There has been a change of arrangements for 21st October. An email was sent out today…
“We wanted to let you know there will be a change in start time, and all participants will now be starting at 11.30am, sorry for the change. We will include a light breakfast, sandwich lunch and afternoon snack and you will be welcome to stay and watch the next heats if you’re not successful in the first round. Doors will be open from 11am.”
A further email exchange got the response…
“We will be aiming to have doors slightly earlier so we can get guests through and up, additionally having only one initial heat does give us more flexibility in pushing the start time back slightly later so everyone can get settled if we need to. There will be heat number one for all participants, heat two for the quickest 50% of the first round, and then a final made up of 3 people. “
Not had this email. Was it sent to all the contestants?!
Or just those on the early shift, perhaps?
I think it was sent to just those who had signed up to the 9:30 session as the full message included “We appreciate you may have booked trains etc to get you in for 9.30am so please let us know if this is a problem. “
I am thinking that demand has not been as high as they would have wanted, so save money by condensing two heats into one..
I presume the same though I can’t see that they’d save much money.
My take on it is that…
1. The 9:30 session (an hour earlier than the first one last time) was unpopular and the 11:30 one oversubscribed so it would be fairer to join them into one session.
2. They can accommodate everyone who has signed up in the one session.
P.S. I hate to mention it, but there’s still time for the railworkers to call a strike that weekend, which would scupper me attending, for one.
A rail strike would hit attendance quite hard I expect.. I could drive up if I had to, and park at my son’s, in Bermondsey.. but I would not be keen. If you are going to come bottom anyway, it doesn’t really matter if there are 100 other contenders, or only 10 🙂
Agreed, my take is that, with it being half term and relatively late notice, they got nowhere near 200 competitors and perhaps even less than 100, hence the plan to go with just one heat
Still looking forward to it and hope to say hello to a few people from here
Thanks for sharing. I didn’t see this email, despite apparently opting for the morning session.
Hi Crucifer, you should have had an email if you booked for the 0930 session. Please email puzzles@thetimes.co.uk and I’ll make sure it gets to you.
The Championship announcement is still appearing beneath the puzzle in the paper, so I’d assumed it must be under-subscribed. Luckily I don’t have to worry about rail strikes as I’ll be in that London all week (including my birthday), after going to the NFL game at Tottenham Stadium the Sunday before.
If only 3 of us attend I will be in the final!
Thanks for sharing. I have now posted on the Crossword Club. There was a good entry for the 1130 session but rather less so for the early slot, so it seemed best to merge them. It also means those who don’t get through the heat can now stay on for the rest of the day.