at Earl's Court to give us the time of 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 15 seconds, which, interestingly, is the same length as the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.

[palkanetoijala31]

after reading hopeless travellers post after white city did u only have ken o to take out? pray what time were u at white city? on the watch

[tractakid]

I just lost my almost complete type-up by hitting the back button. Basically, I did the same route as Kev, except I ran to Moorgate, and went to Earls Court first rather than Olympia, to finish at White City.

Great day, had good fun playing darts in the pub afterwards.

[palkanetoijala31]

I just lost my almost complete type-up by hitting the back button. Basically, I did the same route as Kev, except I ran to Moorgate, and went to Earls Court first rather than Olympia, to finish at White City.

Great day, had good fun playing darts in the pub afterwards.

But unless kevin writes up his route those who were not there havent got a clue what ur talking about apart from finish

[Going Underground]

I guess we are waiting for the full results from Martin so here is my route in the meantime and I feel for Andrew as I have spent 20 mins typing away before only to hit a wrong button

Anyway I didn't open the stations until I got down to the platforms as it was pretty certain we would be going North and so it was...
A quick look seemed that the best thing would be to take out the stations South of the Thames, then head North via Liverpool St / Moorgate and back into London before going up to Kensal Green Back to Town again and finishing in the West at either Ken Oly or White City...

The mad dash at London Bridge was second only to the Westminster Z1 a couple of years back and a quick double back followed by frantic changes at Bank, Liverpool St, Moorgate and Kings X gave the start an hot & sweaty All Lines feel

The change at bank saw we on my own for the first time, before meeting Peter and Andrew again on the EB platform at Kings X
A double back at Arsenal for another Kings X change then up to Chalk Farm (Via change at Camden Town) and back down to Warren St the 3 of us were still together...
Peter ran to Regents Park, whilst I jumped on a route 30 bus with Andrew and we caught Peter up then held at the lights he beat us into the station by a few seconds....

We went up to Kensal Green, back to Edgware and ran to Edgware (Dist/circle) still together where Peter went to the Circle platform, we went to the Wimbelware and Andi, Tangy and Myles were onboard!

Myles still had Kensal Green to do so it appeared to be a 4 horse race as our train left before Peter's

Approaching NHG I guessed I would miss the Ken Oly service by a minute or so and here Andi and Tangy bailed to head out to White City with 17mins to double back to Shepherds Bush and run to Olympia I didn't give them a prayer and thought that if I got to HSK and the Olympia had left I would have 15 mins to run/bus and get it back around again and change at NHG to finish at White City

I made this nice and cozy with 4 mins to spare and never saw Andi board the train and was confident of victory when I stopped my watch at White City.......

How wrong I was and 2nd place was the shock I had chatting to all on the way to the Pub as we walked from St Pauls

Some top quality Darts ensued with some good scoring, great finishing and the 2nd 180 from yours truly being only the 3rd ever hit with Iain getting the other in The Champion a little while back...

All in all a really enjoyable day

[tangy]

The official results from round four of the 2012/3 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 09th February from Clapham South.

There was 8 challengers in 7 teams, so in reverse order:

7th: Myles Swaine-Gray (aborted after station 13- Ken. Olympia)
6th: Rhys Jackson and Rhys Benjamin 03:28:15 (Earl's Court)
5th: Andrew Chilcraft 03:12:20 (White City)
4th: Peter Smyth 03:09:43 (White City)
3rd: Tangy 03:09:21 (Earl's Court)
2nd: Kevin Brown 03:06:54 (White City)
1st: Andi James 02:48:13 (Earl's Court)

Those teams with Earl's Court times is because they departed from Ken. Olympia so had to keep the watch going until arrival at Earl's Court.

Thanks to those who took part and I agree with Kevin, our darting abilities have improved since we started playing darts after challenge attempts.

Tangy
Sub-BERC (signing off- for a couple of months...

[palkanetoijala31]

are u sure u got my points score right i think 40 points if u dont take the fact that 4 points is the worst score!

[Garion]

I know this post will have little connection but I just wanted to say this.

I would attend the R15 challenges if I wasn't working. Since I work weekends and those shifts are the hardest to cover (in my shop anyway as most of the staff are..well you get the idea), I'm more often stuck working. Just wanted to say that I havent forgotten about you all and I'm not ignoring the R15 days.

It's just a case of "I would if I could"

Sounds like everyone had a fun day though!