Verulamium

Saturday 01 October 2022

Welcome to our Saturday Series and Youth League event. Beginners are very welcome and there are courses for all standards.

Verulamium, Westminster Lodge , St Albans AL1 2DJ

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TERRAIN Open parkland with some woodland and contour detail. Much of the area is the ancient monument covering the Roman town of Verulamium, although all you can see is a few fragments of walls that were left after the townsfolk had raided the site for building materials.
PARKING Westminster Lodge Pay & Display – free for 2 hours, then chargeable. The closest car parks are the western ones. If all car parks are full, use street parking opposite the entrance to the park, or shop in Sainsbury’s or one of the other stores there. Please note: Westminster Lodge is very well signed, so there won’t be any O signage on the main roads.
Registration and download are based in the Sea Cadets’ hut which is between the swimming pool and the running track.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT St Albans City rail station is just over a mile away. St Albans Abbey station is adjacent to the park entrance. Buses from City station and Heathrow via Watford stop nearby.
COURSES Courses for everybody from beginners of any age to experienced orienteers.

Course Straight line Distance Climb Controls Difficulty School Years*
White 1.5 km 5m 10 Easy – all along paths. Control flags when you need to decide whether to turn. Up to Y4
Y5
Yellow 2.1 km 15m 11 Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, hedges.
Some turns with no control flags.		 Y6
Orange 3.0 km 35m 10 Moderate – start cutting across country, some controls a bit away from line features. Y7-8
Y9-10
Light Green 3.9 km 85m 13 Harder – a range of navigational skills needed to find controls on any mapped feature. Y11-13
Short Blue 5.9 km 120m 17 As hard as we can make it on the area. n/a

*These are the recommended courses for people in these school years who enter the Youth League, however some will be invited to ‘run up’.

You may enter any course and will automatically be entered in the club’s Saturday League unless you ask not to.
BEGINNERS First timers are very welcome. Look for our greeters in hi-vis jackets who will give you socially-distanced help.
STARTS You can choose a 15 minute start block between 10:00 and 11:30.
Start and finish are within 200m of the event centre and car parking.
Courses close 12:45
ENTRY & FEES Entry only via SI Entries. You must enter on line. Online entry will remain open until 11:15 on the day, while maps and start slots are available.

Please note the cut-off time for requesting a hire-dibber is 2 days before the event i.e 11:59pm on the Thursday before.

For juniors, don’t forget to fill in School Year & School/Club so that their result will be included in the Youth League.   

Entries up to midnight on Sunday 25th September:

  • BOF members: Adults £4, Juniors £2, HH juniors free.
  • Non-members: Adults £6, Juniors £3.
 Entries from Monday 26th September:

    • BOF members: Adults £6, Juniors £4, HH juniors £2.
    • Non-members: Adults £8, Juniors £5.

Dibber hire £1. Charge for lost dibbers £30.
PUNCHING Sportident punching will be used.
CONTROL DESCRIPTIONS Control descriptions will be on the map
MAP 1:7500 pre-marked maps for all courses, with minor updates for this event. For map of a previous event see here.

Short Blue map is double-sided, just turn over and continue.
FACILITIES Public toilets at the running track 150m from event centre
DOGS Please keep dogs under control and clear up behind you. Dogs not allowed in the event centre (Sea Cadets’ hut).
SAFETY Orienteering is an adventure sport. You take part at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety. A full risk assessment will have been carried out.

All water (lakes, river) is uncrossable (can be deep and contaminated with blue-green algae).

Please be considerate to other park users – walkers, pushchairs, cyclists…

The golf course is out of bounds and marked with purple cross-hatching.

You should abide by the British orienteering Covid-19 Code of Conduct. In particular:

  • If you have symptoms of COVID-19, are living in a household with someone who has a possible or confirmed COVID-19 infection, or have been asked to isolate by NHS Test and Trace, you should not come. You’ll get a full refund.
  • Before, during and after your run, maintain appropriate distance from other runners and other park users.
  • Hand sanitiser is available – please use it.
RESULTS Interim results will be published direct to the club website every few minutes during the event. There will be no printed results (apart from your own splits) or WiFi available.

Full results will be published to the same location and to Routegadget; we aim to do so on the day of the event.
OFFICIALS
Planner Mike Bennett
Organiser Tim Bywater-Lees
Controlling Dave Tookey
The small print

This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 81659

Orienteering is a great sport for youngsters. If you bring children, please help us to keep to our safeguarding policy and British Orienteering’s photography policy.

Your personal data is used for results and insurance, see our privacy policy.

If you have to cancel for a COVID-related reason, write to entries@herts-orienteering.club and we will give a full refund. If we have to cancel the event we will offer a choice of a full refund or a voucher for use at a future HH event. That choice will be sent to the email address used for the original entry. If you do not reply by the deadline, the default is a voucher.