Random 15 Championship 11/12 - Round 2 - 17th September

[MylesHSG]

In...thanks to facebook (haven't been on here since I added you all on FB)

In answer to your question Raven, yeah, sounds great, afterall I got to keep up my 100% winning record

[Soup Dragon]

Unfortunately I will be unable to make Saturday, therefore I am looking for a substitute BERC.
I will do the draw and give the envelopes to Kevin, so the main BERC duties will be to get the start underway and to verify and announce the results at the pub. Any volunteers please put your hand up.

[snudge27]

I'll do it, if there are no objections

[Soup Dragon]

I'll do it, if there are no objections

In the words of Lord Sugar "James, you're hired".
I have reviewed the stations which have been selected and I would class them as a difficult set.
My estimated time to visit all stations is 4h45m, therefore I think that the time limit should be extended to 5 hours.
I would recommend you try and start as promptly as possible because they really are very tough stations.
Have fun and sorry I cant be there

[The Raven]

May have a mate of mine, Nick, joining in. However, he seems more interested in the pub meet up afterwards than the challenge!

[Going Underground]

May have a mate of mine, Nick, joining in. However, he seems more interested in the pub meet up afterwards than the challenge!

Which is going to be very late

[waterloo and city]

Everytime one of these R15 happens now, I'm either ill, Bishops Stortford are playing at home or the trains aren't running properly! Oddly today it's all 3 at once! I have a pretty bad migrane, Stortford are at home to Stalybridge Celtic (which I'm gonna try and make it to!) and the trains aren't running between Stortford and Cambridge either! Next time...

Adam.

[greatkingrat]

So who's up for the Z3+4 R15, without visiting Z1/2, next year? Time limit 7 hours

[Going Underground]

So who's up for the Z3+4 R15, without visiting Z1/2, next year? Time limit 7 hours

Yeah why not today I went to lots of new places on several bus routes I had never even heard of Lets make it 8 hours though

[Edgemaster]

As the sub-sub-BERC (as I turned up in the pub first), here's the results:
1. Andi 4:08:30 finishing at Stockwell
2. greatkingrat 4:38:18 at Mile End
3. Going Underground, 14 stations in 4:36:26 at Walthamstow Central (15 in 5:41:46 at Mile End)
4. MilesHSG & TheRaven, 14 stations in 4:44:47 at Walthamstow Central
5. uefacup81, 11 stations in 4:06:42

I'll leave point allocation to the actual BERC

[palkanetoijala31]

Well it certainly was an interesting challenge and i think one for the runners.

stations were

mile end
walthamstow
ladbroke grove
warwick avenue
harlesden
hendon central
east finchley
vauxhall
stockwell
turnham green
stamford brook
south ealing
ealing broadway
archway
oxford circus

Taking a minute or two to circle them all on the map noticed that the south eastern corner was a bit bare so thought Mile end was a good finishing or starting point to exit zone 1 i thought i need a bit of time to work a route out and knew how to get to Walthamstow so headed for Mile End and continued on to Leyton.

On exiting at Leyton saw a bus i think it was a 158 knew it go a little up the road when it diverted from where i wanted to go i got off and ran up to the bakers arms and got a 257 i think to queens road where i jumped off and ran into Walthamstow onto a waiting Victoria line train.

With the aid of Richie G very helpful map and much smaller than mine planned i switched at Finsbury Park for a Pic and down to Holloway Road where i knew it was a straight road and many buses towards Archway although i had to run a fair bit before 1 caught me up.

Archaway gone and 4 crossed off a quick trip up to East Finchley crossed off 5 out at Finchley Central and a run downhill towards Hendon Central again quick spotting by me picked up bus 326 after running about half a mile which i knew went close but didnt know exactly where it was going so had map open and following it down the road thankfully it didnt turn off and went straight there.

Hendon Central 6 gone i had planned to go down to Hampstead and try the Overground across to Willesden Junction so i ran downhill to Finchley road and Frognal beautiful got there and only a 2 min wait for next train.a quick hop to Harlesden and back down for the Warwick Avenue to Royal Oak run which i think everyone did im still debating on the quickest way over the canal or along busy main road i work it out 1 day and Royal oak is fast becoming an annoying station for me a 8 min wait!.

So Ladbroke Grove got rid of 9 and a slippery wet run from Wood Lane to White city on to the Ealing Broadway train took out 10 debated on whether to go down South Ealing but when u have a district hop on and leaves 5s later i think i chose right.Acton Town a quick double back to South Ealing its at the back of the train James u should do the Northfields double back game more.

At Acton town again saw the distrcit opposite platform thinking its going to go it didnt in fact the pic even left first so i was happy and managed to take 12 and 13 Turnham Green and Stamford Brook thought do i risk Earls Court or run from West Kensington to West Brompton decided to run and it was right decision and probably made it closer to the 4h mark i ran into the station and the southern was just arriving battling through the crowds just made by the skin of my teeth.Couldnt get the perfect door position for Clapham Junction and a bit of a panic with all those platforms i think i got the best a 2min wait for a train to Vauxhall.

Vauxhall a run down the famous Zone 1 start stairs all them years ago and a quick blast down to Stockwell for a finish was surprised at how well i had done if you do it next year its either a bus man dream ie tangy or a runner long distance.

[The Raven]

Right the results video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3FIhpqGCfY

Mine and Myles route was thus:
After looking through the list of stations at Oxford Circus and ticking them off I spotted Stockwell and Vauxhall. Therefore, we headed down on a Southbound Victoria. Double-backed to Vauxhall and changed onto SouthWest train to Clapham Junction where are original plan was get a London Overground to West Brompton but when we got there no train for 13 minutes, dam!

We therefore improvised on the fly and got another SouthWest train to Richmond and tried to double-back at Stanford Brook. Unfortunately we were so busy working out routes and forget to get off at Stanford Brook and carried straight onto Ravenscourt Park! As it turned out we didn't miss any westbound District trains so therefore double-backed at Ravenscourt Part and then got off at Acton Town.

Jumped straight onto a Picc to South Ealing and doubled-backed to Acton Town where we missed another District and had probably are longest wait at Acton Town waiting to go to Ealing Broadway. Mind you we did met James going in the opposite direction and therefore had a bit of company! At Ealing Broadway changed onto the Central to White City. From there we walked to Wood Lane passed BBC television centre. At this point is was raining and we were dreading the Royal Oak to Warwick Avenue run and getting soaked! Fortunately it cleared up a bit from then on!

At Warwick avenue we got a Bakerloo to Stonebridge Park and then got the sexist change of the day onto a bus to Brent Cross. Why is the shopping centre so far away from the station? Anyway, from Brent Cross we double-backed from Hendon Central down to Camden Town on the Northern and up to East Finchley. Doubling back to Archway.

After getting out at Archway I made the biggest cock-up by starting to run down the wrong road to Holloway Road. Myles thankfully got us going in the right direction! After running after a bus asking him to wait for Myles he promptly told me "no" and drove off, charming! Therefore on the way to Walthamstow Central we were split up. As it turned out though we still would have come 4th anyway.

Having 15mins on the clock and one more station to do, Mile End, we gave up and went to the pub!

[MylesHSG]

What a bitch of a challenge

Well I was rather confident going round, thinking a good second place might be in order, especially after meeting James halfway round, I must admit after that I slowed down a tad . On reflection our route was not the best, though we did make some good changes to it on the fly, especially the bus to Brent Cross from Stonebridge Park.

The main diffecence yesterday from round 1 was the lack of 'sexy' changes we had. Almost everything went right for us in July, and yesterday was a mixed bag, especailly getting lost twice, having the worst change ever(?) at Vauxhall and that 15 minute wait for a District Line train.

To top it off I was shocking at darts .....didn't win a single game!

And could even get smashed as my car was parked at Watford Met

Oh and for some reason I signed myslef up to a full network with Glen, Andi and James

[The Raven]

It would have interesting to see how Tangy would have done on the challenge with his bus knowledge!

[Going Underground]

Thanks to The Raven for coming up with the "Anti Z1 R15"

Anyhow circling the stations I immediately thought this doesn't look too bad and decided on circular finishing at Mile End, A) because it was tricky to get there from any Stations in the South and B) Cos it was near the Pub
At this point I had no idea how I was going to link them up but had plenty of time to consult bus and train maps en-route

Heading South to tick off Vauxhall & Stockwell with all bar Andi & James I was surprised that no one else was heading South on the Northern Line with we to get to Clapham Junction via Balham, of course its now seems so obvious doubling back Vauxhall would have been better

A couple of mins at Balham then I saw an Overground in the far platform at CLJ while running and talking to Soup Dragon but turned out it had just arrived...
West Brompton for a district to Earls Court (considered and refused the run to West Kensington)
At Earls Court an Olympia train was in (where are they when you need them ) and only 2 mins for an Ealing Broadway... Changed at Acton Town and should have got a bus from South Ealing to Ealing Broadway but though I should have time to double back for the next District line train, I didn't and sat outside Acton as it passed me

Very slow into Ealing Broadway, sprinted round for a Central Line and reached the end of the carriage as the doors closed, 7 minutes wait

Ran White City Wood Lane and the weather now looking "iffy" Ran Park Royal Warwick Ave in light but quite refreshing rain straight onto a Bakerloo train, lovely
Stayed on to Stonebridge Park and coming out saw a 112 at the bus stop, sprinted down and caught this to Brent Cross Shopping centre, took ages my first visit to Staples Corner in the process. Had I known which bus stop next I could have got a route 210 immediately but it pulled away.. I didn't have a map of this area tried running and finding Brent Cross station but was lost so headed back and caught the next 210...
Up to Hendon Central and ran to the wrong bus stop / direction couldn't cross the road here due high fence in the middle, time I ran back and round the right was I just missed a 326, was showing 2 mins for for a 143 which then changed to 3 mins and stayed on 3 mins for about 7 mins before it turned up

Got off at Finchley Central straight onto an East Finchley terminator, and then another train to Tufnell Park where I picked up a route 4 bus within 1 minute to Finsbury Park....

Checking the watch at Walthamstow Central my 14th station I had around 24 mins to get to Mile End.... Lets give it a go I found my way to the bus station and there are plenty of routes that go to Leyton so I jumped on the route 48....
We crawled along but I thought just give me 5 or 6 mins from Leyton station.... Well the nearest I saw of Leyton was a sign saying "3/4 mile" It then dawned on me passing signposts showing Leyton was the opposite way that route 48 wasn't going to get me there

On we went down Lea Bridge Road in heavy traffic, through Clapton and then I saw Hackney Central station so got off, couldn't find the entrance by the time I did people were walking towards me I struggled to get past and missed an Overground to Stratford by a few seconds....
So eventually getting the 15th station outside of the time limit and to the pub at 1830hrs