I also think that, taking the "90+ % case" of flying over countryside, the best thing is to turn roughly into wind (that alone is likely to make a huge difference to the energy which one needs to lose on landing) and pick a series of fields that are lined up along your heading.
Round my way this is known as the East Anglia Method:
(1) Set up a circuit
(2) Work out which field you are going to end up in
(3) Tell the instructor/examiner that that's the one you've been aiming at all along