Ellenbrook

TERRAIN Open land with some woodland and contour detail. Little remains of the old airfield. The open areas are becoming overgrown with grass and scattered trees. In the southern part of the area, there are sections of very long grass with some occasional patches of nettles and brambles. Courses have been planned to avoid the worst of these but in places the going will nonetheless be relatively slow and leg cover is mandatory. Cattle may be grazing in some areas.
PARKING Parking will be in the main car park of the de Havilland site of the University of Hertfordshire. Enter Mosquito Way from the roundabout / traffic lights on the A1057, turn left at the first roundabout and follow the signs. You want to be parked as near to the western end (by the Sports Village) as you can. Leave to the west, walk 300m north on Albatross Way and enter the area by the gate on the left where the road bends. Starts, Finish and Download are all close to the entrance gate.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT Hatfield railway station ~2km away, bus station 900m, several buses between Hatfield and St Albans pass within 300m of assembly: search on http://www.intalink.org.uk/timetables/ for Ellenbrook, either stop S or T..
COURSES
Course Straight line Distance Difficulty
White ~1.5 km Easy – all along paths. Control flags when you need to decide whether to turn.
Yellow ~2.5 km Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, streams.
Some turns with no control flags.
Orange ~3.0 km Moderate – start cutting across country, some controls a bit away from line features.
Light Green ~4.0 km Harder – a range of navigational skills needed to find controls on any mapped feature.
Short Blue ~6.0 km As hard as we can make it on the area.
BEGINNERS First timers are very welcome. Look for our greeters in hi-vis jackets who will give you socially-distanced help.

If you’ve not orienteered before, we suggest most people start with yellow. Young juniors, say primary school age, and family groups are better on white. People confident with a map and compass may start on orange.

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.

Entries up to midnight on Sunday 28 May:

  • BOF members: Adults £4, Juniors £2, HH juniors free.
  • Non-members: Adults £6, Juniors £3.
Entries from Monday 29 May:

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

Dibber hire £1. Charge for lost dibbers £30.

STARTS When you enter, you can choose a 15 minute start block between 10:00 and 11:30.
The event centre is close to start and finish.
Courses close 12:45
TIMING SportIdent punching will be used.
MAP 1:7500 with 5m contours pre-marked maps for all courses on waterproof paper. For a previous event on the area see RouteGadget
FACILITIES TBA
DOGS Keep under control and clear up behind you.
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.

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

  • You should not come if you have symptoms of COVID-19, are required to isolate, are awaiting the results of a non-routine COVID-19 test or are serving a quarantine period after travel. 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, so there is no need to hang around.

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 TBA
Organiser TBA
Controlling TBA
The small print

This event is registered with British Orienteering, number ?????.

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.