Here is the break down of course win times:
| Planned win time | Actual win time | Controls 101, 142, 118 or 155 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow 1A | 21 | 19 | No |
| Yellow 2A | 20 | 16.5 | No |
| Orange 1A | 20 | 27 | No |
| Orange 2A | 19 | 27 | No |
| Short Green 1A | 21 | 32 | Yes |
| Short Green 2A | 23 | 28 | No |
| Green 1A | 22 | 28.5 | Yes |
| Green 2A | 23 | 18.5 | No |
| Blue 1A | 23 | 29.50 | Yes |
| Blue 2A | 22 | 18 | No |
| Brown 1A | 22 | 32 | Yes |
| Brown 2A | 23 | 30.5 | Yes |
Controls 101, 142, 118 and 155 were the ones in the middle section of vegetation.
Yellow - it is hard to tell with a small number of entries, but I suspect the faster 2A time was because both courses were similar and so there is a small advantage on the second leg. We went through a lot of route options but were ultimately restricted with the course length and safely getting juniors past the access road.
Orange - hard to tell with the number of entries whether the courses were right.
Short Green - the target win times were out on Short Green. We found these the hardest courses to plan as they needed to be the same length as Orange but with a butterfly loop and more technical controls. This ruled out going across the road or going out much to the open north area.
Green / Blue - the average of the two Green courses was 23.5 minutes vs a target of 22.5 minutes
the average of the two Blue courses was 23.75 minutes vs a target of 22.5 minutes. So not far off.
Brown - we definitely over-estimated Brown. Partly the estimated speed used was too fast, there were longer legs (which disguised more distance) and the courses encouraged braver route choices (and therefore worse vegetation).
Ham Hill has some fantastic features and areas (my favourite control site was 101 - only visited on Brown) but like a lot of orienteering venues, a reduction of funding was meant more and more of the area is being lost to rampant vegetation. Several mapped paths had to be removed as they are now impassable, and we spent quite a bit of time cutting back bushes, brambles and other vegetation that were taking over other paths and control sites.
Whether we made the right decision to use the vegetation area for controls 101, 142, 118 and 155 is probably down to your experience of that area. The mapped paths were repeatedly cleared to make sure all the control sites were accessible, but it sounds like they were easy to lose leaving you stranded in the vegetation (and I under-estimated the desire of orienteers to take the straight line route!) With hindsight - it might have been best to leave the area out in favour of more accessible and less technical control sites.
We will endeavour to get the event on RouteGadget, but for reference here are all the courses - Dropbox