Random 15 Championship 2024/25: Round 2

[EastActionWoman]

Sorry to go off topic slightly. I was just wondering whether Kensington Olympia is one of the stations that can be selected in a Random 15 challenge?

Yes it can. Not so much of an issue on a Saturday as there is supposed to be a regular service. Can still mean the difference between a great time or being stuck at Earl's Court for 30 minutes.

[RJSRdg]

Sorry to go off topic slightly. I was just wondering whether Kensington Olympia is one of the stations that can be selected in a Random 15 challenge?

Yes, it is, it's in Zone 2, so can be selected, and has been on several occasions - we even started there at least once. In a "normal" round, it must be visited using the every-20-minute service via Earl's Court (I think on the occasion we started there we started the round slightly before 12:30 otherwise we would all have been sitting around for 18 minutes!).

In a National Rail twist round, or any twist round including the Overground, the Overground/NR platforms can also be used to constitute a visit.

[ANDY_JS]

Thanks for the replies.

[Capelblue]

There was a healthy 15 of us who gathered outside Holland Park ready for the start of the challenge, and we all (well nearly all it turned out) charged through the barriers into the lift opening our envelopes as we went and scanning the station list. On spotting Wood Lane I headed for the westbound platform with most of the rest of the challengers and caught a train to White City, where we all raced down to Wood Lane to get a train down to Hammersmith, across the road and onto the District line for the two stops to Stamford Brook where a perfect double back was executed by most of us to head back to Earl's Court where there was a pretty quick change onto the Wimbledon line to Fulham Broadway. I'd been devising a route during this section of the challenge, and hadn't considered heading up towards Edgware Road and decided to get the southern section done. Disregarding the overground to get to the Northern line due to the extra change required at Clapham Junction, I got on the Edgware Road train with the remainder of the initial group (thinned out by different options and by some missing the double back at Stamford Brook), I got out at Earl's Court and that was the last I saw of any of them until the pub. I quickly caught an Upminster train and trundled along through Mansion House to Monument where I raced through the tunnels to Bank and caught a Northern line train down to Kennington. Here I shot through the cross tunnel, realising after a minute or so that it was the southbound Battersea platform, so I ran across to the northbound Bank branch platform and got into the correct door position, and found Andy and David on the train who confirmed my suspicion that they had done the overground link via Clapham. As we got off at Elephant and Castle I lost them in the tunnels and didn't see them or anyone for the rest of the challenge. I boarded a Bakerloo line train and headed through Lambeth North, Charing Cross and up to Warwick Avenue where I got another good double back down to Baker Street, and up to the Jubilee line platforms where I got my first bad change of the day - 7 minutes. The train took me up to Kilburn from where I ran to Brondesbury and took an overground to Hampstead Heath, where I struggled up hill to Belsize Park and had another frustrating change with an out of service train in the platform and a Bank branch train listed first. I elected to wait for the Charing Cross branch one 2 minutes behind rather than attempt anything at Camden Town. This took me down to Warren Street from where I ran to Euston Square, and onto a Circle line train to Moorgate. I ran through the tunnels to catch an Elizabeth line train (which was just pulling in) to Stratford where I changed to the Jubilee line (the train took about 4 minutes to pull away frustratingly) and finished at Canada Water in a time of 3:28:25.

Most of my changes were good, but I think my route was a little longer than it could have been. Thanks to Tangy for organising, Looking forward to the next one in the new year, Merry Christmas all !

[tangy]

The results of round 2 of 2024/25 Random 15 Challenge held on Saturday 30th November 2024.

This was a normal round, so only 15 LU stations in zones 1 and 2 to visit, these were:

--Holland Park (meet up/start)
--Moorgate
--Wood Lane
--Lambeth North
--Warren Street
--Charing Cross (LU)
--Canada Water
--Warwick Avenue
--Kennington
--Kilburn
--Belsize Park
--Fulham Broadway
--Mansion House
--Stamford Brook
--Stratford

There were 15 challengers in 12 teams:

12th: Andrew Baker, Myles Swaine-Gray and Das Stevens who completed but outside of the 4 hour time limit in 04:09:30 at Stratford (14 stations in 03:49:25).
11th: Andy & David JS who just went over the 4 hour time limit having completed in 04:02:08 at Warwick Avenue.
10th: Rhys Benjamin - 03:50:13 at Stratford.
9th: Milo Ogidel - 03:32:10 at Warwick Avenue.
8th: Ian McIntyre - 03:28:25 at Canada Water.
=6th: James Wright - 03:20:20 at Stratford.
=6th: Tangy - 03:20:20 at Stratford.
5th: Rhys Jackson - 03:17:17 at Stratford.
4th: James Ramsbottom - 03:09:45 at Stratford.
3rd: Maudh Zeroual - 03:01:10 at Stratford.
2nd: Peter Smyth - 02:57:39 at Canada Water.
1st: Andrew Chilcraft - 02:53:58 at Stratford.

The leaderboard after round 2 now looks like this:

1st: Andrew Chilcraft (24 points) [2 rounds]
2nd: Peter Smyth (18) [2]
3rd: James Ramsbottom (17) [2]
4th: James Wright (12) [2]
5th: Tangy (9) [2]
6th: Maudh Zeroual (8) [1]
=7th: Glen Bryant (7) [1]
=7th: Kevin Brown (7) [1]
=7th: Andrew Baker (7) [2]
10th: Rhys Jackson (6) [1]
11th: Ian McIntyre (4) [2]
=12th: Edward Hill (3) [1]
=12th: Tom Hardy (3) [1]
=12th: Josh Valdez (3) [1]
=12th: Pascal (3) [1]
=16th: Richard Standing (2) [1]
=16th: Milo Ogidel (2) [1]
18th: Rhys Benjamin (1) [1]
=19th: Vincent Karthaus (0) [1]
=19th: Andy JS (0) [2]
=19th: David JS (0) [1]
=19th: Myles Swaine-Gray (0) [1]
=19th: Das Stevens (0) [1]

The next round is scheduled for Saturday 4th January 2025, which will be the National Rail twist.

Tangy.
The BERC.

[miklcct]

Up to Kilburn, double back, and onto a nicely lined up enil niatiloportem service. My final change at Cooker, no sorry, Baker Street entailed barging through many big football dudes; they even cheered me on, while STANDING ON THE LEFT side of the escallator. Onto a Stonebridge Park bound '72 stock. Now my last bit off fatigue induced stupiditiy revealed itself. I basically almost slept through Warwick Avenue.

Why did you switch to a Metropolitan line at Finchley Road rather than continuing on the Jubilee to Baker Street? Both take 5 and a half minutes between Finchley Road and Baker Street.

[Oggm]

Up to Kilburn, double back, and onto a nicely lined up enil niatiloportem service. My final change at Cooker, no sorry, Baker Street entailed barging through many big football dudes; they even cheered me on, while STANDING ON THE LEFT side of the escallator. Onto a Stonebridge Park bound '72 stock. Now my last bit off fatigue induced stupiditiy revealed itself. I basically almost slept through Warwick Avenue.

Why did you switch to a Metropolitan line at Finchley Road rather than continuing on the Jubilee to Baker Street? Both take 5 and a half minutes between Finchley Road and Baker Street.

Well, thank you, I assumed that the Met. was a bit faster as it takes a slightly more direct route and doesn't stop. But, going through the WTT they look about the same. I was intending on continuing on the Jubilee line unless a Met. train pulled in exactly next to me (which it did). I guess also that it would have been easier changing Jubilee > Bakerloo rather than Metropolitain > Bakerloo at Baker Street.

Looking back knowing this, I probably could have saved a minuite or two on my final connection during Round 5 of the last championship, (which would have put me in 1st), as I was doing the reverse; from the Bakerloo line, finishing at Finchley Road, via the Met. (which held me in the platform for a while) oh well, thank you.