Christmas Park Challenge day II (Eve unplanned 15 POSTPONED)

[Going Underground]

What are some previous times for the Park challenge? Because I think with James' route we'll still be going by that time

I have just looked up team Brown/Starkey time from 2006, starting at Wimbledon Park and finishing at Moor Park, 9hrs 43mins 10secs

I had forgotten quite how time consuming this so I think the points system will almost certainly come into play........

I think Ric's point about 18:45 hrs being the cut off time is quite valid, but for example you could plan a Cannons Park & Wembley Park finish and still get to Willesden Green by 19:15hrs...

So I would like propose a that you have until 19:00 hrs to vist your "last" Park station, however if you do not arrive at Willesden Green by 19:15hrs then the points for your last station visited are deducted.....

Complicated stuff this eh......

[Dr Who]

Well this year we could try this, Each team gets a bonus point for any station they take a picture of during the challenge.
So for example if you visit all 24 Stations & get a picture outside Holland Park & Moor Park your Total Score will be 26 points.

[Going Underground]

Well this year we could try this, Each team gets a bonus point for any station they take a picture of during the challenge.
So for example if you visit all 24 Stations & get a picture outside Holland Park & Moor Park your Total Score will be 26 points.

I think what gives the Park challenge it's unique charm and character is the fact that unlike the other challenges you have to leave each station and take a photo........so perhaps we should keep to the original format with the "points for zones" system for unfinished routes

[tpfkar]

Nice ideas - there are I think several ways of making this work.

I'd actually suggest twisting it slightly; rather than just losing your last station if you are late (in that case I'll finish at 10pm if that's what it takes)
do it as a score orienteering event:

Every station in Zone x counts for x points.

For every minute or part minute you arrive at Willesden Green after 19:15 you lose a point.

This would reflect more accurately the significance of being slightly/very late, and can be expressed simply in those two rules in bold.

[jamesthegill]

I wasn't planning on doing the evening challenge (as I have a gig I'm off to later that night in Welwyn) so will I still get deducted points? I'm not likely to be able to get to Willesden Green until Saturday 29th, I think I'll be in the minus figures by then...

[Soup Dragon]

I'm not planning on doing this challenge at all as I'm saving myself for Saturday 22nd and the ELL closure challenges. Shame that I can't make it because it sounds like it will be fun, but unfortunately work must come first.

[Going Underground]

Nice ideas - there are I think several ways of making this work.

I'd actually suggest twisting it slightly; rather than just losing your last station if you are late (in that case I'll finish at 10pm if that's what it takes)
do it as a score orienteering event:

Every station in Zone x counts for x points.

For every minute or part minute you arrive at Willesden Green after 19:15 you lose a point.

This would reflect more accurately the significance of being slightly/very late, and can be expressed simply in those two rules in bold.

Nice idea Ric but I don't really want anyone who is doing the evening challenge getting to Willesden Green later than 19:15 or we are going to have trouble getting the unplanned 15 off the ground and Andrew is coming down from Birmingham and we may have others that may come straight from work....

So I suggest this, which only comes into play IF you haven't visited all the park stations....

Score as suggested 6 points for each Zone 6 visit down to 1 point for each Zone 1 station....

The challenge ends at 18:45 hours, stop your watch and head for Willesden Green, but be sensible...... Make sure you are no more than 30mins maximum travelling time from Willesden Green at this time..
Don't find yourself at somewhere like Elm Park

Alternatively Dr Who has suggested that for this years Park Challenge (ONLY) we scrap the aspect of leaving the stations and taking a photo and just visit them by tube train.....ala any other challenge...But how much
quicker would this be, 1-2 hours maybe?

poll started here;

http://www.tubechallenge.com/forum/view ... 6856#16856

[tpfkar]

Hmmm...have been thinking a bit more about this, and have posted my thoughts on the voting thread.

[Going Underground]

Hmmm...have been thinking a bit more about this, and have posted my thoughts on the voting thread.

Having discussed with Ric we have decided to postpone the Willesden Green unplanned 15 until early 2008.......
My apologies to Andrew and anyone else that was hoping to come along in the evening, if you can PM me some available dates when you would be able to to do this in the New Year we will get something organised to suit all.........

OK so back to the Park Challenge which will now take the traditional format of an external station photo being required.

RULES

1) Still meet and start from Woodside Park 10:30 - 11:00 hrs.
2) The stopwatch starts when you take you first external photo at Woodside Park. You may go back and try again if you miss the train.
The stopwatch is stopped when you have taken the external photo of your last Park station OR if you have arrived at your last station via foot, bus, mountain goat or hang glider then you need to depart from that station and stop the watch when the doors open at the NEXT station along...
3) ALL team members must go outside the station and not just the photographer. For example if you are in a team of 2 and arrive at Tufnell Park then the "non" photographer is not allowed to wait at platform level...

We can decide on the day where to meet up afterwards, somewhere central might be sensible as we could be all be quite far flung at the end... Unfortunately Ric the purse strings are very tight at this time of the year so I am afraid that a restaraunt won't be possible..


OK any further questions please let me know, now get on and plan your routes.....

[Going Underground]

If nobody has any objections could I propose that we meet up for our "post-challenge" gathering in the upstairs room at the Angel in the Fields, Thayer Street.......

With the possibility of far flung finishes and varying times if we decide on somewhere like McD's you could end up waiting for well over an hour and is the pub is much more comfortable as well........

I would guess that depending on where teams are finishing this should be around 7.30 - 8pm ish...... We can then have a nice relaxing drink and even possibly something to eat their, obviously we can discuss in more detail at the time......

[Starkey7]

Slight bump here.
Kevin, would you edit your original post in this thread? Anyone looking at it will see, "Ah, 11am start. I'll be there then then." If you want us there by 10:30am then make sure it's clear.
And I'm still confused by the starting time! I'll be leaving Euston at about 10:15am heading northbound, and I imagine that it'll take approximately twenty-seven minutes from there, give or take five minutes.

And my camera is up the creek with no paddle at all. Sigh.

[tpfkar]

Looking forward to seeing you on Friday at 10:30 at Woodside Park.

If anyone is interested, I just had a look at what the Unplanned stations would have been as it's no longer happening, and it's a bit of a joke. I've changed the order around a bit, but I don't think it would take too much effort to connect the following:

Willesden Green
Paddington (H+C)
Ladbroke Grove
Hammersmith (D+P)
West Brompton
High St Ken
Green Park
Oxford Circus
Embankment
Lambeth North
Old St
Bethnal Green
Mile End
Stepney Green
Shadwell

I ran my program lots of times while testing it, and never came out with as straightforward set of stations as that lot! Lost chance for a record

[Going Underground]

Slight bump here.
Kevin, would you edit your original post in this thread? Anyone looking at it will see, "Ah, 11am start. I'll be there then then." If you want us there by 10:30am then make sure it's clear.
And I'm still confused by the starting time! I'll be leaving Euston at about 10:15am heading northbound, and I imagine that it'll take approximately twenty-seven minutes from there, give or take five minutes.

And my camera is up the creek with no paddle at all. Sigh.

OK post edited the starting time is now not so critical that we have scrapped the evening unplanned 15 (Ric I thought we that we going to save the Willesden Green start for sometime in the New Year )

So the plan would be to get to Woodside Park as near to 10:30 as possible, hopefully we should be able to start by 11:00hrs...

[tpfkar]

Sorry to hear that scrsixi!

And no worries GU, can easily generate another set of stations starting from Willesden Green if required. (But it's such a bad starting station I expect people would be happy to redraw anyway.)

[tangy]

Can't come to this one (never done a park challenge yet) and it won't be this year! Two of my workmates have beaten me to taking the 21st Dec off which means I have to be in work!

Bah Humbug!

Have fun guys