For all you sport fans out there, you may know that there were quite a few FA Cup matches taking place this weekend (and at the time of writing, there are four matches still to be played). One of those matches was Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League (the top tier of English football) taking on my local team Wycombe Wanderers of League Two (the fourth tier of English football). Wait, where are you going? Come back, there are trains, I promise!
So once again, as I nearly always do (barring the rare occasion where I know I’ll need to leave London later than midnight - possibly more about that later in the year), I stood at the platform of Wendover, this time with my brother, Rowan. We boarded what started out as a fairly empty train soon filled with the men, women and children of Buckinghamshire at Great Missenden and Amersham (not so much at Chalfont & Latimer), all clad with light and dark blue scarves and quartered shirts of light and dark blue. Here is my example:
What a top! But the passenger numbers still increased as we went on and due to engineering works between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Aldgate on the Metropolitan line, by Harrow-on-the-Hill the train was crammed, despite being 5 cars (the maximum on the line is 6 cars) and despite extra services being run between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Marylebone by Chiltern Railways.Â
Eventually, we arrived at Marylebone and once again found myself walking to Baker Street in order to catch either a Circle line or Hammersmith & City line train (the works didn’t affect these lines between Baker Street and Aldgate/Aldgate East). I think the Circle and Hammersmith & City line platform at Baker Street will probably be one of my favourite platforms on the Underground:
I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the prettiest and certainly isn’t bright and cheery. I guess it’s the history and the Victorian-ness of it, knowing that once upon a time, steam trains would pass through here, without it looking all that different to how it does now.
As it happened, it was a Hammersmith & City line train as we made our way through several stations before finally arriving at Liverpool Street. Upon crossing the ticket barrier on our way up to the mainline platforms, this became station 7/270.
Rowan and I had arrived at Liverpool Street at about 12:45, lunchtime in my eyes. So we grabbed a pasty at the pasty store as I looked out for a train to White Hart Lane. I had my eye on a 13:00 London Overground service which at 12:59 still had no platform number whilst also saying it was “due 13:03.″ So we waited, whilst another service to White Hart Lane flashed up on platform 4. Eventually the 13:00 service disappeared without a platform number appearing, leading me to believe it had been cancelled. So we got on the next train, which was a very irregular service by Greater Anglia to Cheshunt via Seven Sisters. They were running this service due to the fact that the route via Tottenham Hale was shut for more engineering works (what a weekend to plan all these works!). It wasn’t as busy as I was expecting and by the train departed at 13:12, there were only really about 10 people on our carriage. The train made a couple of stops at Hackney Downs and Seven Sisters before arriving at White Hart Lane.
Now, the 270 stations don’t cover the London Overground, DLR, tram etc. These can be done optionally but due to the fact I’m poor and probably won’t be spending many days just to go to London to specifically ride trains (my ideal day), I won’t be counting these.Â
Anyway, onto the rest of the day, where I bought my matchday programme and a half-and-half scarf before heading into the ground and taking my seat in the upper tier of the South Stand.
What you may notice is the lack of seating in the far corner. This is due to Tottenham building a new ground just metres from White Hart Lane (in fact you can see the cranes where the new stadium will be built). If we were to beat Tottenham or they weren’t to play another home match in the competition, this could be the last ever FA Cup match at White Hart Lane. Although the new stadium won’t be ready until the 2018/19 season, Tottenham are looking to use Wembley as their home stadium for the duration of the 2017/18 season.
Anyway, enough about stadia and facts surrounding and onto the match. It very nearly was the perfect start for Wycombe as their captain Paul Hayes headed against the crossbar in the first minute. However despite pressure at both ends, it was the Chairboys (Wycombe’s nickname due to the history of chair-making in High Wycombe) who took a surprise lead thanks to Hayes’ volley. And the lead was doubled after Sam Wood was brought down in the penalty spot - the follwing penalty was converted by Hayes. Wycombe kept a 2-0 lead at the half time whistle but conceded two early goals in the 2nd half, first from Son Heung-min and then from the penalty spot by Vincent Janssen to make it 2-2. There was then late ecstasy as substitute Garry Thompson then headed in to give Wycombe a 3-2 lead in the 83rd minute. But a mistake from Wycombe’s goalkeeper Jamal Blackman ensured England international Dele Alli slotted home from close-range to take it 3-3. Could Wycombe hang on to enforce a replay in High Wycombe? Sadly not. After 6 minutes of added time (due to an injury to Tottenham’s Kieran Trippier which forced him off the field after Tottenham had made their three substitutions - meaning that Tottenham finished the game with 10 men), Son once again snuck through and broke Wycombe players and fans’ hearts in the 97th minute.Â
Dejectedly, we walked back to White Hart Lane station where in typical British fashion, we queued to get into the station for at least 10-15 minutes. Eventually we made it onto the platform where a London Overground train was pulling up. I had a cunning plan to add another station to my “done” list; to cut off two sides of a triangle, we disembarked at Seven Sisters and made our way to the Victoria line platform.Â
Upon writing this, I was confident that this station had been done that I’d already crossed it off my tube map as a done station. However upon writing the above paragraph, it slowly dawned on me that I never actually crossed a ticket barrier at Seven Sisters, despite going from Overground to Underground, meaning I can’t count this as a station done, only as an interchange. I’m now rather frustrated so will have to now redo this in my own time if I get another opportunity. I took a picture anyway to prove I’ve been here:
Finally we took the Victoria line down to King’s Cross St. Pancras before changing onto the Hammersmith & City line, returning to Baker Street, walking back to Marylebone and returning to Wendover. A doubly frustrating day, due to both the football and the station incident. I’m now 2.59% of the way through the challenge. This is my new tube map (still very bare):
You can just about see Seven Sisters in the top right corner crossed off. I have discounted this and as stated earlier, will try to make up for this in my own time…
