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Welcome to Zafarnia, yet another of my fantasy cities. Presenting its Metro Map, which is a brand-new map dedicated to the softball and baseball community. #ProjectFarnhamCity
I have mentioned it many times before, but the softball community in the UK is pretty amazing. From my London softball club, the Raiders, over the years I’ve been able to play for different teams, overall playing against loads of opponents, across the country, and abroad. I’ve even played against US Air Force members; those were crazy games.
Coming up to 8 years of slowpitch softball now, however it is only really in the past couple of years where I’ve fully immersed myself in the community, with all the people I’ve met, why not commemorate this with a new map?
Like the St. Jacques Map, stations are named for people, and at the present time, just over 500 softballers have a station on this new map. I cannot discount the influence the baseball community has had in my life over the past decade (and both communities are quite intertwined), hence there’s room for them too.
510 softballers, 189 Raiders, 85 clubs represented… Zafarnia will now be the new cartographical home of softballers and baseballers.
Like with the St. Jacques Map, I have loosely tried to assign areas to teams, or groups of teams, as follows. Of course, teams are dynamic and can change around, especially the Raiders!
The stations with the biggest interchanges in the centre have been my closest friends, hence they are dotted all around the map instead of grouped in one particular area. This means that Raiders Blue, naturally doesn't have their own specific zone, as I've played with them for a while they have naturally become amongst my closest.
Raiders Green was one of the first teams I considered. They're a tight team that doesn't have many changes. Having never been rostered for that team, many of my good friends are regular greenies. The obvious choice: assign them the green line - Line 3's central section is Raiders Green central.
Raiders Orange and Raiders Indigo players generally find themselves in the central section of Line 2 and Line 8, coloured respectively, however the allocation isn't as solid.
Raiders Red is one of the teams where the roster seems to change more significantly compared to the other teams. There are a few Raiders Red players on Line 1, coloured red.
Raiders Gold doesn't have a line assigned, rather an area. Close to the river, west of the centre, is the Golden District. Players past, present (and future...)
As for outside the Raiders...
Battitude, Fly Ballers, Beavers, Swamp Monsters and Breaking Bats are all very related teams, and as such, a signifiicant section of north-west central, west of the river, is for them. This area goes past the centre into zones 2 and 3.
Just south of that is a section for the Asteroids, Base Jumpers and High Voltage, also extending out of central.
Further south will be a new area. I have somehow found myself on the Fuzzy Ducks NSL2 team. Whether I manage to meet that level remains to be seen (I am very up for rising up to the challenge though to develop as a player, don't get me wrong!) I haven't met some of the players yet but looking forward to it. There are a few Fuzzy Ducks at present, this area may become a lot more busy.
Going towards the south-west central, there is a lot of Pimlico - mostly Buccaneers and Parrots, I have been close with the latter team (and been a huge rival to the former!) I don't know the Pirates as well, except for a few players.
The Blitz, Game of Throws, Golden Sombreros, Pork & Pitchers... generally south central and beyond into zones 2 and 3.
Line 17's southern section will be Umpire County. Blues only (plus the line is vaguely blue).
Line 6's southern section has generally become a zone for Raiders Blue's greatest rivals - Bat Intentions. We shall meet again this year (on that awful Boston Manor field!!)
The southern half of Line 7 has become Thames Valley central. After joining them for Let The Boys Play I have greatly enjoyed guest starring for them, every time. The red Line 1 was kind of taken, so I went for the closest colour... pink! There is likely to be overspill, in fact I have had to start expanding the area, so I'm looking at nearby Line 6 and Line 13B.
South-East central, there is a lot of Oblivion presence, they just had to have a section after allowing me to play with them for the 2022 indoor season.
There are a few Meteors, of the purple and red variety, on Line 18's outer section.
Line 12's eastern outer section is for Base Jam, who seemed to take over Sunday Softball until Richmond reigned supreme.
Line 5's eastern outer section have been reserved for Maidenhead and the Rattlesnakes, for the time being (generally, one branch each).
Line 16's north-eastern outer section has been nicely filled in, for the Panthers! A lovely bunch, I do feel quite guilty leaving them. In 2023, we finished 11th place in NSL 3 which means that the team faced relegation. I had assumed this would be the case and I would need to look for a team for 2024. I managed to find myself on a team before it was announced that the Panthers had been invited back to an expanded NSL3 league. I am very pleased for them, wish them the best and thanks so much for giving me a chance in the NSL, which I had dreamed of taking part in for a while. Wouldn't mind playing for them in another tournament...
Line 6's north-eastern section has become a home for the Diamond Dogs, naturally branching off from Mathieson (a station for one of my co-workers).
West of the borough of Panthers (northern sections of Line 2, Line 3, Line 8, and Line 14) are a lot of Raiders of the past.
Line 6A has become a line for Reading Softball Club, it is ripe for a small extension if necessary, or they could overspill into Line 4's section, which is the same colour as their club uniforms. Line 4 has been coloured for a particular reason, not to do with Reading's colours, but there isn't a dedicated group of people on that line at present... A lot of Oxford fOXes are from Reading's softball club so this may also be a line for the fOXes too (except for Jo and Rachael who have their own stations!)
Line 4 and Line 13's colours were a subliminal message. Though I hear the design is being changed. Rats, I would have loved to have one. Ah well! :'(
Line 9 has become the Richmond Dukes line. They love their softball and are at Sunday Softball every week, unlike the London Mets who tend to look down on slowpitch softball. Richmond likes to call themselves the Salty Seamen, and I am to become one of their crew in Prague, at least.
Line 10's north-western section appears to be a Bracknell district for the time being.
The Tramways also have specific assignments, all for baseball players (though any players I have witnessed moving to the sweeter side of softball have managed to bag themselves metro stations instead).
Tramways T1A and T1B are for people I have met in the London Mets organisation - specifically for people I was closer with. There is more space for London Mets on Tramways T3 and T4. Higher-level players mostly find themselves on Tramway T5.
Tramway T2 is for the Imperial Falcons. Though I have not remained in contact with any of them, they do represent an influential period in my life - without them I wouldn't be playing softball! There is an overspill on Tramway T9.
Tramway T6 would have been for Richmond, naturally connecting to the Richmond heavy Line 9. I doubt this would be filled out in the future, however.
I am willing to move things round in the future. As there isn't yet a hand-drawn version of the map, I am much more open and willing to move stations around as necessary, at least compared to the St. Jacques Map.
If you don't like your station name and position, I may be willing to change it.
The groupings below should give you a hint. I am also working on an index of stations. I have avoided this in the past due to stations constantly being added, I haven’t got any proper publishing software at the moment, and it is far to fiddly to implement things like this using vector graphics software. If anyone would like to donate a license for Affinity Publisher, I would be grateful…! For now, just ask me and I shall locate it for you, but it is more fun to look around.
Look above for a description of the groupings.
Either I don’t know you well enough, or I know you, but I can’t remember your full name. In the latter case, just message me and we can work something out! In the former case, feel free to say hello and we can always have a chat, I'm literally at most softball tournaments and events, as I don't really have a life out of sotball!!!
It goes without saying that if you don't play softball or baseball, you will not be on this map, so head over to St. Jacques, you'll probably be there.
This map is a lot more dynamic, with constant changes due to the softballers I will be meeting in the future. New groups may mean some stations move about. Unlike St. Jacques, this map does not have a hand-drawn counterpart at the moment so I am more willing to move the odd station about occasionally in a more logical place in regards to groups, however most should stay where they are.
I am always open for suggestions. It is quite hard coming up with names, I struggled for a few people. Provided it’s not the same name as on the St. Jacques map, let me know if you have a better name.
I have not fully visualised the city in my head to the extent that I have St. Jacques, so I won’t have as much of an idea – but I am open to ideas.
I have not added as many xxx’s cat stations to this map, but there are a few. The country where this city is located has always regarded cats quite highly, like in ancient Egypt, so cats are honored. It’s not a station for your cat, it’s a station for you. The same occurs in St. Jacques!
I will probably update the map every 6 months or so, perhaps more often depending on how many people I will meet this year.
I would like to get some interest from this – if so, I may purchase Affinity Publisher, add an index and sell some fold up maps. If there is any appetite for full prints, do let me know.
I really want to find some time to upgrade my website, I know my pages look very basic! However, finding time between my career and my softball is scarce (I only have made considerable progress on my projects, this map included, during holidays!!) One day my site will look proper, I promise.
This map was under the moniker ‘#ProjectFarnhamCity’, but I never did intend to call the city that name. Farnham screams rural, this city is anything but. I'm quoting directly from a friend here who got a preview of the map.
I eventually settled on Zafarnia after a lot of thought. I always love names starting with the letter ‘Z’ and I did want to incorporate Farnham (or part of the word, anyway) in the name somehow. So… Zafarnia.
Many have seen my St. Jacques Metro Map – for my well fledged-out fantasy city. It’s my magnum opus, of sorts. So, why the need for a new map?
I’m in an era of thorough ennui with the St. Jacques Map. At present feel a lot more inspired developing a brand-new city’s metro system. I tried to re-invigorate the St. Jacques interest by developing the bus network, but at present I have no desire to pursue this further. Perhaps later in the year, my inspiration will return.
A New Design The hand-drawn St. Jacques map will always be classic. Charming, stained with the sweat, frustration, and utter time it took (one good thing came out of the lockdown era, at least). I still am quite proud of it, thinking of the best way to preserve it for time.
Regarding the digital version, though it makes the map look neater and more uniform, it’s far too inspired by the TfL maps – so much so that it leads to much confusion upon an initial glance. Using the Johnstone typeface, to the same design features, the logo is also a pastiche of the Transport for London roundel, designed as such so I don’t have to worry about copyright issues (though the roundel was always intended for St. Jacques in my mind).
People commonly jump to the conclusion that it’s a map based on London, so they try looking for London stations (admittedly there are 17 existing London stations on the St. Jacques Map, see if you can find them all). I get asked questions such as ‘where’s South Kensington on the map?’ ‘Is that the Piccadilly Line?’
When people work out that this map is not based on London, but for a fantasy city, there is an expectation that people are placed on the map relative to where they live in London. Someone who lives in south London would expect their station to be in the southern part of the map, but this is not often the case. St. Jacques stations tend to be placed in locations for a particular reason, usually as part of a set group of people or dedicated line. For more information, refer to the St. Jacques map webpage.
For the Zafarnia map, I wanted to come up with a completely original design, with not one iota of TfL influence. I experimented with different background colours and using 30/60 degree angles instead of the usual 45 degree angle design. I came up with a few of my own ideas, and took inspiration from looking through the TransitMaps (transitmap.net) blog.
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Shown above: some of my draft designs for the map. The 30 degree angles do look interesting, I'm looking to incoroporate this into my next map, Project Napega.
Side note: The St. Jacques map has featured on this website! Version 4, to be exact had its own entry. The blog author took the map from my Flickr page, and from their words, had been following the St. Jacques project for a while. I was never notified and discovered this blog post by myself around the time I had finished the current hand-drawn version. I do wonder if TransitMaps has seen the latest version, which is a huge improvement on version 4! https://transitmap.net/st-jacques/
One map in particular on this blog caught my eye – an unofficial NYC Ferries map by Evelyn Fischer. https://transitmap.net/nyc-ferries-evelyn-fischer/ This map was quite beautiful – a relatively dark background and brightly coloured lines which popped out beautifully on the diagram.
This map would be my largest inspiration, and a similar design would be incorporated for the Zafarnia map. This time, with the lines on a gray background instead of a blue background, using a different typeface and different representations for station markers and interchanges.
As always, I plan my maps through rough handdrawn scribbles with coloured pencils, and Zafarnia was no different. It took at least 15 tries until I drew something I was happy with. Slowly, this sketch would be transformed digitally into a new map, which would eventually be finalised. There, I could start the process of adding stations.
Initial rough sketch for the map is shown above.
I’m quite happy with the new design, it may have it flaws but it looks quite striking. Besides, dark mode on apps has become popular, and graphic design software tends to use a dark user interface as a default. 15 years ago, this was not the case. The typeface is the only thing I’m not 100% happy with, and am open to other suggestions – though it does the job reasonable well.
Design idiom finalised, the map starts to be sketched out. Initially the lines were a lot thicker! It would prove to be tough to add stations without the map looking incredibly busy and cramped! I showed the map in this form to someone and very useful feedback was given to make the lines narrower. For some reason I used the name Dylan Mulvaney as a placeholder... hope she is doing well now.
With this, I hope that there will be no confusion that this map is not based on London.
Creation of fantasy cities and public transport systems was something I had done since primary school. Barbica, my first city, imagined in primary school, surpassed all bounds of realism. A behemoth of a metro system with 1,089 lines, in practice, only two lines were partly fleshed out and that was it. I had only drawn these lines once; the rest were in my mind as I pretended to be a Northern Line train every single morning breaktime at school. There was not much in the way of tourism or culture in Barbica, just a lot of motorways (one of my many obsessions as a child) and trains.
There were only 30 people in my year group (not including people who moved schools). I always kept to my year group only apart from one of my classmate’s siblings. For a system with 1,089 lines (and these were all large lines, with tons of branches) – how many nonsensical names could I come up to fill all the remaining blank stations?
(Fun fact, each person would get their own line if I had theoretically completed it, so there would be a Marisa Line, Ciaran Line, Ezinne Line, Oladayo Line etc).
In secondary school, Conapega was devised. This would be a map for peers in my year group at Dame Alice Owen’s. Moving from a year group of 30 to 200 certainly could fill up a map more considerably. The Conapega metro system was more grounded in reality to a point, heavily based on the TfL network again, with just 15 Underground lines. There was an Overground system, a DLR and apparently, a tramway too, though these were not fleshed out. Nevertheless, this metro system was not devised logically. The lines were separately drawn out first, without any consideration as to how these lines would integrate into a system. The lines had interchanges left right and centre. I never attempted to draw out the entire system as a whole until recently, and when doing this it quickly became a convoluted mess – with lines zig-zagging in absurd ways across one another. Many of the lines have an identity crisis, they cannot decide whether they want to zip through the city, skipping stops served by other lines, or whether they want to serve closely spaced stations in succession.
The nonsensical layout of the city, ultimately a very long and narrow metropolis, can be summed up by the fact that the airport is plonked right near the centre of the city. The Conapega map is a senseless assortment of tangled lines. Now that Zafarnia has been launched, my next project is to completely redesign this system (Project Napega).
St. Jacques was drawn up during my time at Imperial College London. From a year group of 200 people to an institution with around 9,000 undergraduates, this was ripe for a metro map. Unlike at school, where people tend to stick with their year group, at university it is encouraged (and expected) for you to socialise with people through nights out, societies and clubs! I had just had about enough of school; Year 13 was an utter drab (spending 18 hours with the same people in class truly grated), so I totally immersed myself in the social aspect (except for nightclubs!) Along with my coursemates, and the many people I met at bars, clubs and house parties, I was a regular member for three societies during my time at Imperial: baseball, dodgeball and the Afro-Caribbean societies.
Funnily enough, I never intended for this map to be created, I initially came to university saying to myself: ‘I have to take this very seriously – no time for silly childish stuff like this, studies come first’. That didn’t last long; within a month I was already sketching the map out. This time, the system would be created from the start – all lines included. A circular line would be the main feature, with other lines within. There was a curious outer line outside the circle, which would eventually be developed into the Overground system.
140 people on my course, many baseball, dodgeball teammates and an eventful year with Afro-Caribbean society, this boded for a large metropolis. The chemists would be in the centre of the city, people on my floor in halls would have their dedicated line running to the south, the baseballers would be on the outer orbital line, the dodgeballers had their own area in the north, and Imperial ACS members would occupy the north-west.
University didn’t go as well as I had hoped, I had a particularly shocking second year where I failed four exams. Too much time partying and going to every society event, not enough time in the library. Due to this, I was bumped from a five-year Masters course to a three-year Bachelors degree, and I left Imperial with a 2:2. Two years of potential friends to be made, cut off. The St. Jacques Metro Map, up to version 4 at this stage, was hardly filled in. The centre was quite busy, but there were many sections of lines outside the city with barely a station on it.
Alas, after three years of studying, just 358 people had a spot on the map. These people made enough of an impression on me to grant them a station. I met many others; however, these were fleeting encounters.
St. Jacques would become an all-purpose map from then on. Groups of other people were added on to the map. People and family in Corsica, family in America, as well as people from school who I was close with, and other people from school who I met up with quite regularly. Even internet friends found themselves on the map, a section for fellow Deal or No Deal fanatics and a small section for a few Metanet members (fellow fans of N: The Way Of The Ninja. Remember that game?)
Life happened, taking a more positive turn. With university behind me, I eventually landed a job, and with solid foundations I returned to baseball and eventually softball. Hence, co-workers and teammates would soon find themselves with stations. A once relatively empty map was now in danger of filling up!
Version 5 had to be created due to the huge swathes of Raiders I had met, along with a new job (I got a role with London Underground and wanted my co-workers to have stations on the Underground, and there was barely any space left). More lines and extensions to existing lines were incorporated, and this started to become a common theme. Map space was now a scarce resource.
The hand-drawn map was completed in 2021. Even then, there have been further developments with the digital maps, and the current digital map has a few extra Overground lines and tramways. (I don’t have the time to do a new hand-drawn map and do not wish to change the current hand-drawn map). Still, there is a danger of space running out if I added everyone I met. There are 1,587 stations filled in out 1,754, where 1,273 people I know personally are represented. 167 stations remain, though most are tram stops or Crossrail stops technically out of the city limits. Not the most appealing spots.
The St. Jacques Metro Map mirrors the property crisis in London. Back in the day, there was tons of space on the map, and property wasn’t insanely expensive in London as it is now. As the city and map have developed over the years, more and more people have arrived. Station space is sparse – almost no chance in the centre (I very rarely add stations in central St. Jacques now unless there is a very good reason). Try buying a decent property in zone 1. Interchange stations represent even more valuable real estate.
You’ll have more chance buying a property, or getting a station, out of zone 1, but space is always running out. There’s always a shortage. Some people share a property, and there are some stations which are for two people. You could go for an apartment or flat instead of a house in London, or get a tram stop in St. Jacques instead of a rail station. These days, it’s hard to find land to build on in London anymore (without destroying existing buildings), and there is very little scope now for extensions or new lines in St. Jacques (I can’t really destroy any existing infrastructure), which is really stretching demand. I have added four new tramways since the hand-drawn version, and with the demand, almost all of them have filled out very, very quickly.
Some people have had to move out of London into the outskirts, and parallel to that, some people have had to settle for stations in Zone 6 and 7 (outside of the St. Jacques city limits). This is mostly all that is viable available concerning rail stations.
Only a few lucky people have more than one station, representing the bourgeoisie who own more than one property in London.
What’s the long-term solution? England could always invest in developing other cities, but that isn’t happening. However, I sure as hell can create a new city, admittedly this will be a lot easier for me to do! Hence, Zafarnia has been created.
With most of the stations in central St. Jacques being filled in early on in the maps existence, my current friends tend to find themselves outside of the centre. True, there are tons of great locations outside of central London, in fact I tend to avoid central London when I can except for work, too full of tourists. There is nonetheless an expectation that people want to be in the centre of the city! I have had complaints from people that their stations were right near the end of the line, in Zone 5, where they should have been in Zone 1 – in fact many close friends currently find themselves in zone 4 or 5.
Life happens, and friendships fade away. I haven’t kept in contact with many of my course mates in chemistry, though I would like to do this more. Counting the number of fellow students and professors that were assigned stations in central St. Jacques – I make it 194 people. Since 2020 of these 194 people, I have only interacted with 23 of them (including one rather tense argument), whether online or in real life. Of these 23 people, I have only kept in regular contact with seven of them.
Perhaps in times, more connections will be re-kindled; however, it is nearing 10 years since I left university. People move on with their lives, and I’m sure a not insignificant number have left the country. Ironically, with softball and baseball being a huge part of my life at present, I am not in regular contact with a single teammate. Perhaps I left the Imperial Falcons Baseball Club in bad blood when I left university. I have however seen one of the Imperial Falcons showing interest in joining softball again. I’ve seen him around; I believe he may be joining Bangers & Smash and hope to see him around more often.
I met a few dodgeball players who played in my time at university when I returned to dodgeball briefly, joining London Storm. My goodness, the standard of dodgeball there is incredible, perhaps a little daunting for a novice (though their social sessions are very, very fun and a good way to get some exercise during the week). Imperial College and London Storm seem to be quite intertwined, often when I do on occasion make it to the social session, there are many current Imperial students in attendance. They are full of energy any get me out all the time. I think it’s a sign I’m starting to get older.
More people than the baseball team, and that was my main society at university! I don’t have much of close kin with the Imperial ACS members, though we do like each other’s posts on Instagram every now and again.
It would definitely be worth rekindling some old friendships. Perhaps in the future…
Zone 1 is therefore full of people who I have not spoken to for almost 10 years. I think this odd phenomenon can be represented best by this example. Travel two stops on Line 4 from Jacques Central. This station, an interchange station no less, was for someone in my university halls who, as I would discover, seemed to have quite a dislike for me. Every time I would try to speak to this person, they would make the strangest facial expressions in response mostly of despondent irritation and
Not a single softballer finds themselves in Zone 1, considering as this is now my most closeknit community. Hence, Zafarnia was created.
I started slowpitch softball officially in 2016 (I had dabbled previously, dating all the way back to 2005!) This branched out from my baseball ‘career’ which I began in 2012 at university, as an Imperial Falcon. I didn’t leave the Falcons on very good terms (there was a lot of drama involving right-field), but I still wanted to relive my university days now I was in full-time work. I joined the London Mets club and made it onto their new Single-A team, the London Mercenaries. Consisting of a close group of fresh new players, many from the Baseball for Beginners programme, I was one of the late additions drafted fresh from university. It was great to be back on the field, and with that brought the greatest irony. With the frustration and arguments stemmed from being perpetually stuck at right-field when playing baseball at university, even during friendly games; I became a solid leftfielder for the Mercenaries and my love for outfield officially began. I did not play a single game in right-field in league from 2016 until 2021, and even those were very rare occurrences (once a season, and in most cases not even for a full game as I was moved elsewhere within two innings).
Fun fact, my first ever softball tournament, at Farnham Park, was in 2014 – long before I joined the Raiders. A much familiar face organised this – the National University Softball Championship, run by none other than Liz Knight. I was representing the Imperial Falcons. I can vividly remember that it was an absolute blast and was more enjoyable than the baseball games. I got to play two softball tournaments with the Imperial Falcons. It also was a very rare instance of me being away from right-field, since ‘outfield is more important in softball than baseball’, according to the captain (he never did have much faith in me, it surely wrecked my confidence…) the first tournament we didn’t have any women and were rightly penalised, so for our second appearance, women joined our roster. I think that tournament is the greatest contender for fun baseball/softball game I ever played during my university days. Was it a hint which would reveal my adoration for slowpitch softball?
In 2016 my outfield neighbour Tom always stood guard in centerfield. As it would turn out, he also played for a softball club, the London Raiders. He recommended that I check it out. The softball tournies in 2014 were a lot of fun, and I was looking to make some more friends and build some more new social circles. The London Raiders were an LGBT club, and I had recently come out (perhaps it was obvious to outsiders). This would be a perfect group to join, at the right time too. I attended the ‘Meet the Raiders’ party and that was more than enough to convince me to become a member. A lovely bunch of people they were. They would be one of my close social groups, to this day. It wasn’t just softball, I would be going to their houses for some games nights, and even went camping with a few of them.
It was utterly ludicrous at first, but I had initially assigned a section of map for the Raiders. This would be a small slither of map between line 8 and line 11 in the northeast outskirts of the city. It quickly transpired that this was not close to enough space for this group of people. As proof, check the east and southeast of the map, under the river – there’s your answer. New lines and tramways have had to be created specifically for the Raiders (and eventually, more softballers). To this day, there are 195 Raiders on the St. Jacques Map (and a further 108 other softballers).