Random 15 2013/14: Round 5

[greatkingrat]

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat

Hope I don't hit the wall after 20 stations!

[palkanetoijala31]

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat

Hope I don't hit the wall after 20 stations!

WELL if you do then its your fault for suggested the twist in the first place

[The Raven]

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat
The Raven

[Rhys1995]

TheManOnTheTube if I can get next Saturday off, I know.

[Going Underground]

There will be some pre-R15 parkruns and may be at different venues here are the plans at present

Wormwood Scrubs (they will probably throw away the key )
GU
Nozzacook

[A2]

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat
The Raven
A2*

I will come along, but probably will have to be on the 17:23 out of Kings Cross at the end so won't be able to get to the pub after.
(unless all the plans change again)

[DrainBrain]

Attending

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat
The Raven
A2*
DrainBrain

[hopeful traveller]

Attending

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat
The Raven
A2*
DrainBrain
hopeful traveller

[DrainBrain]

Attending

GU
Nozzacook
tractakid
greatkingrat
The Raven
A2*
DrainBrain +1
hopeful traveller

+1 is my brother. We'll be competing as a team.

[hopeful traveller]

Right then, seeing as all the info is buried a few pages ago, I shall nab Tangy's job and repost it here:

26 TO VISIT! Fixed start and end!

Start station: Greenwich (for 12:30 start). Meet in the NR booking hall.
Finish station: Green Park.
Network/s used: LU and DLR, Zones 1-2
Time limit: 6 hours

NOTE: As this is a fixed finish you can only finish at Green Park by arriving on a LU train. You cannot end your challenge at Green Park by running into Green Park and carrying on to the next station, as you would under normal rules.

Post Challenge: The Champion (Wells Street).

Closures:

Northern Line between Archway and MHE/High Barnet.

[hopeful traveller]

The 26 were all drawn out by Tangy this time. He drew a bogus set to be honest. Starting at Greenwich, the obvious choices were Lewisham, Tower Gateway, Bromley-by-Bow, South Quay and Devons Road. So I did all of them, doubling back to Lewisham then onto a Stratford-bound DLR.

Ran between Bow Church and Bow Road, depositing about 5 tube maps in front of DrainBrain - although I didn't realise! Got on a D Stock to West Ham, down the Jubilee to Canning Town - where I encountered the first football fans of the day (Crystal Palace) - and onto the Westbound DLR, with a shouty woman all the way to Tower Gateway. Ran down to Tower Hill where there was a packed train in platform two but the indicator said platform one would be first (encountered a Fulham fan at this point). Combine Harvester Lad and I were awfully confused (well, Combine Harvester Lad was, I was talking to the Fulham fan about Rene Meulensteen). It was all sorted out and Tractor Boy and I were on our way.

At Cannon Street, I had the intention of running to St. Paul's but ended up, via the Thames, hitting Bank, and then did the double back to St. Paul's, missing a train by an inch. Back to Bank and then London Bridge, then Jubilee to Waterloo - couldn't escape if I wanted to - and encountered more football fans (Wigan Athletic and Arsenal). On to the Southbound Bakerloo, hitting - yes, you guessed it - Andrew Chilcraft AGAIN. Elephant & Castle change and then onto the Southbound Northern. I had an eye at Stockwell to see if a Victoria Line train would arrive. It didn't so I stayed on the Northern Line. (In hindsight, it would have been better if I had done the Brixton double back here). Down to Clapham South, back up to Stockwell, Brixton double back (slow!) then back on the Northern Line where I could FINALLY say goodbye to Tractakid!

Elephant & Castle and the gamble failed to pay off, for I had to wait NINE MINUTES for the Thameslink. NINE. Then I got to Farringdon (sexy change) where I encountered MORE Arsenal fans and then got the Northern Line to Tufnell Park. SIX MINUTES for the number 4 bus to Finsbury Park, then up to Manor House. Down to Finsbury Park - swap to Victoria - then on to the subsurface - encountering MORE Arsenal fans. Baker Street and on to the Northbound Bakerloo... and FIVE minutes at Willesden Junction.

Now, COUPLES ON THE TUBE - PLEASE GET A ROOM. PLEASE. Witnessed no less than 18 kisses, including five from gay couples - and some VERY inappropriate behaviour on the Overground to Shepherd's Bush between one gay couple. GET A ROOM.

Double back to East Acton where I met DrainBrain +1, and then down to Hammersmith. Off comes the jumper and the attempt to blend in with the fans leaving Craven Cottage. Unfortunately, I began mouthing off at the Piccadilly Line which had waited with no explanation at a green signal for about 3 minutes. Switched to the District, which payed off - Piccadilly at Barons Court in the same situation. On to Earl's Court - sexy change (with a Norwich fan!) on to an Edgware Road train. Bayswater - didn't do the run to Queensway as there was a train pulling in on the other platform. Got that back, then a quick hop on the Central Line and down to the regulated Green Park finish.

[tangy]

Here follows the results of round 5 of the 2013/4 Random 15 Chamionship.

This was a "twist" round and since this was the weekend of the London Marathon, this was the Random 15 marathon. Therefore there was 26 stations to visit from zones 1 and 2 with the DLR network included too and a fixed finish station of Green Park.

The stations were as follows (live draw before the start made by myself from my bucket):

--Greenwich [start]
--St. Paul's
--Cannon Street
--Bond Street
--Lewisham (DLR)
--Kensal Green
--Clapham South
--Devons Road
--East Acton
--Elephant & Castle
--Monument
--Brixton (LU)
--South Quay
--Marble Arch
--London Bridge (LU)
--Bromley-by-Bow
--Manor House
--Baker Street
--Tower Gateway
--Hammersmith (Dist/Picc)
--Warwick Avenue
--Willesden Junction (Low Level)
--Southwark
--Tufnell Park
--Bayswater
--Green Park [Finish]

There was 11 challengers in 8 teams (all teams finished at Green Park, obviously):

8th: Nick & Simon Gardner: 05:45:35
7th: Rhys Benjamin: 05:22:51
6th: Andi James: 05:22:39 (Andrew Baker was with Andi but didn't complete all 26)
5th: Andrew Chilcraft: 05:04:25
4th: Kevin Brown and Damian Cook: 04:57:46
3rd: Glen Bryant: 04:47:02
2nd: Peter Smyth: 04:44:12
1st: Tangy 04:39:41

The league table now looks like this:

1st: Peter Smyth: 52 points
2nd: Kevin Brown: 44 points
3rd: Damian Cook: 34 points
4th: Tangy: 32 points
5th: Nick Gardner: 30 points
6th: Andrew Chilcraft: 29 points
7th: Andrew Baker: 27 points
7th=: Glen Bryant: 27 points
9th: Rhys Benjamin: 23 points
10th: The Orange One: 18 points
11th: Andi James: 17 points
12th: Rhys Jackson: 15 points
13th: Tom Cooling: 6 points
14th: Ashley Moore: 4 points
15th: Simon Gardner: 3 points

Remember the prize fund which you have been contributing too will cover prizes for the top three challengers. So with one round to go, who will be in 3rd place?

Thanks everyone for attending and round six (the final round of the season) will be held on Saturday 31st May 2014. Normal "no twists" event.

Tangy
The BERC.

[TC95]

Thanks everyone for attending and round six (the final round of the season) will be held on Saturday 1st June 2014. Normal "no twists" event.

Tangy
The BERC.

Do you mean Saturday 31st May 2014 or Sunday 1st June 2014??

[tangy]

Thanks everyone for attending and round six (the final round of the season) will be held on Saturday 1st June 2014. Normal "no twists" event.

Tangy
The BERC.

Do you mean Saturday 31st May 2014 or Sunday 1st June 2014??

The day after zone 1 day, so 31st May!

[DrainBrain]

So I dragged my brother along with me and here's where we went:

Greenwich Lewisham Canary Wharf Bow Road Bow Church (foot) West Ham Stratford Highbury & Islington Finsbury Park Manor House Haringay Green Lanes (foot) Upper Holloway Archway (foot) Bank St. Paul's Mansion House (foot) Tower Hill Tower Gateway (foot) Shadwell Bank London Bridge Waterloo Elephant & Castle Clapham South Brixton Victoria Hammersmith (Picc/Dist) Hammersmith (H&C/Circ) (foot) Wood Lane White City (foot) East Acton Shepherd's Bush Willesden Junction Paddington Bayswater Queensway (foot) Bond Street Baker Street Green Park

This plan actually went pretty well, with lots of good changes, it's just that it wasn't a very good plan.

However, along the way, we hit one major, major snag. Heading back into Zone 1 from Archway I realised that I had only marked 25 stations on my map, and I had no idea which one I'd missed. A quick text to tractakid confirmed there were 26 but it would have been too much of a faff to play text tennis to work out which one was missing.

We decided to carry on. If we were really lucky we'd pass through the 26th anyway, if we were slightly lucky we'd find out the missing station at the end and do it and Green Park again if it wasn't too far away. Otherwise, meh!

And then the luck happened. While we were waiting at East Acton, Rhys appeared! I've never been so happy to see him. The offending station was identified as Marble Arch (hooray, it could have been miles away) and we duly completed the challenge.

The fun wasn't quite over. We went to get a Victoria line train to Oxford Circus just as signalling problems struck. It probably took us 20 minutes to do that one stop. By the time we'd also stopped for food we were very late to the pub.

Including pre- and post-challenge we travelled on 37 different trains, beating my previous best of 35, and definitely a record for my brother.