Wardown Park, 7th November 2026
Welcome to Wardown Park, one of our monthly Saturday Series events. Beginners are very welcome and there are courses for all standards.
Note later start time of 10:30 to avoid Parkrun
Beginners
First timers are very welcome. Look for our greeters in hi-vis jackets.
You can go around individually, in pairs or in a larger family group. From an entries perspective, pairs and groups are treated as a single runner – it’s one entry, you get one map, one timing chip (“dibber”) and one finish time listed in the Results. We charge per “entry” not per person and it’s easiest to enter in advance – see Entering for the first time for more info on how to do this.
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. If you find your course too easy, club policy is to offer you a run on the next course up at no cost, provided there’s enough time and there are maps available.
Don’t forget to download between runs!
Location
Wardown Park LU2 7HL.
Parking
The entrance road to the car park is on Old Bedford Road at OS grid TL090227 W3W clues.rider.drives.
Follow the park road down to the car park. Take care on entering for runners on their course.
If the car park is full, use the neighbouring streets or use the car park off New Bedford Road, parks and museums west lodge entrance, w3w ///trap.heads.zones.
Public Transport
TBA
Terrain
Public park and adjacent woodland. Part of the park is a formal garden which will have sprint-style legs for the longer courses.
Map
1:4000, 2.5m contour pre-marked maps for all courses on waterproof paper.
Course Timing
Sportident punching will be used.
For those with ‘contactless’ dibbers, SIAC will be enabled for controls, but you must punch the Start; the Finish will be “fly-by”.
Facilities
The cricket club close to start and finish has a bar which opens from 1200 onwards, selling drinks and snacks.
Dogs
Dogs under control in the park but not in the cricket club. Please clear up behind them.
Safety
By participating in this event, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety.
Members of British Orienteering—which includes those who have joined an affiliated club such as HH—are covered by the organisation’s public liability insurance. Please note: If you are not a BOF member, if you accidentally injure someone or damage property during the event, you are not covered by this insurance.
A full risk assessment has been carried out.
Orange and above courses cross a main road at a timed-out, marshalled crossing.
Officials
| Planner | Ian Byford |
| Organiser | Stu Levene |
| Controlling | Tom Cochrane |
Courses
Courses for everybody from beginners of any age to experienced orienteers. Provisional lengths:
| Course | Straight line Distance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| White | 1.2 km | Easy – all along paths. Control flags when you need to decide whether to turn. |
| Yellow | 2.2 km | Fairly easy – navigate along line features such as paths, walls, streams. Some turns with no control flags. |
| Orange | 2.9km / 60m | Moderate – start cutting across country, some controls a bit away from line features. |
| Light Green | 3.7 km / 75m | Harder – a range of navigational skills needed to find controls on any mapped feature. |
| Short Blue | 4.6 km / 115m | 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
The short blue course is shorter than usual, even allowing for the larger amount of climb than we normally get in Hertfordshire, because some of the legs are sprint style.
Starts
When you enter, you can choose a 15 minute start block between 10:30 and 12:00.
Courses close 13:15. Please choose a start block to allow yourself plenty of time to finish before then.
Entry & Fees
Entries are will be 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.
| Up to midnight on 1 Nov | From 2 Nov |
|---|---|
| BOF members: Adults £5, Juniors £2, HH juniors free | BOF members: Adults £7, Juniors £4, HH juniors £2 |
| Non-members: Adults £7, Juniors £4 | Non-members: Adults £9, Juniors £6 |
Dibber hire £1. Charge for lost dibbers £35.
Dibber Collection: from the Event Centre which is close to the parking and will be signed . Please collect before going to the start.
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.
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.
Photography
Please note that we may take photographs during the event and these will be published on our website and / or Flickr. If you wish to opt out of this on behalf of yourself or your children, please contact the Organiser who will brief the photographer accordingly. For reference, here are links to our safeguarding policy and British Orienteering’s photography policy.
The small print
This event is registered with British Orienteering, number 88979.
Your personal data is used for results and insurance, see our privacy policy.
