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Elsie wrote:Thanks Richard!

That's what I was worried about; you have really got to know your stuff to be able to move so quickly, especially the overground links. I think I'll have to build myself a random 15 generator and start practicing routes in my head before contemplating doing one of these!

No need to - there's an online one here: http://www.challengegenerator.co.uk/

Richard, great to know that your wallet has been found.

Earl's Court South Ken Covent Garden Leicester Square Oval (via Kennington) Clapham North Clapham High St Wandsworth Road (on foot) Whitechapel Stepney Green Whitechapel Bethnal Green LO (on foot) Hackney Downs/Central Camden Road Camden Town (on foot) Archway Kentish Town West Hampstead TL/LO Brondesbury Park West Hampstead LO/LU Kilburn Swiss Cottage 03:21:15

"Were you a Northbounder or a Southbounder?" Neither, we were an Eastbounder.

A route plagued with bad luck, it seemed. We impulsively jumped on an Eastbound District, not realising that we could have got straight onto the Piccadilly, which probably cost us a train or 2, as our District really crawled its way along. I wouldn't even have noticed the mistake if my novice friend Cat hadn't pointed it out. Stick it to the establishment! We met RJS after changing to the Northern at Leicester Square, and at Kennington we spotted but couldn't confirm if it was the other Richard. At Clapham High St, we had a 16 minute wait for the next Westbound LO, so we and Richard decided to foot it instead, this was when other Richard appeared asking where the hell we were going, to which I shouted "Wandsworth Road! Next train's in 15 minutes!" He didn't follow us, but annoyingly upon getting to Wandsworth Road, it transpired that we just missed one coming this way too, so were still waiting another 15 minutes, allowing other Richard to catch up with us without having to do the run. After some fun in the rain watching the trains in and out of Victoria, we rode the Overground all the way round to Whitechapel, giving the 4 of us ample time for conversation. Too much time, as our train was held significantly into Surrey Quays. We and Richard parted ways with other Richard by reversing at Stepney Green, and nearly got lost on the way to Bethnal Green. We also lost Richard at Bethnal Green as he found he'd lost his wallet. We would have given up to help had the ever-chivalrous Andrew not stepped up first, and we helped each other bury our guilt on the way to Hackney Downs. Annoyingly we were still trying to get down the busy stairs onto the platform at Hackney Central as a train left. As A2 said in the pub later, now we know the right way to do that change in future! Fast forwarding, after having fun down the spiral stairs and Camden Town, I suddenly realised instead of coming back here we could just get the Thameslink from Kentish Town. We did so, and waited around 6 minutes for that (having fun listening to some disenfranchised youths talking about how they were going to jump the barriers at Radlett). Should have only been 4 minutes, but when was the last time a Thameslink ran on time? We waited just 1 minute for the Overground to Brondesbury Park, and after a perfect change and foolishly not remembering the proximity of Brondesbury and Kilburn, still had another perfect change at West Hampstead LU, then a 1 minute wait at Kilburn before finishing and staying on the train out of Swiss Cottage, a swift change at Bond Street to the pub.

We started off riddled with bad luck on the timings, but things picked up the pace at the end with numerous good connections. We were very pleased with our 6th place finish, and Cat was humbled by the congratulations I passed on from all of you. Not sure she's a full-time challenger yet, but I think we might see her again.

See you all at the next one!

I am glad your wallet is being returned Richard; in this FUBAR world an act like this restores some balance!

Only snag is that he sent it recorded delivery and as there was nobody in to sign for it, I now have to go right to the other side of town to collect it from my 'local' delivery centre!

RJSRdg wrote:Only snag is that he sent it recorded delivery and as there was nobody in to sign for it, I now have to go right to the other side of town to collect it from my 'local' delivery centre!

Presumably needing the ID inside the wallet in order to claim it? ; )

tractakid wrote:and then sometimes you'll still be rubbish, like Kevin staying on a Bank branch train when he wanted to head to Embankment

Not the first time I have done this and no doubt won't be the last

I've caught a train going the wrong direction several times...

I've started walking/running in the wrong direction several times...

I think this was the first time I've caught a bus going the wrong direction.

I've done that - when I shouldn't have even caught a bus at all! The first time I attempted the Edgware Road Run (Bak-Subsurface), I ran past the Subsurface station without realising it, and, not seeing it up the road ahead of me, thought it was further on and hopped on a bus! It wasn't until I was approaching Marble Arch that I realised my mistake, then had to wait several minutes for a return service and wound up missing an eastbound Subsurface by seconds!


Just to close off the wallet saga - I picked it up from my 'local' delivery office at lunchtime. All contents intact, save £10 removed by the guy who found it to cover the cost of sending it Special Delivery.

The results of Round 3 of the 2016/17 Random 15 Championship held on January 14th 2017.

This was the National Rail twist round, therefore and LU, LO or NR station in zones 1 and 2 could have been potentially one of the 15 to be visited. In the event, the generator gave us in effect a LU and LO round, as only one non LO station was generated (Peckham Rye) though even this is served by Overground trains!

The full list of stations was as follows:
--Earl's Court (meet up)
--Stepney Green
--Hackney Central
--Kilburn
--Charing X (LU)
--London Fields
--Peckham Rye
--Upper Holloway Archway
--Covent Garden
--Wandsworth Road
--Cambridge Heath
--Embankment
--Swiss Cottage
--Oval
--Brondesbury Park

When my nominated person was generating the stations, I somehow failed to tell them to exclude Upper Holloway and by pure chance it appeared in the 15 stations for this round. Obviously, it was only at the meet up that this was found out, so it was decided to elect Archway as a substitute (being the nearest open station to Upper Holloway).

There was 17 challengers competing who split into 14 teams, so in reverse order:

14th: Michael Churchill: 04:13:57 at Swiss Cottage
=12th: Andrew Chilcraft: 04:06:42 at Brondesbury Park
=12th: Richard Standing: 04:06:42 at Brondesbury Park
11th: Nick Gardner: 03:56:04 at Peckham Rye
10th: Richard Graham: 03:44:29 at Brondesbury Park
9th: Tangy and Neil Ansell: 03:41:35 at Peckham Rye
8th: Kevin Brown: 03:34:32 at London Fields
7th: David Edwards: 03:26:37 at Oval
6th: Alex Kneller and Cat: 03:21:15 at Swiss Cottage
5th: James Ross: 03:21:00 at Oval
4th: Clive Burgess: 03:17:00 at Brondesbury Park
3rd: Andrew Baker and Phil Parker: 03:05:55 at Archway
2nd: Peter Smyth: 02:56:21 at Brondesbury Park
1st: The Orange One: 02:40:59 at Peckham Rye

The leaderboard now looks like this:

1st: The Orange One (31 overall points) [3 rounds attended]
2nd: Peter Smyth (28) [3]
3rd: David Edwards (23) [3]
4th: Andrew Baker (21) [3]
5th: Clive Burgess (17) [2]
=6th: Nick Gardner (13) [3]
=6th: Kevin Brown (13) [3]
=6th: James Ross (13) [3]
=9th: Andrew Chilcraft (10) [3]
=9th: Tangy (10) [3]
11th: Phil Parker (8) [1]
12th: Josh Nichols-Ageros (7) [1]
13th: Neil Ansell (6) [2]
=14th: Alex Kneller (5) [1]
=14th: Chris (5) [1]
16th: Sam Inman (3) [1]
=17th: Michael Churchill (2) [2]
=17th: Damian Cook (2) [1]
=17th: Richard Graham (2) [2]
20th: Richard Standing (0) [1]

Thankyou all for attending. The next round is scheduled to be on Saturday 25th March. Watch out for posts nearer the time.

Tangy
The BERC.

tangy wrote:The next round is scheduled to be on Saturday 25th March. Watch out for posts nearer the time.

Permission to attend from She Who Must Be Obeyed - Granted
20% off Virgin Train (First Class) tickets - Booked.

I'll be absolutely stone cold last, but I'm looking forward to the experience!