THREE drinkers toasted success on Saturday evening when they completed a challenge that has taken them five years.

Professional poker player Ian Taylor, risk analyst Matt Slade and web designer Ringo Greenwich have been on a mission to have a drink at the nearest pub to every stop on the London Underground network.

They finally finished the mammoth 275 station pub crawl at North Ealing just before midnight on Thursday, a little the worse for ware after completing 16 stations that day alone.

Ian said: "About five years ago we did the Victoria Line for a laugh, but we enjoyed it so much we decided to try and carry it on.

"We have had some really big days where we have done 18 stations, but the minimum we do is four and all of us have to be there for it to count.

"We decided to leave this leg until last because Heathrow had engineering works for a long time and we decided an airport would be a novel thing for our last day.

"One of the most memorable experience we had was at Marble Arch when we were at the end of a particularly heavy day and no pubs would let us in.

"We had to pretend that we were on a stag do!

"The furthest we had to walk to a pub was at Cannons Park, it took us 30 minutes and by that time we were almost at Edgeware Road.

"I don't know what we're going to do now, it's going to leave a big hole in our lives."