Tube Olympics - Random 15 Challenge - 19th July

[Going Underground]

Nice one should give us some interesting starting options....

[tangy]

Just like to say that I will be attending thi event, love a good R15.

[palkanetoijala31]

just to let u know my fellow record holder i plan to do this myself and win no hard feelings

[Soup Dragon]

The most popular time for this Saturday's R15 Challenge is 13:00, anyone wishing to take part who has not already PM'd me, please add your name to the list of competitors below. Does anyone know a good place to meet at Holborn Station? If anyone needs my mobile number please PM me then if you are running late on Saturday we can delay the start.

Random 15 competitors
Matt Scrivin
Kevin Brown
Ryan Brown
Andrew Baker
Justin & Richard (Perry Vale & Ric Mansworth)
Martin Hazel
Andi James
Antony Brown
Phil Brown
.....I'm sure there are more...?

[dudey]

Well I'm certainly looking forward to this tomorrow! Should definitely be an interesting day, what with the Victoria and Jubilee closures to get around there are some stations it will be tricky to visit, even though i know we're only going to open ones! By the way it was mentioned there might be additional station closures, but the tfl site suggests this will not be the case and it will only be the ones which we have already excluded from the draw.

Just wanted to ask the TOSA about the final details for tomorrow. Whereabouts are going to meet around Holborn station? Also I take it we are aiming for a 1pm start? Finally, is it going to be the Horse & Groom afterwards or are you fancying a change?

See everyone tomorrow!

[Soup Dragon]

Yes it's 1pm tomorrow at Holborn, I don't really know the station layout or if there are more than one set of ticket barriers? Assuming there are lets say meet at the High Holborn entrance!
The meet afterwards will probably be at the Horse & Groom again, unless there are any other suggestions. I've updated the list of competitors, I'm expecting 13 people, possibly more, so medals will be hard to come by.

Competitors for the R15 Challenge
Matt Scrivin
Kevin Brown
Ryan Brown
Andrew Baker
Justin & Richard (Perry Vale & Ric Mansworth)
Martin Hazel
Andi James
Antony Brown
Phil Brown
Matt Nunn
Steven Karahan
John Stark
Peter Smyth

[Soup Dragon]

me & Phil are leaving Worthing now see you all later

[Going Underground]

I will be going today although still suffering with a stomach bug so getting around without being sick is the main objective..
That's last place taken care of.....

[Soup Dragon]

Well that was fun, the biggest event of the games so far. There were 10 teams and 16 competitors in total, and despite several line closures a new record for the R15 was set.

The stations to come out of the hat:
Holborn
Blackfriars
Bond Street
Clapham South
Elephant & Castle
Green Park
High Street Kensington
Kensal Green
Kensington (Olympia)
Ravenscourt Park
Russell Square
South Kensington
Temple
Warwick Avenue
Whitechapel

The full result and updated medals table is available on Tube Olympics

Myself & Phil finally arrived at Worthing at 00:10 this morning and then had a lovely 20 minute walk home, still it was worth the late finish after such a good day.

[Soup Dragon]

^
^
^
It's a hard life being an Olympic athlete isn't it Matt?

[Going Underground]

Got to say really enjoyed that one despite not finishing on the rostrum and good to see so many people turn out for the event....
I think the line closures made it even more fun and interesting.......

The evening almost finished with Soup Dragon wanting to go clubbing with Ann, Katherine with a "K" and their other friend who's name escapes me but would we have got in with Tube Olympic t-shirts, shorts & trainers

Nearly the highest finish of the night Matt, my 73 just pipped you and most other games finished on 2

As discussed this Saturday R15 seems a real success and it would be great do meet up and do this on 1/4 year basis......

Perhaps we can set a date in Sept / Oct that would suit most?

[palkanetoijala31]

To Say i was not good at this challenge is an understatement i just cant think randomly and quickly enough to have the best route and know where to go so i decided to go on the fly.

my route began at Holborn going down to South Kensington knocking off Green Park along the way my idea was to get down to Clapham South and hope the Northern line buggered up somehow.Dont ask me why but i decided to go down the Wimbledon branch got off at East putney should have continued to Wimbledon maybe and got a bus 337/37 to Clapham Common and did a double back then up to Bank and ran to monument which i have never done before a whitechapel double back.

Ticked off all the stations to Ravenscourt Park knew the times of Olympia trains running up 54,20 mins past hour at Earls court so double back got in at 51 mins past hour perfect up to Olympia and ran just made bus 9 allthough i was intending to run the whole way.

Up to Kensal Green and down to Russell Square and Bond Street a weird choice but as a first attempt at a random 15 i at least i learnt what to do take 5 mins to plan ur route have a bloomy bus map with u and a-z as i found out later when i couldnt find the pub.But in all a good fun day and i didnt do too bad at darts either.

[A2]

Myself and Lewis took 5 minutes at the start to locate all the stations and come up with a route which was all well and good until we changed it and ended up doing something completeley different.
Straightforward start, Holborn to Russell Square (closed), so doubled back at Kings Cross and stuck on the pic down through Green Park and South Kensington to Hammersmith to change for district and the double back at Ravenscourt Park.
Returned to Earls Court and the HSK train came in, intending to double back to Olympia and then take the Overground up to Willesden Junction to come back in on the Bakerloo. Thankfully a couple of people we ran into at High Street Kensington pointed out that the overground was closed for engineering works, otherwise we would probably still be at Olympia waiting for a train. Arrived at Olympia only to find that the rail replacement busses were getting horribly delayed in traffic and there wouldn't be another one for about half an hour. Time to replan the route.
We ended up going along to Victoria and taking the Southern line down to Balham to come back up the Northern through Clapham South to Elephant and Castle. Bakerloo to Embankment and then District via Temple and Blackfriars to Whitechapel. Doubled back at Whitechapel to Aldgate East because there was a District train in, and we weren't sure where the H&C would leave from at Whitechapel depending on where it happened to be terminating at that point) Then had to wait ages at Aldgate East for a H&C to Liverpool Street (probably should have caught a bus or something instead) and Central across to Bond Street. We had a long unexplained stop at Chancery Lane (about 5 minutes) but the driver made up for it for the rest of the trip by opening the doors at each station and then announcing that the train was ready to depart and closing them about 10 seconds later.
Jubilee up to Baker Street, during which time the driver ranted over the tannoy at a large group of teenagers who'd all tried to board the train through one set of doors and stopped them closing) Finally Bakerloo line up to Warwick Avenue and Kensal Green.

Total time 3:42.59


All in all, a very good fun day and I managed to make my train home with a minute to spare and got a seat (unlike the journey down)
Almost missed my bus though as there had been reports of someone sitting on the edge of the platform at Wembley Stadium and so we had to crawl through there meaning I had to run upon arrival :/

[Soup Dragon]

I have no complaints Mr "Double Gold medallist", this time I was beaten fair and square. I really thought that 3:09:00 would be good enough to medal. Now I have to wait until Tuesday to try and increase my medal haul.

[jbom1]

Thanks everyone for a fun day. I did

[Holborn,1]-[Bond Street,2]-Queensway-Bayswater-Paddington-[Warwick Avenue,3]-Queen's Park-[Kensal Green,4]-Euston-King's Cross-[Russell Square,5]-[Green Park,6]-[South Kensington,7]-[Ravenscourt Park,8]-Earl's Court

where I had a wait long enough that I should have gone to HSK to pick up the Olympia train there, but instead I went

Earl's Court-[Olympia,9]-[HSK,10]

after that, I should probably have gone to Temple, Blackfriars & Whitechapel, than back to Embankment, Elephant & Castle, then Clapham South. This would have been 15-20 minutes quicker. Instead I had a complete mare, which is probably best forgotten, but involved a span of 52 minutes before arriving at my 11th station, Clapham South. It also involved the Wimbledon branch - getting on a train I wish I'd missed at HSK.

Wimbledon-Merton Park (Tramlink)-bus to South Wimbledon-[Clapham South,11]-[Elephant & Castle,12]-Embankment-[Temple,13]-[Blackfriars,14]-[Whitechapel,15]