Random 15 2011 - 2012 - Round Four - 18 February 2012

[Going Underground]

Fact of the day - there is a 40% chance that at least one station will be in both envelopes.

Hopefully the last one I choose to visit in the 1st enevlope

[MylesHSG]

Dam, thats some clever maths Peter!

GU, I assume its you who has the darts sheets?

[Going Underground]

Dam, thats some clever maths Peter!

GU, I assume its you who has the darts sheets?

Yep The Raven may have printed some that I e-mailed him a couple of days ago as well, just in case things get iffy for me...

[The Raven]

Dam, thats some clever maths Peter!

GU, I assume its you who has the darts sheets?

Yep The Raven may have printed some that I e-mailed him a couple of days ago as well, just in case things get iffy for me...

I'm printing them as we speak!

[hopeful traveller]

Well, it certainly was an interesting challenge with the Bank Branch down!

Stations (Part I):

Oval
Elephant & Castle
Warren Street
Paddington (Bak, Cir, Dis)
Latimer Road
Goldhawk Road
Kilburn Park
Willesden Junction

So, meeting up at Oval, we opened envelope one and saw Elephant & Castle straight away. We realised that we needed to change at Waterloo due to the Bank Branch being down for engineering works. Andi overtook us immediately at Waterloo and then proceeded to go towards the northbound (as did Tangy). He got back on the same train (nuts , could have been one train ahead of Andi there). Elephant & Castle was okay but we changed at Waterloo again for the Northern Line.

By this time, Glen had gone somewhere and Tangy & Peter was nowhere to be seen. Kevin had stayed on the Bakerloo line and so Andi was with our team. At Warren Street we finally parted ways when we ran for Euston Square and Andi said that he was running for Regent's Park. We made our way west on a Hammersmith & City line train to Goldhawk Road (knocking out Latimer Road on the way). A slightly "sexy" Goldhawk Road - only slightly as I did the splits and bent my toe at the bottom of the stairs.

We got back to Paddington (H&C and Cir) and ran through the station to the other Paddington (Bak, Cir, Dis). We just missed a Queen's Park at Paddington - not helped by my ticket failing (and proceeded to fail at every gate after that). Nevertheless we got a Bakerloo and knocked out Kilburn Park and we finished part I at Willesden Junction, where we were greeted with the following:

White City
Victoria
Lambeth North
Bank
Mile End
Finsbury Park
Mornington Crescent

Realising that we had reached Willesden Junction in under 1:30 we made our way to platform 5 for an overground to Shepherd's Bush. It was at this point Myles knocked my water bottle over, and it ended up with what tasted like dog piss and stones in it. Myles also took the 6 minute opportunity to buy a coffee ( ). Once on the train, we were greeted with one of Myles' old schoolmates (the one who's a complete turd - come on, every school has one!) which meant that our door position (which needed refinement) was a bit out of touch. They then stalked us when running between the Shepherd's Bush (LORL) and Shepherd's Bush (LUL). We then knocked out White City (with Myles getting a splinter and a 4 minute wait) and then we ran to Wood Lane. We came down on the H&C to Hammersmith, ran to the other Hammersmith and this is where my alleged genius came in.

We had just missed a District Line (which we needed to get) and therefore I suggested that we get the first train (which was a Piccadilly) to Earl's Court, up THOSE stairs and (hopefully) back on track (no pun intended). It worked (although helped by a chorus of subdued Chelsea fans - better not mention the "F-word" - Fulham) but they all got off either at Victoria or Embankment (which is where we wanted to be). A very "sexy" Lambeth North (double back) and a complete cock-up at Waterloo on my part (navigational error) meant that we had to wait 2 minutes for a drain train. At Bank we got to the Central Line and just missed a Woodford via Hainault. We then got a Newbury Park (nowhere near as annoying) to Stratford (via Mile End) whereupon our plan was to take an overground to Highbury & Islington, go to Finsbury Park, come back down to Euston and go up one to Mornington Crescent. And that's what we did. Except for a nine-minute wait at Stratford (where the athletes in summer will need to be concentrating even harder to find out which gunshot means go), a good Finsbury Park (right up until a Piccadilly Line train failed opposite us, and so the "nice" driver waited for another minute) and just missed a train at Euston.

Final time: 3:55:46.67

Halfway time: About 1:28

And the Myles ran to Subway before the pub, where we came stone dead last.

Final results:

1 P Smyth (greatkingrat)
2 A James (palkanetoijala31)
= G Byrant (The Raven)
= Tangy (Tangy)
5 K Brown (Going Underground)
6 M Swaine-Gray & R Benjamin (MylesHSG & hopeful traveller)

Championship:

1 Andi James 46
2 Peter Symth 39
3 Glen Bryant 36
4 Myles Swaine-Gray 28
5 Kevin Brown 27
6 Tangy 19
7 Matt Nunn 12
= Al Brown 12
9 James Laughlin 12
10 Richie G 6
= Samantha Cawley 6
= Antony Brown 6
13 Rhys Benjamin 5
14 Jay 4

[palkanetoijala31]

glen myself and tangy all had same time kevin finished elsewhere in a different time.

[The Raven]

glen myself and tangy all had same time kevin finished elsewhere in a different time.

Indeed, the results are:

1st Peter 3:12:02 @ Mile End

=2nd Andi 3:13:39 @ Mornington Crescent
=2nd Glen 3:13:39 @ Mornington Crescent
=2nd Martin 3:13:39 @ Mornington Crescent
5th Kevin 3:23:17 @ Mile End
=6th Myles 3:55:46 @ Mornington Crescent
=6th Rhys 3:55:46 @ Mornington Crescent

The Random 15 table
1st Andi - 46 points
2nd Peter - 39 points
3rd Glen - 36 points
4th Myles - 28 points
5th Kevin - 27 points
6th Tangy - 19 points
=7th Al - 12 points
=7th Matt N - 12 points
=9th Anthony - 6 points
=9th Sam - 6 points
=9th Riche - 6 points
12th Rhys - 5 points
13th Jay - 4 point

Results video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO23ogqHLE8

[Iain]

Myles visited Subway?

[Going Underground]

A top day all round, some super darts in the evening and nice to meet The Hopeful Traveller, Rhys

I think the two envelopes twist worked really well and hopefully this will be included in the 2012-13 championships.....

Set 1 was fairly straightforward and I had more difficulty with set 2 travelling up and down on the tube a little too much to get a really competitive time and my lack of knowledge of the proximity of Cambridge Heath to Bethnal Green meant I overlooked the best way of connecting Finsbury Park Mile End...........

It was a little frustrating to just get to Willesden Junction 1 min after the Overground to Shepherds Bush had departed and doubling back to Kilburn Pk and getting the route 31 to Westbourne Park was time consuming with the 5 minute wait at Willesden as well............

I had a few delays late on in the second set of envelopes, 4 mins at Victoria for and Eastbound District, 5 mins at Embankment for a Southbound Bakerloo and then just over 5 mins at Waterloo for the drain...........

[hopeful traveller]

All in the Excel sheet now.

If Andi wins (at all) then it's over.

[MylesHSG]

For some reason I had a stinkker of a route.

Firstly we opened envelope 2 at Wilsden Junction. Could have been ok if for some stupid reason I didn't say lets waif for a LO to Shepards Bush and we walked/bused to Acton North...FAIL. We also waited at Stratford for a LO to Highbury and Islington to connect Myles End and
Finsbury Park...FAIL.

Though my darts were very good with a 126 and 123 and also 5? checkouts.

[palkanetoijala31]

Well i did the classic start by doubling back waterloo i didnt think i could run faster than the double back from kennington after changing at waterloo which didnt cost me i ran out of warren Street to Regents Park and lost tangy on a connection unfortunately he caught us up at Willesden Junc we both ran Kilburn Park to Westbourne park and all of us people who did 3 differant things were on same train.

Goldhawk rd which probably won Peter the round he got off very quick thinking there we had to db Hammersmith Kevin also managed to catch us up to run white city.changing at ox for victoria them embankment and db Lambeth North the drain was used perfect hoping that Glen might be lost on the run from Bethnal green to cambridge Heath he wasnt and we all finished the same at Mc.

[The Raven]

My day

Saturday was truly a game of two halves! The first list I took a route that no else did, while the second half was done by me, Andi and Tangy. Nice to met Hopeful Traveller in real life! I'm surprised no-one thought of going from Kennington to Elephant & Castle via Bus/Run. Though I didn't help myself by starting to run in the wrong direction! At Elephant & Castle I caught a Queen's Park Bakerloo. I therefore, decided to change at Oxford Circus to the Victoria and take out Warren Street. Got the perfect change at Oxford Circus, in and out in less than 20 seconds. OC is turning into one of my favourite stations! Then in a rather stupid move I thought I'd take the Overground to Willesden Junction. Rather than run from Warren Street to Regent's Park and take out Paddington. At Queen's Park I bumped into Kev, Andi, Pete and later Tangy.

Realising that as I still had to tick off Paddington, the others could "short-cut" ahead of me on the H&C on the way to Goldhawk Road. Fortunately I was on the same train as the others on the way to Goldhawk Road anyway. With the opening of the second envelope at Goldhawk Road, my first instinct was to jump off and head to White City but I then hesitated when I saw Victoria. After double backing at Hammersmith I ended with the others now minus Pete. Kudos to Andi who somehow ended up on the same Victoria train at Oxford Circus as me and Tangy even though he was in completely wrong door position! The three of us then ended up with the same route as each other all the way to Mornington Crescent.

My route
Oval Kennington E&C Oxford Circus Euston Willesden Junction Paddington Hammersmith Wood Lane White City Oxford Circus Victoria Embankment Lambeth North Waterloo Bank Mile End Bethnal Green Cambridge Heath Seven Sisters Euston Mornington Crescent

After the extremely unfriendly staff at the Rising Sun over their knackered dart board and the whole Christmas tree ridiculousness, I'd be very happy never to grace them with our company again, for a while! Mind the darts at the Horse and Groom was fantastic!

I laughed when I saw the dart sheets Soupy printed where labelled as "Raven's Revenge". If I ever open a pub that the name I'll chose!

[tangy]

So upon opening the envelope at Oval, the following 8 stations were revealed:

--Oval
--Elephant & Castle
--Warren Street
--Paddington (Bak, Cir, Dis)
--Latimer Road
--Goldhawk Road
--Kilburn Park
--Willesden Junction

Of which I thought was a relatively easy set of stations, though is surprising how many variations of route there was! The most obvious first station to visit was Elephant but with the Bank branch being closed meant a diversion via WAT then down to EPH.

Reverse at EPH to swap back to the Northern at WAt and carry on to Warren Street and like Andi decided to run along the Euston Road to Regents Park, I hestitated a bit as I noted a bus approach but declined to take it. I beat the bus to Regent's Park by running it, although Andi by this point got a train in front of me (the only time us two got separated).

My B'loo train was a through train to H&W so stayed on all the way to WIJ. I already knew I had missed the NLL to Shep. Bush (already had the times written down on my list of stations), so had to reverse and head back south on the B'loo. I decided upon the Kilburn Park- Westbourne park bus (as opposed to doing the Warwick Avenue run). In the event seeing quite a crowd at the bus stop me and Andi decided to run it to Westbourne Park (Kev stayed behind and await a bus). No bus overtook me and I ran the bus route.

Catching back up with Andi and a good H&C connection for once (the H&C is always EVL to me) to finish part one at Goldhawk Road.

[MylesHSG]

Well my and Rhy's route was differnt.

Upon opening the envelope we like the other decided that Elephant and Castle was the first to knock off. Unfortunatly via Waterloo. We were with Andi and the rest right up to Warren Street, where we decided to run to Euston Square to catch a Westbound H&C to Goldhawk Road then double back and take out Paddington (Bakerloo, Distict & Circle) up to Wilsden where my chain of thought was I'd rather open envelope two at a place where we have connections to the northern and western sides of zones 1&2. Indeed if we had anything on the Jubelee line up there we would have been laughing and unfortunatly the stations weren't kind to my chain out thought.

What followed we a series of blunders on my part. For some reson I did not suggest a run/bus to North Action. Instead we waited 9 minutes for an Overground to Shepards Bush.....It was a complete mental failure on my part im afraid. The rest was ok, with Starkey Stairs getting us a District ahead towards Embankment at Earls Court....but my god I was catching my breath up to Westminster!

After taking out Lambeth North we had to wait near enough 5 minutes for the Paris Metro to take us to Bank. To top it all off we waited 9 minutes at Straford for an Overground to take us to Highbury and Islington!

So apologies to Rhys for my Brain Freezes in the later half of the day! You would have got a better time without me (though a Myles End double back would have taken a while to be fair!).

As I said earlier my darts took on a new level with several T18's and a couple T20's along with lots of double outs. Agreed about the Rising Sun, the Horse and Groom is much nicer (when its quite!).