Random 15 Championship 2023/24: Round 4

[RJSRdg]

Rather than go via Baker Street, I headed to Warwick Avenue by exiting at St John's Wood and running to Maida Vale (using a famous road crossing in the process).

That's a run I discovered some time ago and have never had opportunity to use!

That road crossing has a railway connection as one of the people who famously crossed it went on to be the narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine!

[Lunaticonthegrass]

That road crossing has a railway connection as one of the people who famously crossed it went on to be the narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine!

Ah yes! I had a Thomas the Tank omnibus on VHS when I was much, much younger. Maybe that's where my love of trains started.

[hopeful traveller]

That road crossing has a railway connection as one of the people who famously crossed it went on to be the narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine!

Ah yes! I had a Thomas the Tank omnibus on VHS when I was much, much younger. Maybe that's where my love of trains started.

"Now Luniticonthegrass reached their full speed. James tried hard but Luniticonthegrass was too fast. Whistling triumphantly, they plunged into the tunnel, leaving James toiling far behind."

[Capelblue]

This was the first time we had done an R15 with the stations drawn out at the start, it was an interesting dynamic as it allowed a little planning and mapping as the stations were drawn, however the fact that the final station drawn was St Pauls entirely changed it for us !

We headed down to a crowded Central line platform and couldn't get onto the train in the platform, but luckily there was another one two minutes behind, so we quickly chalked off St Paul's, peforming our first double back of the day and heading back through Bank to Liverpool Street where we changed to the the sub-surface to go down to Aldgate where we performed a second double back. At this point we were still debating our route, even considering going straight through to Finchley Road, possibly doubling back at Barbican before settling on going through to Kings Cross St Pancras. We were also going the same way as Milo and Yifan, and they tried to dummy us as we went through Barbican, amusingly coming back onto the train as we walked through it to get our position right at Kings Cross where we changed to the Northern line (although we were hampered by a broken down escalator and they got away from us which was the last we saw of anyone until pretty much the end). We headed down through Angel and carried on to Elephant & Castle where we changed onto the Bakerloo line and went through Lambeth North, carrying on all the way to Warwick Avenue to reach station 8 in only one hour and 19 minutes.

Here we headed out of the station and ran/walked to Royal Oak where luckily the roads were quiet, but we still had a three minute wait for the circle line train back to Baker Street where we had a 7 minute wait for the Metropolitan line up to Finchley Road where we did another double back onto a waiting Met line train. This took us down to Euston Square where we ran to Warren Street and picked up a High Barnet train to go through Mornington Crescent and on up to Archway where we did yet another double back onto a Bank branch train to Kings Cross where we had a much smoother change onto the Piccadilly line than our change earlier.

This though was where our luck ran out, the Piccadilly line train which took us through Russell Square and Green Park to Earl's Court took us 24 minutes as opposed to the 16 minutes that the TFL website says it should take, this was to prove critical as when we emerged onto the district line platforms a Wimbledon train was just easing out of the platform (and as we later discovered was carrying Tangy and Andrew C to their win). The next train was 7 minutes away and allowed Andrew B, James W and James R to join us on the platform and we all got on the train and headed down to Fulham Broadway to complete in a 4 way tie in 2:52:54.

There was some surprise expressed when we read our route out in the pub due to fact that we had three pretty long runs on trains without getting off and that it was inefficient, so I thought I would do some analysis. Our route took in 61 stations and 12 changes, I believe from my notes in the pub that I took that this was the same number of stations as Tangy, one less than Andrew, with Tangy making three more changes and Andrew two more. I must admit I was surprised by this as I was expecting it to show us doing less changes but visiting more stations.

Many thanks to Tangy for organising another good day, looking forward to the next one !

[tractakid]

My route was as follows:

Bank to Holborn
Holborn to KIng's Cross
King's Cross to Aldgate
Aldgate to Moorgate
Moorgate to Archway
Archway to Waterloo
Waterloo to E&C
E&C to Waterloo
Waterloo to Finchley Road
Finchley Road to Baker Street (Jubilee)
Baker Street to Warwick Avenue
(run)
Royal Oak to Baker Street
Baker Street to Green Park
Green Park to Earl's Court
Earl's Court to Fulham Broadway

Fascinating round.

Pretty smooth start. Saw Miklcct very briefly but only as he was left on the platform when I departed Holborn. First disappointment was a 5 minute wait to turn around at Aldgate, but it seems this was pretty standard.
Great fortune with Northern Line branches, no need to switch at Camden Town. Yes, my train to Archway was heading to Mill Hill East.
Exceptional turnaround at E&C with Milo and Yifan- but only realised this after seeing them while changing door position at Lambeth North. Left them on the train at Waterloo. Great change at Waterloo, jumped through closing doors again. Good turnaround at Finchley Road and decent change at Baker Street again. Bust a gut to Royal Oak from Warwick Avenue to see a Hammersmith train departing (pretty sure Tangy was on this based on pub chat speculation), and 8 minutes shown for the next one. I decide it would be better, in this instance, to change my route. I just had Royal Oak and Fulham Broadway left, so it didn't matter beyond time taken which route I took between them. I deduced as via Hammersmith was hardly an optimal route, only considered because the Wimbleware is out, that it would not be more than 8 minutes slower to head back to Baker Street, Green Park and Earl's Court. I was pretty happy with my choice until I got to the Piccadilly platform at Green Park, where a train had just departed, but the platform was still rammed and 5 minutes listed for the next train. Of course, the next train was rammed too, and took its sweet time getting to Earl's Court. Though, as I was searching for a seat aboard the Wimbledon train that was in the platform, I spotted Tangy who was looking the other way. I sat down deliberately noisily opposite him, causing him to look up and curse when he saw who it was!

I always consider, while completing an R15, how close my spontaneously devised route would compare to an optimum route had I been able to plan in advance. I'm not sure I figured out what an optimal route for these stations would be, there were a lot of options. I'd certainly never thought about a St John's Wood/Maida Vale run before, yet this was taken by a couple of other challengers this round. Still more to learn after challenging for ~12 years!

[JamesWright]

This was my first live bucket draw and I failed to make good use of the time to prepare a route before the start. It was actually probably for the better that I didn't because the final station to be read out (St Paul's) was so close to the origin station that any prepared starting strategy would have been discarded anyway. On the escalators down to Bank station I decided my first move would be westbound Central line to St Paul's.

I got to the top of the new escalators to find a packed train in the westbound platform, and the entrance to the platform completely blocked by people. I ran down the eastbound platform to the next adit to get back to the westbound platform but by then the first train had gone. I then planned my route on the second train westbound to Holborn, where I failed to keep up with Andrew C in the transfer to the Piccadilly line. I saw Michael on the platform and we both got on the next train via Russell Square to King's Cross St Pancras.

Intending to transfer to the Northern line, I lost my bearings and accidentally took the escalator up to the ticket hall and had to take a magical mystery tour via the escalator down to the Victoria line. By the time I got back to the Northern line platform, I had lost track of Michael and almost certainly missed a train. I travelled one stop to Angel and then doubled-back to Archway changing at Camden Town. At Archway I just missed a double-back then faced a 5-minute wait for a Bank branch train and a 6-minute wait for a Charing Cross branch train. I took the Bank branch train back to Camden Town then the CX branch train behind it via Mornington Crescent to Euston.

I ran from Euston to Euston Square, just missed a Metropolitan service, caught the Hammersmith and City service behind it via Barbican to Liverpool Street, then waited for the Metropolitan service behind that to Aldgate. There was a Circle service two minutes behind but I chose to run to Tower Hill instead. This was my personal highlight of the day because I just caught a westbound District line train there that I would have missed had I waited.

District to Monument/Bank, Northern to Elephant & Castle, Bakerloo via Lambeth North to Waterloo where I joined up with Andrew B, Jubilee via Green Park to Finchley Road, just missed a double-back, Jubilee to St John's Wood, ran to Maida Vale (without losing my ticket to ride), just missed a southbound train and joined up with James R, Bakerloo to Warwick Avenue, ran to Royal Oak where James R disappeared into the distance and I just caught up again with Andrew B who I think had gone via Baker Street and got to Warwick Avenue before James R and I, Circle/H&C to Hammersmith (losing James R at Shepherd's Bush Market), Piccadilly to Earl's Court, joined the crowds up to the District line platforms where we met up with the Ians, had a 3-minute wait for the next Wimbledon train via West Brompton (where we picked up James R again) to finish at Fulham Broadway.

I think I could have got to Aldgate about ten minutes earlier had I:
- not got lost at King's Cross St Pancras;
- headed to Archway first (possibly via Mornington Crescent), returned via Angel, gone to Barbican then doubled-back to Aldgate; and
- taken the tube from Euston to King's Cross St Pancras instead of running to Euston Square.

I don't think I could have made up any more time on the second half of the route - I pushed myself to the limit to get to Maida Vale as soon as I did and suffered for it on the run to Royal Oak. Also Andrew C reported an 8-minute wait for a westbound train at Royal Oak, which I think was the gap immediately preceding the train that I eventually caught there.

[tangy]

The results of round 4 of the 2023/24 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 9th March 2024.

This was a normal round with 15 LU stations in zone 1 and 2 to be visited but with a "live bucket draw" where challengers picked out the stations to be visited at the meet up before the start raffle style from a "bucket." The challenge started immediately after the last station was revealed.

Therefore the following stations were drawn out:
--Bank (start/meet up)
--Russell Square
--Aldgate
--Warwick Avenue
--Angel
--Fulham Broadway
--Green Park
--Finchley Road (LU)
--Lambeth North
--Royal Oak
--Elephant & Castle
--Barbican
--Mornington Crescent
--Archway
--St. Paul's

There were 16 challengers split into 11 teams.
All teams finished at Fulham Broadway unless otherwise stated.

11th: Edward Hill, Tom Hardy and Josh Valdez: 03:50:55 at Archway
10th: Michael Tsang: 03:19:28
9th: James & Sam Beck: 03:17:18
8th: Peter Smyth: 03:05:47
=4th: Team Ian: 02:52:54
=4th: James Wright: 02:52:54
=4th: Andrew Baker: 02:52:54
=4th: James Ramsbottom: 02:52:54
3rd: Milo and Yifan: 02:46:00 at Finchley Road (LU)
=1st: Andrew Chilcraft: 02:45:51
=1st: Tangy: 02:45:51

The league table after round 4 now looks like this:

1st: Tangy (46 points) (4 rounds attended)
2nd: Ian McIntyre (31) (4)
=3rd: James Ramsbottom (29) (3)
=3rd: Andrew Chilcraft (29) (4)
5th: James Wright (22) (4)
6th: Ian Imrie (21) (3)
7th: Kevin Brown (18) (3)
8th: Andrew Baker (15) (3)
=9th: Rhys Jackson (13) (2)
=9th: Peter Smyth (13) (3)
=9th: Vincent Karthaus (13) (3)
12th: Rhys Benjamin (12) (2)
13th: Richard Standing (11) (3)
14th: Glen Bryant (10) (1)
=15th: Milo Ogidel (8) (2)
=15th: Yifan (8) (2)
17th: Michael Tsang (7) (3)
18th: Matthew Cook (6) (1)
19th: Michaela Mrockova (4) (1)
=20th: James Beck (2) (2)
=20th: Sam Beck (2) (2)
=22nd: Edward Hill (1) (2)
=22nd: Tom Hardy (1) (2)
=22nd: Joshua Valdez (1) (2)
=25th: Brady Sahr (0) (1)
=25th: Nick (0) (1)
=25th: Kate (0) (1)
=25th: Stephen Moore (0) (1)
=25th: Andy JS (0) (3)
=25th: David JS (0) (3)

Thank you all for attending. The next round is scheduled for June 1st 2024, it will be a twist round.

Tangy.
The BERC.

[Golf]

looking like tangy a shoe in for 1st random 15 championship win!

[Going Underground]

Lucky I wasn't there - wrote the station on a map started my watch and 20 mins later was still puzzled....