KOL 9 - Brockhill Country Park

Sat 14 May 2022

Type of event: Local
Type of terrain: Parkland

Info updated: Sun 15 May

Results

Event Report

What a glorious day for Orienteering, if a bit warm!  Lots of happy faces and some glowing faces returning to St Augustine's School where we had nearly ran out of parking! Having forgotten to apply suncream this morning, I will be doing an impression of a lobster later!

Well done to all our juniors who set some impressive times around the Yellow course, and some of our improving juniors on the Orange course getting to grips with the harder navigation! We also had a returning M85 who swears that each event will be his last one!  Well done Bernard Wilson!

Those on the Blue had the added challenge of a rather unexpected hastily handrawn course on the 2nd part.  An earlier version of the street course had eroneous been sent to print, so the mash up of parkland and urban wasn't quite as seamless as we had imagined, but everyone seemed to cope admirably!

Thank-you to St Augustine's School for allowing us to use their parking, we would have certainly overwhelmed the main Brockhill CP car park - and what lucky children to have a school on such a spectacular site.

And finally a huge thank-you to all our volunteers - a lot of new faces to welcome and many hands made light work.  Much appreciated.

Alison & Brendon

Pre Event Info

Location

map

Nearest town: Hythe

Directions / Parking

Follow the brown tourist signs to Brockhill Country Park. 

Parking at St Augustines Primary School in Hythe next to the park's southern pedestrian entrance which is where the Start and Finish will be located. Nearest postcode CT21 4BE.  W3W locked.tastier.streaks. 

Registration & Start Times

Registration will be in advance via Racesignup only. 

Starts from 11:00am-12:30pm. 15 minute start window will be selected during online entry process.  Please make every effort to arrive at the start for your start window to ensure appropriate social distancing.  Courses close at 14:00

Course Information

Five courses available:

Yellow - Controls (checkpoints) are very easy to find, mostly on main paths, ideal for younger children and complete beginners. Approx distance 1.5 to 2.5 km.

Orange - Moderate, controls are on or near paths with more route choice. Good for progressing juniors and beginner adults who are reasonably confident reading a map. Approx distance 2 to 3 km.

Green - As technically hard as we can make it, for experienced orienteers requiring a shorter run than the blue course. Approx distance 4 to 5 km.

Blue - As technically hard as we can make it, for experienced orienteers. Approx distance 5.5 to 6.5 km.

Score - No set distance, but a 60 minute time limit. Find as many of the 20 controls as possible in one hour. Good for adult beginners, those progressing from orange to green, and those that want to be back in a set time.

Compete on your own or as a group.  Groups wishing to go around a course together are recommended to enter Score, Orange or Yellow courses - select group entry on racesignup and provide other team members details in the field provided, (only team leader needs to enter).

Basic introduction to Orienteering will be provided in the park close to the start from 10.30am.  A compass exercise will also be run depending on interest.  Please email the organiser for further details.

Explanation of colour courses

  • White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
  • Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
  • Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
  • Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
  • Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
  • Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
  • Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
  • Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Pre-entry through racesignup only.

Individual (member/non-member)
    Senior: £5.00/£8.00
    Junior: £3.00/£5.00
Group (2-5 people e.g. family running Score course together)
    Entry Fee: £8.00
    Non member supplement: £5.00

Juniors are under 21 on 31st December.

Terrain Description

Brockhill Park is dominated by a grass covered valley bisected by the Brockhill Stream.  Brockhill's lake, woods, meadows, picnic and play areas – along with the excellent Brockhill Café – make it a great spot for a day out. The park is also rich in wildlife, including marbled white butterflies, green woodpeckers and carpets of snowdrops.

After the event - it's not far from the beach. A good place to relax if the weather is kind.

Facilities

No toilets at St Augustine's School parking.  There are toilets and a cafe up at Brockhill Country Park main entrance.  

Dogs allowed?

Dogs welcome in the park on leads.

Contacts / Officials

Organiser/Planner: Alison Howe

Organiser/Planner: Brendon Howe

Important Information

Health, safety and other important information related to events.

If you have pre-existing helath issues that you feel the organiser should know about please fill in this medical form.

 

Covid-19:

Before travelling to any orienteering event please make sure you are aware of and following British Orienteering guidelines. 

To ensure that we comply with these guidelines and make our events Covid secure and safe for participants and volunteers, all events will be pre-entry and pre-payment only.

During the on-line entry process, you will select your preferred start window from those available for your course. You must then make payment to reserve your start window. Please do not turn up at the event unless you have pre-entered. If you need help with the registration process please contact the event organiser.

On event day turn up for your allocated start slot

Please move away from the map box after collecting your map.

At control sites do not touch the control, and move through quickly.

Do not congregate at the Finish.

At Download please get your breath back and recover before downloading.

Saxons volunteers are very happy to help beginners understand the courses, maps and timing equipment used at our events. To get advice please contact coaching@saxons-oc.org at least 3 days before the event, or go to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/saxons.oc and ask questions there. It may be possible to arrange for somoene to meet you before your start.

For full BO Covid guidance click here

Ticks and Lyme Disease: Ticks are common in areas where we go orienteering, more information about ticks.

Training and help is available from qualified coaches. Please contact the organiser.

Privacy: when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Read our privacy policy to see how we look after your personal data.

Data Protection: Your personal information provided for this event or obtained from registration databases will be used to process your entry, publish results, check for missing runners and trace missing SI cards.