Zone 1 Challenge Cup 2025

[Oggm]

Me and Yifan completed in 03:21:43 at Knightsbridge. Route was thus:

Goodge Street (START) -> Euston (run to) -> Euston Square -> Moorgate -> KXX -> Leicester Square -> TCR -> Liverpool Street -> Aldgate (run to) -> Aldgate East -> Earl's Court -> Bayswater (run to) -> Queensway -> Bond Street -> Baker Street -> Paddington (Bakerloo) (run to) -> Paddington (H&C) -> GPS (run to) -> Regent's Park -> Elephant -> London Bridge -> Waterloo -> Kennington -> BPS (156 Bus to) -> Vauxhall -> Green Park -> Knightsbridge

Only about 20% of us chose to go n/b from the start with a 6 min wait; we joined many others on this service after they double backed at TCR. All was going smoothly until we just missed an Aldgate train from Liverpool Steet; only 2 mins delay was created. A long journey to Earl's Court passed much faster than expected. A whole 5 min wait for a Wimbleware. A 6 min wait for a service out of Paddington into GPS; here we ran to Regent's Park. The lift was open so we went inside; unfortunately it took a whole 20 seconds for it to get going down as we totally forgot to press the button; this was crucial as it caused us to miss a tight connection onto the Bakerloo line; with a 6 min wait ensuing. Annother 5 mins onto the Northern line; and then 8 mins were lost on the northern line going back south as the first service we went on chose to terminate at Kennington. We met Tangy at BPS waiting stranded as there was a 7 min wait for the next n/b service. Bus to Vauxhall took 6 mins to arrive. Finished at Knightsbridge. An ideal time without delays would land an 02:49. Remembering to press the button on the elevator at Regent's park should have given us a 03:15 (perhaps earlier as we would have made the previous BPS service (they were running at just under 6tph).

[Capelblue]

After heading to Goodge Street for the start I sat down and planned a route, but changed my mind at the last minute to make the runs later downhill rather than up. I headed north, so my watch did not start until 1:06. I got out at Euston for the run to Euston Square, realising quickly that I was not feeling very fit with the heat and humidity, I had to walk part of the way. The first train westbound was a Met line, so had to wait for the following H & C to get to Paddington. Down the platform, past the Brunel statue and onto the Bakerloo line to find Sasha and Tangy. Tangy left us at Oxford Circus, but we carried on to Elephant & Castle and would be together for quite a while (Sasha frequently leaving me for dust but not managing to get a train ahead). We changed onto the Northern line, and then onto the Jubilee line at London Bridge, and then through the travelators at Waterloo to the Northern line. Up until now the changes had been OK, but here we found a 7 minute wait for a BPS train, we got onto a Kennington train in the hope that there might better news there, but alas no. From Battersea we caught a 344 bus quickly, Sasha decided to bale out at the US embassy as we were at a red light and run, I carried on at the bus, the result ? We were on the same escalator at Vauxhall !

Up to Victoria we went, double back at Sloane Square, got to the platform to find a Tower Hill terminator there. We got on, and spent the journey trying to find a creative way to make the best of it, there was none we could come up with, so we got off at Monument and waited 8 minutes for an Upminster train (there was a Circle line train a minute earlier but the connection back looked very tight). Ran past Tangy going the other way between the Aldgates, getting onto a Met line train. Sasha went his own way at this point, heading up the train. I had decided to modify my route to avoid doing the CL to Farringdon run as I was exhausted, so I carried on to KC, changed on to the Piccadilly Line and all the way to Earl's Court where I changed onto the District line to Bayswater, ran to Queensway, all the way along to Bank, and up the Northern line to complete at Angel in a time of 3:22:52.

Only 2 good changes, most of them were around 5 minutes, but the lack of a Battersea train at Waterloo, and the Tower Hill terminator at Sloane Square cost me around 10 minutes.

Well done to Tangy for organising, apart from the heat is was a great day.

[Lunaticonthegrass]

It certainly sounds like you all had an eventful day!

From a Goodge Street start, my route plan would most likely have been as follows:

Goodge Street Euston Bank Queensway (run) Bayswater Earl's Court KXSP Paddingtons E&C London Bridge Waterloo BPS (run) Vauxhall Victoria Sloane Square Aldgates Farringdon

However, that may well have changed if I got badly caught up in delays, so I've no idea what my final route might have been.

[tangy]

The results of the Zone 1 challenge Cup 2025 held on Friday 30th May 2025.

It was another Northern Line start as GOODGE STREET was picked out of the bag.

There were 17 challengers split into 13 teams.

13th: Team Staffordshire (Andy JS) - finished but outside the time limit in 04:07:49.
12th: Richard Standing - finished but outside the time limit in 04:03:18.
11th: The Gorr (Goran Newsum) - completed 63 out of 67 stations within the time limit at Kennington.
10th: Smoke but no Fire (Andrew Baker) - completed 66 out of 67 stations within the time limit at Nine Elms.
9th: The Goodge, the Bad and the Fugly (Tangy) - completed in 03:38:28 at Charing Cross.
8th: The Victorious Line (Vincent Karthaus) - completed in 03:32:18 at Charing Cross.
7th: Broke the Bank to be Here (Leonard House and Jake McDuff) - completed in 03:31:12 at Charing Cross.
6th: Like London Bridge over Troubled Waterloo (Peter Smyth) - completed in 03:24:16 at Vauxhall.
5th: James Bond Street (Sacha Hunter) - completed in 03:23:51 at Bond Street.
4th: Probably not Goodge Enough (Ian McIntyre) - completed in 03:22:52 at Angel.
3rd: We used to finish at Vauxhall, now with Nine Elms we win sod all (Kevin Brown, Damian & Izzy Cook) - completed in 03:22:30 at Battersea Power Station.
2nd: Trains and Sniarts (Milo Ogidel and Yifan Luo) - completed in 03:21:43 at Knightsbridge.
1st: Elon Musk billions, that's a "Dick-mans-worth" (Glen Bryant) - completed in 03:19:18 at Kennington.

Best team name (judged jointly by challengers who were at the quiz but who did not do the challenge) was a tie between "Broke the Bank to be Here" and "Like London Bridge over Troubled Waterloo"

Best score in the quiz was a paltry 35.

Thank you to those that attended and hope to see you again at next year's event.

Tangy.
BOZO (Boss of Zone One).

[The Raven]

I do apologise I didn't realise I'd won until I saw Tangy message the next morning!

[greatkingrat]

Must be a record for the top 7 to have 7 different finishing stations?

[Oggm]

2014 - Lancaster Gate
Glen Bryant & Hugo Marrow - 03:12:45

The Raven now holds the record for the longest winning finishing time ever; previously also held by The Raven.

Edit: Apologies, I meant the longest winning time ever.

[The Raven]

I seem to do well when the system f*cks up!

If I remember correctly, that was the year where Bond Street was Jubilee only...

[penguin]

Must be a record for the top 7 to have 7 different finishing stations?

I was also surprised - a lot of people seemed not to have circular routes. Perhaps because of all the delays, people adapted a lot more. Although I think people in general made routes on the day, this time round.

(I used exactly the same route as I always do. And I didn't do particularly well...)

[tubeguru]

2014 - Lancaster Gate
Glen Bryant & Hugo Marrow - 03:12:45

The Raven now holds the record for the longest finishing time ever; previously also held by The Raven.

Not even close. A look at the 2010 results shows The Mile End Club finishing in 03:55:16. And I'm sure there have been times over four hours at some point, too.

Or is that not what you mean by "longest finishing time ever"?

[Lunaticonthegrass]

2014 - Lancaster Gate
Glen Bryant & Hugo Marrow - 03:12:45

The Raven now holds the record for the longest finishing time ever; previously also held by The Raven.

Not even close. A look at the 2010 results shows The Mile End Club finishing in 03:55:16. And I'm sure there have been times over four hours at some point, too.

Or is that not what you mean by "longest finishing time ever"?

I suspect that he means "longest winning time ever".

[tubeguru]

That would make more sense. And surely, he means "slowest", not "longest"

[Oggm]

That would make more sense. And surely, he means "slowest", not "longest"

Yup................. The slowest winning finishing time ever!