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To be honest Richard you’re probably better off on Oyster for R15. You won’t timeout because you’re not in the system for a long period of time (especially on NR rounds) and you’ll hit the daily cap.

My journey history for Saturday looks pretty neat as a result…!

The results of round 3 of the 2022/23 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 14th January 2023.

This was the NR twist round (including Overground and Crossrail) and despite this the stations were quite kind as nothing south of the Thames was on the list!

Therefore the stations that needed to be visited were:
--Tottenham Court Road (meet up/start)
--Drayton Park
--Tower Hill
--Limehouse (NR)
--Kensal Rise
--Bethnal Green (LU)
--Finsbury Park (LU)
--Baker Street
--Kentish Town
--Brondesbury
--Hampstead
--Hampstead Heath
--St. John's Wood
--Moorgate
--Aldgate

There was 13 challengers in 9 teams.

9th: Andy & David JS- 03:35:58 at Kentish Town
8th: Richard Standing- 03:16:01 at Aldgate
7th: Tangy- 03:13:13 at Baker Street
6th: Andrew Chilcraft- 03:05:51 at Baker Street
5th: Vincent Karthaus, Katrina and Eric- 02:57:12 at Limehouse
4th: Kevin Brown and Andrew Baker- 02:55:51 at Aldgate
3rd: Peter Smyth- 02:54:40 at Aldgate
2nd: Rhys Benjamin- 02:45:11 at Aldgate
1st: Jenny Sherman- 02:44:17 at Aldgate

So putting these results into the leaderboard gives the following:

1st: Jenny Sherman (26 points) [3 rounds attended]
2nd: Andrew Baker (25) [3]
3rd: James Ramsbottom (24) [2]
4th: Kevin Brown (23) [3]
5th: Andrew Chilcraft (19) [3]
6th: Tangy (13) [3]
=7th: Peter Smyth (11) [2]
=7th: Vincent Karthaus (11) [2]
=9th: Das Stevens (10) [1]
=9th: Rhys Benjamin (10) [1]
11th: Richard Standing (9) [2]
=12th: Ian McIntyre (8) [2]
=12th: Ian Imrie (8) [1]
=12th: Matthew Cook (8) [1]
=15th: Damian Cook (6) [1]
=15th: Izzy Cook (6) [1]
=15th: Katrina (6) [1]
=15th: Eric (6) [1]
=19th: Andy JS (5) [2]
=19th: Roland Karthaus (5) [1]
=21st: Rhys Jackson (3) [1]
=21st: Nick Gardner (3) [1]
23rd: David JS (2) [1]
=24th. Richard Graham (0) [1]
=24th: Robin (0) [1]
=24th: Beau (0) [1]

Round 4 will be on the 1th March 2023. It will be a normal round.

I didn't take part on the day, but had a spare morning in London this week before meeting a friend, so thought I'd have an attempt to test myself then. Clearly it is not comparable to the day as the trains will run differently, but useful for route planning and good practice. I found Tangy's email with the 15 stations and plotted a route without looking at anyone else's within 5 minutes. I arrived at Tottenham Court Road on the Northern line so started my stopwatch when I was on that platform, and it then took me the 5 minutes to board a Central line train to Bond Street (I had considered the Elizabeth line but concluded that the train speed would be offset by the length of the change to the Jubilee line). Catching a Jubilee line train north I quickly picked up Baker Street and St John's Wood which was where I made my only mistake of the day. I left the train there and walked to Maida Vale with the idea of getting the Bakerloo line to Willesden Junction and joining the overground there. Unfortunately the Bakerloo line was terminating at Queens Park so I then had to walk to Kensal Rise and join the overground from there. With hindsight I should have stayed on the Jubilee line, changed at West Hampstead and done a double back at Kensal Rise, this probably cost me 20 minutes. Leaving Kensal Rise I picked up Brondesbury before leaving the train at Hampstead Heath and walking up the hill to Hampstead where I caught the Northern line, getting an efficient change at Camden Town and then leaving the train at Kentish Town. I walked to Kentish Town West, and got the overground to Highbury & Islington before changing to national rail and collecting Drayton Park and Finsbury Park. I toyed with the idea of turning straight round to Moorgate but realised in time that this would have meant not getting the LU station for Finsbury Park so I changed to the Victoria line before changing at KCStP to a Metropolitan line train, passing through Moorgate and changing at Liverpool Street for the Central line to Bethnal Green. Here I had a fantastic change as a westbound train was in the platform and I jumped onto it and headed back to Liverpool Street. I got fairly lucky here again as the second train through the sub-surface platforms was a Circle line which didn't dilly dally at Aldgate, so I got the Tower Hill and station 14, which just left a quick walk to Fenchurch Street and an overground train to Limehouse to complete. My time on the day was 2:44:36. Trust me to devise a good route and get good connections when it doesn't count ! Looking forward to the 11th March and doing it for real.