Random 15 Championship 2017/18: Round 5

[michael_churchill]

You may have spoken too soon - it looks like the RMT still plan to strike on the DLR that weekend. No doubt, using the disruption to the Marathon as their bargaining chip.

Bugger that may screw up our parkrun plans, please let me know if you hear anything definite...

The latest...
https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/dlr-strike
Effectively a four day strike, Friday to Monday (actually starting and ending at 4am)

Where possible limited services will be prioritised to enable participants in the London Marathon to travel to ExCeL to register ahead of the event and for runners and their supporters to reach the race line in Greenwich and on the Isle of Dogs on Sunday.

So you may still be able to get to the parkrun!

It wouldn't surprise me if that means they will concentrate on running the Poplar-Greenwich and Poplar-Custom House sections.

[tangy]

The DLR strike has been cancelled.

[xcooler123]

My plans have changed again so I'm hoping to see you at Victoria Docks for the Parkrun tomorrow

[dstock17]

See you there

[A2]

I may well come down and meet you all for breakfast at 'Spoons.
(Then again, it is equally possible that I will stay in bed)

Definitely will be at Hampstead though for the R15.

[RJSRdg]

Well, that was a good afternoon

Started at Hampstead and went down in the lift and on to a southbound train like everybody else (except Andy who's probably still waiting outside the station for Hugo to turn up!). I love starts like this where everyone heads off the same way as it means those who don't know the network so well can find their stations whilst on the first train. Down through CHALK FARM to Camden Town (where I got confused and probably went a train down to everybody else!), change to the Charing Cross branch for MORNINGTON CRESCENT (shame nobody finished there!), down to Euston then up the Vic to Finsbury Park and back down on the Picc via ARSENAL and CALEDONIAN ROAD (where Kev, A2 and Nozza joined me in the carriage, having done a 'shuffle up' for best door position). At King's Cross all four of us headed for the Northern Line for OLD STREET. They got off at Moorgate, I carried on down to Bank and changed to the Circle at Monument (where I saw Peter Smyth). Anticlockwise Circle via TOWER HILL, ALDGATE and FARRINGDON, back to KX, where this time I changed to a Vic to VICTORIA via WARREN STREET. Had to wait three minutes for the train back to come in, and then longer in the station in order to "regulate the service"! Back to Oxford Circus, then Bakerloo to Baker Street (via REGENT'S PARK), where I got lost again and wound up somehow going through the barriers twice on the way to the Circle Line platform, where I met David Edwards. (Always a good sign to meet him near the end of a challenge!). Over to PADDINGTON H&C but only after a lengthy hold outside Edgware Road. Although I was off the train ahead of David, my ankle started protesting on the stairs and I could just watch him disappear into the distance as he ran through the taxi rank. Yet remarkably, when I got to the Bakerloo platforms, there he was! Onto a northbound Bakerloo, where I received the shock news that David still had three stations to visit, whilst I only had two. So I travelled with him through WARWICK AVENUE and disembarked at KILBURN PARK, leaving him to travel on up to WILLESDEN JUNCTION (which I had forgotten to mark on my map!). Final time 1:55:15 (within the fastest time for this particular twist).

From Kilburn Park, down the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and along one stop on the Central to TCR, arriving at the Bricklayer's at 2:55pm to the astonishment of the landlady! "What are you doing here so early? The booking wasn't until 4pm!"

[dstock17]

Well that was a bit of a disaster for Hugo team seperate by the first station note to Hugo get there on time in future. I helped his teammate down the first few then buggered off to do station signs on the overground new challenge all bus stops in zones 1 to 9.

[alexmcmotor]

A good day for Simon, Kat & I, teaming up with Hugo to give us our best finish of this season so far.

We knew Mornington Crescent was a no brainer, and due to Kat's incapacitation and Saturday footfall, we knew that making the 30s connection at Camden Town was unlikely, so we waited on the platform at Hampstead 3 minutes for the next Charing Cross train. With Hugo finding us, we went through Chalk Farm and Mornington Crescent down to Warren Street, changing for the Northbound Victoria Line to take us up to Finsbury Park. We then changed to the Picc to return to King's Cross via Arsenal and Caledonian Road. After a lot of debating between myself, Simon & Hugo, despite initially being on different teams, we decided to stick together, and went for the Circle Line at King's Cross; where we were met with an approaching H&C, which we road down through Farringdon to Moorgate, knowing that we had approximately 13 minutes to get to Old Street and back to make the next Circle Line train. Easy right?

...Well we had to wait 4 minutes for a Northbound Northern line, and Kat's ankle meant our interchanges were slow, but we made the Circle Line with maybe 90s to spare. Riding Clockwise round to Monument through Aldgate and Tower Hill, we were deciding what stations to go to between Monument (where we ran into Tangy) and Regent's Park to then finish in the Northwest, not having to worry about a Paddington-Paddington change which would have been terrible due to our slow running speed. Our options were to either go to Lambeth North via Elephant & Castle and just ride the Bakerloo Line all the way to Willesden Junction, or go all the way down to Brixton, up through Victoria to Oxford Circus and then finish at Kilburn Park. We went for the path of least resistance, taking the Northern Line down to Elephant & Castle, and riding the Bakerloo Line aaaall the way through Lambeth North, Regent's Park,Warwick Avenue and Kilburn Park where were sadly kicked off at Queen's Park, where we found Other Hugo & Felix in the same situation, albeit having taken a completely different route. An agonising 11 minute wait later, we crawled to Willesden Junction in a time of 02:03:08, where we found David on the same train, so there were a merry 7 of us on the way back to the Pub.

Stations not visited: Goldhawk Road, Victoria, Brixton, Marble Arch & Paddington

Kat recorded her first ever R15 finishing in 4th place. Not bad in an ankle boot!

[tufnellpark]

I give up. I'm an idiot. Round 4 saw me make a basic error of catching the Northern line train in the wrong direction at London Bridge which put me down from a podium finish to 6th. This time I repeated the same mistake at Finsbury Park. I went in the right direction but on the wrong line; Victoria when I wanted Piccadilly. Later in the day I waited 10mins at Elephant & Castle (one of five tube stations named after pubs, can you name the other four?) attempting to catch a northbound Bakerloo line train via Lambeth North, which ended up going nowhere due to points failure just outside the station. Passengers were advised to seek alternative routes, so I decided to return to the Northern line where I had just come from and continued south to Brixton and then north to Victoria. Like many I sat on the Bakerloo line from Oxford Circus to finish at Willesden Junction. Those two delays at Finsbury Park and Elephant & Castle cost me 25 mins, enough to drop a few places in a competitive R15 race. Obviously my concentration levels need to improve and quickly.

[tractakid]

I give up. I'm an idiot. Round 4 saw me make a basic error of catching the Northern line train in the wrong direction at London Bridge which put me down from a podium finish to 6th. This time I repeated the same mistake at Finsbury Park. I went in the right direction but on the wrong line; Victoria when I wanted Piccadilly. Later in the day I waited 10mins at Elephant & Castle (one of five tube stations named after pubs, can you name the other four?) attempting to catch a northbound Bakerloo line train via Lambeth North, which ended up going nowhere due to points failure just outside the station. Passengers were advised to seek alternative routes, so I decided to return to the Northern line where I had just come from and continued south to Brixton and then north to Victoria. Like many I sat on the Bakerloo line from Oxford Circus to finish at Willesden Junction. Those two delays at Finsbury Park and Elephant & Castle cost me 25 mins, enough to drop a few places in a competitive R15 race. Obviously my concentration levels need to improve and quickly.

Sounds pretty successful. The only train I caught yesterday caught on fire!

[Going Underground]

Thank you all so much for coming out especially for my Birthday and letting me come joint first as well

Team Kev, Nozza, A2 very nearly made a schoolboy error almost jumping on Southbound Viccie line at Warren Street luckily realising just in time and heading North as planned...
As A2 said at the pub it all seemed a bit too easy and went very smoothly not having to leave the network and connections being very kind...

A very enjoyable parkrun with several friends at Victoria Dock, a lovely card from Tangy & Neil and the perfect day almost completed just missing a 180 and 111 finish at darts

[michael_churchill]

Elephant & Castle (one of five tube stations named after pubs, can you name the other four?)

I can. Inside joke!

I found myself on the same returning train as Clive and realised that we had finished on the same train. Comparing notes, whereas Clive was quite disappointed, I thought my route had gone quite well!

It seems that my mistake was fairly quickly eliminating the Piccadilly line stations of Caledonian Road and Arsenal.

I went Hampstead (via Chalk Farm) to Camden Town, change to CX branch, through Mornington Crescent to Warren Street, where I alighted and walked to Euston Square. Through Farringdon to Moorgate. Up and back on the Northern for Old Street. Wait for a Circle, through Aldgate and Tower Hill to Victoria. Back to Embankment and down to Lambeth North. Luckily I avoided the points failure - for a while southbound Bakerloos were terminating at Lambeth North. Somewhat confusingly, a train arrived from the north on the northbound platform and turned around. From Oxford Circus a there-and-back on the Central to Marble Arch, finally the same Bakerloo run through Regent's Park, Warwick Avenue and Kilburn Park to Willesden Junction.

[michael_churchill]

My apologies for leaving abruptly on Saturday. I got a message from my family who were up from Devon because my niece was running the marathon, and went to meet them.

She finished in 4:03:22 by the way and raised over £1000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. I was one very proud uncle!

[tangy]

The results of round 5 of the 2017/18 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 21st April 2018.

This was a twist round, 20 LU stations in zones 1 and 2 randomly generated but challengers only needed to visit 15 of them. Which 15 of the 20 to visit was entirely the choice of each individual challenger or team. The 20 stations were:

--Hampstead (meet up)
--Mornington Crescent
--Willesden Junction (low level)
--Chalk Farm
--Caledonian Road
--Warwick Avenue
--Tower Hill
--Goldhawk Road
--Aldgate
--Brixton (LU)
--Arsenal
--Warren Street
--Lambeth North
--Paddington (H&C)
--Marble Arch
--Kilburn Park
--Farringdon
--Regent's Park
--Victoria (LU)
--Old Street

As an aside, all challengers between them did visit all 20 stations listed.

There were 20 challengers in 13 teams:

13th: Richard Graham: 02:38:09 at Old Street
12th: Sam Inman: 02:25:28 at Brixton
11th: Mark B and Phil Parker: 02:24:49 at Victoria
10th: Joshan: 02:21:44 at Caledonian Road
=8th: Clive Burgess: 02:15:45 at Willesden Junction
=8th: Michael Churchill: 02:15:45 at Willesden Junction
7th: Tangy: 02:11:15 at Warwick Avenue
=4th: Hugo Clague and Felix Andrew: 02:03:08 at Willesden Junction
=4th: David Edwards: 02:03:08 at Willesden Junction
=4th: The Orange One, Simon & Alex Kneller and Kat: 02:03:08 at Willesden Junction
3rd: Richard Standing: 01:55:15 at Kilburn Park
=1st: Peter Smyth: 01:46:08 at Willesden Junction
=1st: Kevin Brown, Damian Cook and Andrew Baker: 01:46:08 at Willesden Junction

So with one round remaining, the league table looks like this:

1st: David Edwards (47 overall points) [5 rounds attended]
2nd: Peter Smyth (37) [4]
3rd: The Orange One (34) [5]
=4th: Clive Burgess (32) [5]
=4th: Andrew Chilcraft (32) [4]
6th: Kevin Brown (25) [5]
7th: Andrew Baker (22) [4]
=8th: Alex Kneller (21) [5]
=8th: Simon Kneller (21) [5]
=8th: Richard Standing (21) [5]
11th: Tangy (20) [5]
12th: Nick Gardner (16) [4]
13th: Damian Cook (15) [2]
14th: Josh Nichols-Ageros (8) [1]
=15th: Hugo Clague (7) [2]
=15th: Felix Andrew (7) [2]
=15th: Kat (7) [1]
18th: James Ross (6) [4]
19th: Alisha Juszczyk (5) [1]
=20th: Rob Lomas (4) [3]
=20th: Rhys Benjamin (4) [2]
=22nd: Michael Churchill (3) [4]
=22nd: Myles Swaine-Grey (3) [1]
=22nd: Glen Bryant (3) [1]
=22nd: Matthew Cook (3) [1]
26th: Richard Graham (1) [3]
27th: Joshan (1) [1]
=28th: Rhys Jackson (0) [1]
=28th: Mark B (0) [1]
=28th: Phil Parker (0) [1]
=28th: Sam Inman (0) [1]

The final round of the 2017/18 season will be held on Saturday 2nd June 2018. Who will be crowned champion?

Thanks
Tangy (The BERC)

[Going Underground]

My apologies for leaving abruptly on Saturday. I got a message from my family who were up from Devon because my niece was running the marathon, and went to meet them.

She finished in 4:03:22 by the way and raised over £1000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. I was one very proud uncle!

I should say so, no need for apologies that is a fantastic achievement by your niece