Random 15 Championship 2023/24: Round 1

[Going Underground]

Hope all goes well at The Blues Posts - I really like this pub and hope it can become the new post challenge venue
Sadly I will have to head straight off after the R15 as I have a gig in Staines - so will leave darts sheets with Tangy

[EastActionWoman]

Good luck tomorrow everyone - looking forward to reading the event reports.

[al]

Big Central Line issues predicted this weekend apparently!

Good luck those taking part, I think you'll need it.

[DavidC]

If you need to gain access to the website content, it was last crawled by the IA Wayback Machine in December 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211225162 ... tor.co.uk/

DavidC

[hopeful traveller]

Horrendous tube delays today! I hope everything went ok…

[RJSRdg]

Today was an interesting combination of the R15 and the Route 38 running day, helped by both the starting station (Holborn) and the pub being close to that route! It was also a day where I found myself doing several things more than once....

So in the morning, I took the train into Paddington, went round the Circle to Victoria (meeting a friend of mine on the platform at Praed Street!). Hopped on a Routemaster for a nice run up to Clapton Pond - first time I'd been on that route since 2005, and I think also the first time I'd been to Clapton Pond in daylight! Saw some nice RTs on the stand there and caught one back to Bloomsbury, where I examined the tram subway and photographed some more buses before heading down to Holborn. Even on the buses though, it was clear today was going to be HOT!

At 12:30, I passed through the barriers, looked at the envelope and dithered. Should I head west to Bond Street, NE to King's Cross and up to Tufnell Park, east towards West Ham, or SW to the stations in West London? Realising that West Ham was somewhat out on a limb, I decided this would be better as a potential finishing station, and eventually decided to head SW. I found myself on the Picc with several other familiar faces...

As we headed SW, I looked at the list again and decided it would be better to head south from Leicester Square and pick up the stations south of the River then come back up to Victoria. My fellow travellers also changed at Leicester Square. Where I differed from (most!) of them was that I was so engrossed in planning the route that having passed through Waterloo I missed the change at Kennington and ended up at Nine Elms. With a six minute wait for the return service, plus several minutes back to Kennington, I opted instead to go upstairs and walk (soon realised it was too hot to run!) to Oval, which put me roughly 15 minutes down on where I should have been.

Down to Stockwell and back up the Vic to Victoria. At this point, the challenge wasn't particulalry enjoyable given the heat of the deep tubes and the fact I'd already made a major blunder. However the change to air conditioned stock on the District Line made things much better as I headed down to Fulham Broadway, where Vincent saw me (but I didn't see him).

As there were no trains west of Earl's Court, I considered various options to get to the Hammersmith branch, including getting the Overground to Shepherd's Bush from West Brompton, however I eventually opted to get the rail replacement bus from Earl's Court. Having arrived at EC at the back of an eastbound train, and with no signage to the contrary, I guessed that the buses would be going from the main entrance (near the TARDIS), so I ran the length of the platform, up the stairs and outside. No sign of buses so I asked someone in a TfL hi-vis, who told me the buses were going from the other end of the station (where Earl's Court itself used to be). So I ran round the outside of the station back to the end I'd just come from, and asked another TfL employee there who pointed me in the direction of several Borismasters. I hopped on one and after a short wait, we were off!

The traffic was moving, if not exactly free flowing, and after the start of the Hammersmith flyover, the bus was held at a set of traffic lights for several cycles of the lights before being able to proceed. Several other sets of lights round the shopping centre/D&P station at Hammersmith caused further delay - had I been on an RM or RT of course, I could have just hopped off!

Over the road to the "other" Hammersmith, and up to Goldhawk Road, where I was joined by Peter, Kev, and A2. By this point, I was beginning to think that given the delays already encountered, and the geographical spread of the last few stations (including Willesden Green, Tufnell Park and West Ham), I would be better off opening the second envelope when I reached my 10th station. Up through Shepherd's Bush Market and on up, through Westbourne Park where Kev and A2 moved to the rear of the train (I assumed they were going to do the Royal Oak/Warwick Avenue run, but that wasn't the case), while I moved further forwards. At Paddington (Bishop's Road), I got off the train, and did the run to Praed Street. As I started down the ramp to Platform 4(?) (the one with Briunel's statue on it), I was overtaken by someone running much faster than me, in a two-tone blue shirt who I assumed to be another challenger (but wasn't!). At Praed Street, I waited for a southbound train for the second time today, on which I travelled one stop to Bayswater for the double back, where I saw Kev and A2 going up the footbridge and caught up with them on the down staircase. A2 told me to move up the platform as they had "got things to do" (which I correctly surmised was opening the second envelope). I boarded an anticlockwise Circle train, and so did they.

We all got off at Praed Street, where a man with an unco-operative wheely suitcase was obstructing entry to the passageway. I managed to get past it, getting ahead of Kev and A2 in the process and wove through the other passengers to get to the Bakerloo platforms. Unfortunately I had to wait a few minutes, which allowed Kev and A2 to catch me up again. (Kev complimented my ability to weave through the crowd!). Kev and A2 got off at Warwick Avenue, implying that this was one of the stations in the second envelope. I carried on up one more stop to Maida Vale, which I had chosen as my envelope-opening spot in case any stations further up the Bakerloo came out (though Kev and A2's departure had indicated otherwise). On opening the envelope I saw that my surmise that Warwick Avenue was the only Bakerloo Line station was correct, so I caught the next train southbound (one behind Kev and A2), only to be held for several minutes outside Paddington, and another several minutes outside Edgware Road. Anticipating that this could happen at subsequent stops, I opted to cross to the other Edgware Road and catch the subsurface, rather than carry on down to Oxford Circus and get the Victoria.

7 minute wait at Edgware Road! Finally on the go and over to King's Cross St Pancras and up the Picc to Finsbury Park via Arsenal. Realising I'd just missed a Northern City train, I got the Vic back to KXSP. There, I followed the wrong Northern Line signage and ended up going via the long corridor rather than the short staircase. Getting stuck beghind someone else with a suitcase, a teenage girl got past and raced up the corridor into the distance (another potential Tube Challenger?). Down to the Northern, through Moorgate to Bank. Couldn't find the way out to Cannon Street, so instead went up the escalator to Monumemt and over to Cannon Street on an Olympia service. Over the road, but what I thought was the Cannon Street entrance was locked (turns out it was the W&C entrance instead) so back to Cannon Street LU and back to Monument, down the stairs and down the Northern Line to Clapham South in 3:45:21.


Off the train, back up to Stockwell and round the northbound Vic to Victoria (again for the second time), where I caught another RM up to TCR, repeating part of the 38 route I''d done in the morning!

[Capelblue]

Well another season begins with the Champion's twist, a brave one from Mr Chilcraft as the gambit could have been a damp squib if the original 15 was straightforward. Happily this wasn't the case so he got his rewards as it was a great twist.

Our original thought was that we wouldn't open the second envelope, we quickly mapped the stations and headed for the southbound Piccadilly line platform (we thought it would be best to avoid the Central line as far as possible given the issues) along with several other challengers, and we all changed to the Northern Line at Leicester Square picking up Waterloo, before changing for the Morden branch at Kennington, and passing through Oval, before changing to the Victoria Line at Stockwell. The changes up to now had been seamless and given us very little time to breathe and consider our route. We looked at the map while travelling on the Vic and decided that we would open envelope 2 - our reasoning was that West Ham was so far out on a limb, plus the fact that Fulham Broadway to Goldhawk Road would be problematic with the Piccadilly and District line closures. At this point the five stations we decided to discard were Fulham Broadway, Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush Market, Tufnell Park and West Ham, with the idea of finishing our first 10 at Moorgate.

We passed through Victoria and changed to the Jubilee line at Green Park, quickly picking up Bond Street, so we had 5 stations done in only 35 minutes. This was where we made our big error, as we carried on the Jubilee line all the way to Willesden Green - as we found out later we were the only team to open the envelope to visit this station. On the way there we were trying to deduce a quick way to get from there to the Bakerloo line, ultimately in vain, so we decided to double back to Baker Street to get to Maida Vale, however Ian I then spotted that this would cause us issues with going to the correct Paddington station, so we scrubbed the remainder of our route, and changed instead to the Hammersmith and City line at Baker Street, and trundled down on a train full of QPR and Sunderland fans picking up Paddington (Bishops Road), Shepherd's Bush Market and Goldhawk Road taking our station total to 9. At Goldhawk Road we got out and began the run to Shepherd's Bush, failing to spot a 94 bus (which could have taken us to Notting Hill Gate) in time, and then nearly catching up with it at another stop as the driver pretty much closed the doors in my face, it continued to taunt us as we headed along the North side of the green, but we headed into Shepherd's Bush and only had a 5 minute wait for the Central line which wasn't too bad, although the jerky pull aways were interesting ! We changed at Notting Hill Gate, and arrived at Bayswater to complete the initial 10 in 1 hr 44 mins (so in the end the 5 we didn't do were Maida Vale, West Ham, Tufnell Park, Fulham Broadway and Moorgate).

Starting envelope 2 at Bayswater was not bad, as we could quickly change at Paddington Praed Street and go to Warwick Avenue, doubling back to Baker Street, where we were staggered that there were no sub-surface trains eastbound for 10 minutes, as we waited for the Circle line we were joined by Andrew C and Peter, and all travelled along to Kings Cross where we all shot down the tunnels for the Piccadilly line to Arsenal, doubling straight back to Kings Cross (by which time Vincent was with us) as the timing on the live travel for the Great Northern from Finsbury Park to Moorgate didn't work. Here we had a choice to make, Monument (rather than bank) made it a ticklish decision, and we decided to head for the sub-surface in the hope to get a Circle line train to go right round to Monument rather than having to do a contrived Monument visit via the Northern line. All the others took the Northern line, which ultimately proved the right decision, but as we arrived on the platform and could see a long string as the first train, I punched the air knowing it was Circle line, unfortunately it was 10 minutes away ! There wasn't much we could do other than wait and hope that the others took longer to do their Monument manoeuvres, and we got on and went through Moorgate, a quick pass through Aldgate and got off at Monument. We did the now nice easy transfer to the Northern line at Bank, and got a Morden train down to Clapham South to finish in 3:21:59, unfortunately for us it seemed that the entirety of the rest of the challengers were in the tunnel and we all headed back to the pub together.

We were close to a few other teams, a combination of two rotten 10 minute waits on the sub-surface, and the mistake we made of going to Willesden Green instead of Maida Vale costing us. It was an enjoyable day all in all, well done on the organisation and pub !

[Golf]

nice to see lots of people there enjoying what must have been a horrible start i have a terrible problem with gout at the moment nearly affecting my running in fact i was lucky to drive home so much pain so i feel for kevin!

[ANDY_JS]

The R15 generator doesn't appear to be working, in fact it looks like the domain name ran out on 28th June.

Domain name:
challengegenerator.co.uk

Data validation:
Nominet was not able to match the registrant's name and/or address against a 3rd party source on 30-May-2020

Registrar:
123-Reg Limited t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: https://www.123-reg.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 28-Jun-2014
Expiry date: 28-Jun-2023
Last updated: 03-Jul-2023

Registration status:
Renewal required.
*** This registration has been SUSPENDED. ***

I've had a quick go at writing a Google Sheets page that generates 15 random stations from zones 1 and 2. It's been about 10 years since I did anything like this so I might have made some stupid mistakes. Let me know if I have.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

[Lunaticonthegrass]

Through the barriers and onto the escalator where I opened the first envelope. Nothing immediately sprang out at me, so after some brief consideration I decided to do Moorgate next. On to the eastbound Central line platform, and there's a 15 minute wait for the first train. Ain't nobody got time for that. Knowing Bond Street to be an option, I ran to the westbound platform and saw an 8 minute wait. Could still do better. Ran to the Piccadilly southbound platform and just made a train. I finally leave HOLBORN after my most frantic start to an R15, already sweating buckets.

Pretty quickly I decided that I'd gamble on the second envelope. Partially for the hell of it, but also because there were quite a few outlying stations and I reckoned that the second envelope would have a good chance of being nicer than some of the stations in envelope 1.

I was on the same train as Tangy and Team Ian, and the 5 of us changed at Leicester Square and headed south through WATERLOO to change at Kennington, then through OVAL to change at Stockwell. Tangy and I pulled ahead on the run here and we both just managed to make a northbound Victoria line train. We then ended up in different carriages - I guessed that Tangy was changing at VICTORIA to go to Fulham Broadway. I myself changed to the Jubilee at Green Park and headed north through BOND BURBERRY STREET then another change at Baker Street to head up the Bakerloo to MAIDA VALE. (I was tempted to stay on the Jubilee and visit Willesden Green, but decided that it was too far out.)

Back to Paddington where heavy crowds caused me to miss a Wimbleware. An annoying one stop to BAYSWATER for a doubleback. I saw Peter briefly on the return journey but he then went a different way to me back at Paddington. I don't know how many times I've done the Paddington run (too many!) but I got lost this time, twice trying to head down the wrong platforms in the mainline station. Eventually made it to PADDINGTON (H&C) then caught a westbound train through SHEPHERD'S BUSH MARKET to GOLDHAWK ROAD to finish the first envelope.

Made a blunder here by not heading straight for the train in the opposite platform. I opened the second envelope first in case I wanted to do something crazy, probably involving running to Olympia. (Remember, no trains through the other Hammersmith station today.) The stations in the second envelope weren't great but probably an improvement on the ones I cut out of the first envelope. So having finally decided to doubleback I missed the train I could have made.

Anyway, caught the next train heading east to Royal Oak then ran to WARWICK AVENUE. Back to Baker Street where I had a fun game trying to figure out if a Met or a H&C/Circle would be the next sub-surface heading east. It turned out to be a H&C. Changed at KXSP to the Piccadilly and headed north to ARSENAL. I had an idea of taking the Nothern City Line from Finsbury Park to Moorgate, but the timings didn't work so I doubled back instead. I didn't bother to check door positions for Arsenal, thinking that they wouldn't matter. They did matter, and I missed a perfect doubleback - the second one of the day. Back to KXSP then Northern line through MOORGATE to Bank, where I ran through to MONUMENT.

One stop west to Cannon Street to visit Monument properly, then, because timings worked but most for self-gratification, I caught a big train from Cannon Street National Rail to London Bridge. Meaning that I have now visited all the London termini. Very long run to London Bridge (LU) (At least it was downhill) then Nothern Line all the way to CLAPHAM SOUTH.

Quite late in the challenge I realised that I'd accidentally doubly tapped the stopwatch on my phone at the start of the challenge, meaning that I didn't know exactly how long I'd taken. I got the time I gave to Tangy from the platform clock at Clapham South and also from the time on my phone, so I'm confident that this is accurate to the nearest minute at least.

Probably the most unpleasent R15 I've done. Very warm and very busy. I reckon I stood up on more trains that I sat down on. I savoured every moment I was on air-conditioned S stock.

Thoughts on the twist: Very good, would like to try again. It certainly made for interesting pub discussion.

Thoughts on the pub: Nicer than the Brickies and good that they do food. Having to go upstairs when we wanted to eat was a bit annoying. I feel it was rather expensive but everywhere in central London will be. I prefered it, if only because the bitter comes out of a proper handpump.

[tangy]

The results of round 1 of the 2023/24 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 16th September 2023.

This was the Champion's Twist round whereby challengers could gamble on opening a second envelope at the their 10th visited station. If they did then those 5 stations in envelope 2 replaced those 5 they had yet to visit in envelope one.

Envelope 1 contained:
--Holborn (meet up/start)
--Willesden Green
--Fulham Broadway
--Goldhawk Road
--Paddington (H&C/Bishop's Road)
--Victoria (LU)
--West Ham
--Maida Vale
--Bond Street
--Moorgate
--Shepherd's Bush Market
--Tufnell Park
--Bayswater
--Waterloo (LU)
--Oval

Envelope 2 contained:
--Monument
--Clapham South
--Moorgate
--Arsenal
--Warwick Avenue

All but one team decided to gamble and open the second envelope.

There were 15 challengers split into 11 teams.

11th: Andy & David JS- 03:50:05 (part 1 finish at Bayswater, part 2 at Clapham South).
10th: Richard Standing- 03:45:21 (part 1 finish at Maida Vale, part 2 at Clapham South).
9th: Kevin Brown and Andrew Baker- 03:42:38 (part 1 finish at Bayswater, part 2 at Clapham South).
8th: Rhys Jackson- 03:41:38 at Goldhawk Road (did not open envelope 2).
7th: Ian McIntyre, Michaela Mrockova and Ian Imrie- 03:21:59 (part 1 finish at Bayswater, part 2 at Clapham South).
=4th: Andrew Chilcraft- 03:16:42 (part 1 finish at Goldhawk Road, part 2 at Clapham South).
=4th Vincent Karthaus- 03:16:42 (part 1 finish at Bond Street, part 2 at Clapham South).
=4th Peter Smyth- 03:16:42 (part 1 finish at Goldhawk Road, part 2 at Clapham South).
=2nd: James Wright- 03:11:45 (part 1 finish at Goldhawk Road, part 2 at Clapham South).
=2nd: Tangy- 03:11:45 (part 1 finish at Goldhawk Road, part 2 at Clapham South).
1st: James Ramsbottom- 02:47:?? (part 1 finish at Goldhawk Road, part 2 at Clapham South). Suffered stopwatch malfunction so time given was worked out from station/phone clocks.

The leaderboard after round 1 is as follows:

1st: James Ramsbottom (12 points) (1 round attended).
=2nd: Tangy (10) (1)
=2nd: James Wright (10) (1)
=4th: Peter Smyth (7) (1)
=4th: Vincent Karthaus (7) (1)
=4th: Andrew Chilcraft (7) (1)
=7th: Ian McIntyre (4) (1)
=7th: Michaela Mrockova (4) (1)
=7th: Ian Imrie (4) (1)
10th: Rhys Jackson (3) (1)
=11th: Andrew Baker (2) (1)
=11th: Kevin Brown (2) (1)
13th: Richard Standing (1) (1)
=14th: Andy JS (0) (1)
=14th: David JS (0) (1)

The next round is scheduled for the 18th November 2023.

[RJSRdg]

A quick request for clarification on the scoring system:

If two (or more) people compete as a team for the duration of the season, when the final scores are calculated after Round 6, do they remain as individuals with the same score, or do they get amalgamated as a "team" at the end? (Though I can understand why they would be recorded as individuals prior to that point).

I'm just thinking that if the results of round 1 were repeated at the other five rounds, I could wind up 13th in the final score table despite consistently finishing 10th!

[ANDY_JS]

I'd just like to say how much I enjoyed this particular variant of the challenge, with the 2 envelopes, and being able to decide whether to open it or not. Quite a few other people said the same sort of thing in the pub afterwards. I hope we can do this one more frequently in the future.

Interestingly, there seems to be a strong bias in favour of opening the envelope, with I think only one person/team not opening it, IIRC. Therefore one way to make this even more interesting might be, for example, to say that if you open the envelope you get an extra station to visit. This might sort of "balance out" the fact that there does seem to be such a strong bias in favour of opening it, and you might get more of a 50/50 situation in terms of whether people do so. (Or alternatively, one less station if you don't open it). The only obvious problem with this is that it does slightly mess up the fact that it's supposed to be 15 stations, and not 14 or 16.

[tractakid]

It's hard to tell after just one instance whether there are any balance issues. The novelty of opening a second envelope could be a bias. Equally, the decision can be strongly influenced by the selection of stations in the first envelope.

[hopeful traveller]

Equally, the decision can be strongly influenced by the selection of stations in the first envelope.

I suspect this is more likely. You can essentially stick or twist, and if you get a few total stinkers (Olympia, Clapham South, etc) then you may as well bin them off and open envelope two.