Ellenbrook

Welcome to one of our Saturday series events. Beginners are very welcome and there are courses for all standards.

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 the yellow course. Young juniors, say primary school age, and family groups are better on white. People confident with a map and compass may start on orange.

Location Ellenbrook Fields is on the site of the old de Havilland aerodrome at Hatfield.
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.
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.

Map 1:7500 pre-marked A4 maps on waterproof paper for all courses. For map of a previous event see here.

Control descriptions will be on the map.

Courses Courses for everybody from beginners of any age to experienced orienteers.

Course Straight line Distance Difficulty
White ~1.5 km Easy – all along paths. Control flags when you need to decide whether to turn.
Yellow ~2.0km Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, streams.
Some turns with no control flags.
Orange ~2.5 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 ~5.5 km 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.

Course Notes TBA
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 April:

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

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

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

If you cancel more than 7 days before the event we will refund your fees less an amount for admin and transaction costs. There is no refund for cancellations less than 7 days in advance.

If we have to cancel the event we will try to reschedule it. We will transfer your entry to the rescheduled event unless you ask for a refund.

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. Please choose a start block to allow yourself plenty of time to finish before then.
Timing Sportident punching will be used. SIAC will be enabled for those with ‘contactless’ dibbers, but you must punch start and finish.
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.
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
Organiser
Controlling Simon Errington
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.

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