Random 15 Championship 2017/18: Round 2

[xcooler123]

Attending: GU, RJSRdg, michael_churchill, alexmcmotor + Simon again, crypto, xcooler123
Suggested parkrun Hackney Marshes: GU (Would be my 100th different event )
Suggested spoons Baxters Court, Hackney: GU

[tractakid]

I'm in all three

[Iain]

Attending: GU, RJSRdg, michael_churchill, alexmcmotor + Simon again, crypto, xcooler123
Suggested parkrun Hackney Marshes: GU (Would be my 100th different event ), Iain
Suggested spoons Baxters Court, Hackney: GU, Iain

[DrainBrain]

Attending: GU, RJSRdg, michael_churchill, alexmcmotor + Simon again, crypto, xcooler123, DrainBrain
Suggested parkrun Hackney Marshes: GU (Would be my 100th different event ), Iain, DrainBrain
Suggested spoons Baxters Court, Hackney: GU, Iain, DrainBrain

[RJSRdg]

Today's outing didn't get off to a very good start for me today. I forgot to check the timetables for trains between Reading and Paddington for engineering work. Consequently I discovered on getting there that there was a very much reduced service. The first train leaving was the 10:26 but this was a five coach service with a lot of people waiting to get on. I decided to wait for the 10:49, but this appeared on the boards as "reported full and standing", so rather than wait for the 10:52, I crossed to a different platform and caught the 10:41 to Maidenhead which was advertised as 'Change at Maidenhead for London'. I had expected a relatively quick change but on arrival at Maidenhead it turned out a 15 minute wait had been timetabled, which meant an arrival into Paddington shortly before 12:00. However I had no choice but to wait, so I rang Kev and asked him to text me the stations if I wasn't there in time (it's a good job I didn't ask one of the other competitors to text them to me...). Fortunately at Slough I spotted an HST pulling in at the same time the train I was on did, so I was able to hop over and make up some time, leaving Paddington on an H&C just as the train I had been on to Slough pulled in! I arrived at Whitechapel at 12:25 and was able to take part in the draw.

From WHITECHAPEL, on through STEPNEY GREEN to WEST HAM, with most of the other competitors, then back to Fenchurch Street on C2C with David, Alex and some others. Having boarded the front of the train for the main exit at FS, when we get there everybody else ran back up the platform in search of another exit, leaving me to go out of the main exit and realise I didn't know the way to TOWER HILL! Eventually I got there (via the Merchant Navy memorial) and down on to the platform, where I just missed the train most of the others had boarded (apart from Alex who arrived on the platform shortly after me). When the next train (eventually) arrived, we hopped on to discover Tangy, Clive, and Rob(?) who had come back from West Ham on the District. Out at MONUMENT, where I took the wrong exit (again) and nearly went up the wrong side street before finding my way to Bank. Find that Tangy at least has wound up on the same train as me to Holborn, where we changed to the Picc for COVENT GARDEN (I had briefly considered catching a handy 15H from Monument to the Strand and running through to CG, but common sense prevailed!). At Leicester Square, met Rob(?) who was wondering where Clive had got to, having previously seen him on a Piccadilly line train. Clive appeared from a bench as the southbound Northern Line came in, so down through EMBANKMENT to Kennington, change to head further south for STOCKWELL and CLAPHAM COMMON. At Clapham Common, Tangy and Rob(?) doubled back, I went outside in search of a bus. After orienting myself, I found a bus stop, and hopped on a 35 which already had Clive on board! We crossed the top of the Common but got stuck in traffic, so Clive suggested a run. I attempted to keep up, but after a valiant start, my ankles complained too much and I had to slow. Fortunately I still managed to find my way into Clapham Junction, though I had some difficulty finding the correct platform for the Overground. I got there to find Clive again, who had just missed the 14:01. 15 minute wait for the next train to WEST BROMPTON, over the bridge there and on to a District Line train towards Edgware Road via PADDINGTON. We ran through to the other Paddington, down through Westbourne Park and LADBROKE GROVE to Wood Lane, out to White City, then NORTH ACTON, over the bridge and back via White City/Wood Lane to HAMMERSMITH C & P(!), west on a DISTRICT to RAVENSCOURT PARK in 2:47:20.

Back to the Brickies to report our times and partake in Clive's quiz, then Magi-like, I decided in the light of the morning's debacle to "return by another route" i.e. back to Reading via Waterloo. Needless to say, I didn't do things the easy way as I managed to miss Waterloo on the way south and wound up going round the Kennington loop and back to Waterloo, where I believe I saw Nick going up the stairs in front of me. On to a slightly delayed Reading train which got busy at Twickenham as I had forgotten there was rugby on!

Can someone remind me - what date is the January event, or has this not yet been determined?

[crypto]

I thought I'd won. I could have come second. In the end, I came last.

We drew a list of stations and I dutifully scribbled everything down. The logical move was for everybody to pile towards West Ham. At the turnaround, everybody piled on to the Fenchurch bound C2C, leaving three of us doing the straight turnaround back to Tower Hill. All being said, the whole event was fairly uneventful. I had good connections, bad connections and lots of unpleasant short runs.

But let's talk about the reveal. I arrived at the pub to only Andrew, which seemed suspicious given the fairly unexceptional event I'd had. Tangy read out the results, and... I won. However, as I read out the last couple of legs on my route, everybody realised I'd missed a station. Frantically, I reached for the station list.

Somebody drew: Ravenscourt Park
I circled: Westbourne Park

I had come up with a route that took in fifteen stations including Westbourne Park, but missed Ravenscourt. In the end, this disqualified me, however, all I'd needed to do to qualify was do a quick double back at Hammersmith. The extra ten minutes could have still put me second or third.

My route anyway: Whitechapel, West Ham, Monument (with H/C -> D change), Bank, Holborn, Leicester Square, Kennington, Clapham Common, Stockwell, Victoria, Paddingtons, Wood Lane, North Acton/Wood Lane double back, Hammersmiths, **not Ravenscourt Park**, Earl's Court, West Brompton

[michael_churchill]

On Saturday I made an enormous cock-up. I was busy browsing in the Hard Rock Cafe shop and didn't think about how long it would take me to get from Hyde Park Corner to Whitechapel. When I eventually got a District at South Kensington that wasn't terminating at Tower Hill, I arrived at Whitechapel at 12:35. As the train pulled in, I think I spotted some competitors on the platform, and it appears most would have got on the train I arrived on. I went to the meet-up point to confirm that everybody had gone, then gave up.

Instead I looked round the shops at Canary Wharf, Stratford and Bond Street, and had a nice Italian lunch near St. Paul's. I've decided that, generally, this is a much better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in London, so you probably won't see me on a Random 15 again.

[The Orange One]

I teamed up with Josh for Round 2, and we were reasonably successful - though delays ended up costing us. It reminded me a lot of Round 4 of 2015/16, with the inconveniently spread stations across west London.

Throughout the live draw at Whitechapel, we were all ready for Willesden Junction, but luckily it didn't come up. The presence of Stepney Green and West Ham decided it for me, and it was onto a District line train out to West Ham, followed by a fast c2c back into town, where the rest of the plan was devised. Running from Fenchurch Street to Tower Hill with almost everyone still with us, I just missed a District - but a Circle was immediately behind so we jumped aboard that. One stop to Monument, then a collective pounding down the Northern line platforms and up to the Central through to Holborn. At Holborn, it was onto the Piccadilly through Covent Garden to Leicester Square, and then onto the Northern line south through Embankment.

Cross platform change at Kennington, then through Stockwell to Clapham Common, still with the pack. There was a bit of a split here, with people taking a number of different routes through to West Brompton - myself, Josh and David plumped for a slow 345 bus to Clapham Junction, followed by the Overground - for which we had a 7 minute wait. Not ideal, but we were able to top up with fluids. On arrival at West Brompton, we met up with Peter and Andrew C again, who had gone via the City, and we all headed north to Earl's Court.

With the final five stations being Paddington District, Ladbroke Grove, North Acton, Ravenscourt Park and Hammersmith District, an approximately equal choice of two routes presented itself - but the prompt arrival of a Richmond service made the decision for myself, Josh and David, who headed out to Ravenscourt Park, apparently alone. Over to the other platform, then after the standard two Piccadillys infuriatingly passing through nonstop it was back to Hammersmith (Broadway). Quick run - traffic permitting - over to Hammersmith (Beadon Road) and onto an H&C, which of course sat there for a while. Up to Wood Lane, run to White City, 4 minute wait for a westbound train during which we watched the QPR fans swarm, out to North Acton (where we met Nick), immediate double-back onto an eastbound, back to White City, run to Wood Lane, 5 minute wait for an eastbound Circle. The sum total of these waits meant that Andrew C was able to catch us up at Wood Lane.

Finally, we were off towards Paddington via Ladbroke Grove. Nick left us at Ladbroke Grove (he'd already done Paddington, but hadn't done Hammersmith or Ravenscourt Park). Upon arrival at Paddington (Bishops Road), we took the route via Platforms 8/9 for once - it might have looked more impressive if there were more than four of us but it's certainly more fun if you're going to the subsurface! Straight down into Paddington (Praed Street), and a final crippling ~5 minute wait for the first train out to take us to Edgware Road (Chapel Street) to finish.

[Going Underground]

On Saturday I made an enormous cock-up. so you probably won't see me on a Random 15 again.

Michael seriously

[tractakid]

On Saturday I made an enormous cock-up. I was busy browsing in the Hard Rock Cafe shop and didn't think about how long it would take me to get from Hyde Park Corner to Whitechapel. When I eventually got a District at South Kensington that wasn't terminating at Tower Hill, I arrived at Whitechapel at 12:35. As the train pulled in, I think I spotted some competitors on the platform, and it appears most would have got on the train I arrived on. I went to the meet-up point to confirm that everybody had gone, then gave up.

Instead I looked round the shops at Canary Wharf, Stratford and Bond Street, and had a nice Italian lunch near St. Paul's. I've decided that, generally, this is a much better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in London, so you probably won't see me on a Random 15 again.

If we receive notification that someone is coming but running slightly late, we usually do wait for them, but if we don't hear, then we aren't to know.

[michael_churchill]

If we receive notification that someone is coming but running slightly late, we usually do wait for them, but if we don't hear, then we aren't to know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that you went without me. I'm just announcing that I had an epiphany. I thought Random 15 was something I liked, I gave it four goes, but on Saturday I realised that I can totally do without. It has nothing to do with the people involved either. Also, I haven't gone off tube challenges altogether - perhaps I just prefer those that allow some pre-planning. If I'm free I'd like to try the Christmas Park Challenge and I'd like to do the Zone 1 Day again next year.

[tractakid]

If we receive notification that someone is coming but running slightly late, we usually do wait for them, but if we don't hear, then we aren't to know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that you went without me. I'm just announcing that I had an epiphany. I thought Random 15 was something I liked, I gave it four goes, but on Saturday I realised that I can totally do without. It has nothing to do with the people involved either. Also, I haven't gone off tube challenges altogether - perhaps I just prefer those that allow some pre-planning. If I'm free I'd like to try the Christmas Park Challenge and I'd like to do the Zone 1 Day again next year.

See you at the Parks!

[tangy]

Here follows the results of Round 2 of the Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 18th November 2017.

The start station was Whitechapel and there was a live draw which was conducted in the ticket hall. Thus those challengers (except myself) who attended each chose one station from a bucket:
--Tower Hill
--Hammersmith D&P (or D&C as it was written on the card)
--Covent Garden
--Stockwell
--West Ham
--Paddington (Praed Street)
--Ravenscourt Park
--Clapham Common
--West Brompton
--North Acton
--Embankment
--Ladbroke Grove
--Kennington
--Stepney Green

There was 16 challengers in 12 teams:

DSQ: James Ross (only visited 14 of the 15 stations)
11th: Rob Lomas- 03:04:56 at Clapham Common
10th: Alex & Simon Kneller- 03:03:05 at North Acton
9th: Nick Gardner- 03:01:11 at West Brompton
8th: Kevin Brown, Damian & Matthew Cook- 02:53:17 at North Acton
=6th: Richard Standing- 02:47:20 at Ravenscourt Park
=6th: Clive Burgess- 02:47:20 at Ravenscourt Park
=3rd: Andrew Chilcraft- 02:42:59 at Edgware Road (Circle)
=3rd: David Edwards- 02:42:59 at Edgware Road (Circle)
=3rd: The Orange One and Josh Nichols-Ageros- 02:42:59 at Edgware Road (Circle)
2nd: Tangy- 02:41:36 at North Acton
1st: Peter Smyth- 02:37:45 at North Acton

The leaderboard now looks like this:

1st: Peter Smyth (24 overall points) [2 rounds attended]
2nd: David Edwards (20) [2]
3rd: Andrew Chilcraft (15) [2]
4th: The Orange One (13) [2]
=5th: Kevin Brown (11) [2]
=5th: Clive Burgess (11) [2]
7th: Tangy (10) [2]
=8th: Andrew Baker (8) [1]
=8th: Josh Nichols-Ageros (8) [1]
=10th: Richard Standing (5) [2]
=10th: Alisha Juszczyk (5) [1]
12th: Rhys Benjamin (4) [1]
=13th: James Ross (3) [2]
=13th: Myles Swaine-Grey (3) [1]
=13th: Glen Bryant (3) [1]
=13th: Damian Cook (3) [1]
=13th: Matthew Cook (3) [1]
=18th: Alex Kneller (2) [2]
=18th: Simon Kneller (2) [2]
=18th: Nick Gardner (2) [2]
=21st: Michael Churchill (0) [1]
=21st: Rob Lomas (0) [1]

Next event will be held on Saturday 20th January 2018.

Tangy
the BERC.