Northaw Country Park

https://www.herts-orienteering.club/events/event/200104-northaw

Newcomers welcome! Look out for our greeters who will be wearing high-vis jackets and they will give you all the help you need to get going.

NB Any juniors aiming for selection to the World Schools Orienteering Championships (selection race on 14 November 2020) should not enter this event as it will make them non-competitive for that selection race.

TERRAIN Highly runnable deciduous woodland with contour detail.
Good path network so suitable for beginners upwards. Help is available – just ask.
For this event we are only using Northaw Great Wood Country Park itself, not the land to north and west which is under separate ownership, nor the County Camp that has recently been sold.
Many thanks to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council for allowing us use of this lovely area and to them and Friends of Northaw Great Wood for their work in maintaining it.
PARKING Northaw Great Wood Car Park EN6 4BQ. Space is very limited – we only have a small part of the car park – so please share transport if you can. The park has an honesty box for £1 per car. It’s near registration & loos on your way to the start so take a coin with you.
Overflow parking on service road parallel to the Ridgeway  (200-500m from event centre) but please obey instructions of marshals and be careful not to restrict access for residents.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT Cuffley station is 3km away, with frequent trains from London.
Courses for everybody from beginners of any age to experienced orienteers.

Course Straight line Distance Climb Controls Difficulty
White 1.7 km 50 m 11 Easy – all along paths, control flags whenever you need to decide to turn.
Yellow 2.3 km 60 m 11 Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, streams. Some turns with no control flags.
Orange 2.6 km 70 m 10 Moderate – start cutting across country, some controls a bit away from line features.
Light Green 4.2 km 100 m 12 Harder – a range of navigational skills needed to find controls on any mapped feature.
Short Blue 5.3 km 135 m 17 As hard as we can make it on the area.

You may enter any course and will automatically be entered in the club’s Saturday League unless you ask not to.

STARTS Register from 10:00 to 11:15 or visit http://sat.maptypes.org to reserve map/dibber and skip the form-filling queue.
Starts from 10:30 – 11:30. Courses close at 12:30.
FEES Non-members: Adults £6, Juniors £3
BOF members: Adults £4, Juniors £2
HH juniors free; adults accompanying juniors are also free but will need to pay £1 if they need an extra map.
Card payment is available, subject to mobile phone signal.
PUNCHING Sportident punching will be used.
Dibber hire £1.00. Charge for lost dibbers £30
MAP 1:10000 pre-marked maps for all courses on waterproof paper. For a previous event on the area see RouteGadget.

Minor updates have been made for this event. The wood is currently (mid-Dec) very wet – there are puddles in low-lying areas and even a hint of a stream in one place. These have not been mapped but are not extensive and should not slow you down.

Runners on White and Yellow courses in particular be aware that some paths are covered in leaves.

FACILITIES Toilets near car park. Registration and download indoors but unheated.
DOGS Courses stay within the area accessible to the public for dog walking. There are often many around so keeping dogs on leads is advised. Please clear up after your dog.
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.

The ground is very wet and paths in particular can be muddy and slippery. Please dress appropriately and take care.

RESULTS There will be a local WiFi network near download accessible from any smart-phone or tablet providing the following:

  • Live Results and splits updated every few minutes.
  • Live SplitsBrowser also updated every few minutes. Very few events provide this!

Go to network hhresults. There is no password.

Full results will be published on www.herts-orienteering.club and Routegadget; we aim to do so on the day of the event.

OFFICIALS
Planner Mike Bennett
Organiser Tim Bywater-Lees
Controlling Hedley Calderbank
The small print

Event registered with British orienteering, no 76726.

If you are a member of an orienteering club or it’s one of your first 3 events, you are covered by British Orienteering’s public liability insurance. But there are plenty of better reasons for joining.

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