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Even though Delta Force Paintball is in Kegworth rather than Nottingham itself, it only took 15 minutes in the car from Wollaton so it’s definitely feasible for most UoN students.
We arrived at the car park off a dirt track at 8:30am, finding ourselves stared down like we were about to compete on Gladiators. While we were a group of 20 somethings, we were surrounded by a 30 year old’s stag do, a 12 year old’s birthday party and a family that, by the angry expressions on their faces, looked like they were taking part as some kind of group therapy session.
Entering the ‘base camp’ we filled out the disclaimer forms – always a good sign – and tooled up. I’m talking extra baggy jump suits, grenade belts, helmets and of course the high powered, fast shooting guns… In short we looked ready to survive any terrible Vietnam re-enactment.
The paintball zones were built up in the middle of the forest allowing for maximum camouflage and a great feeling of isolation from the outside world. Our paintball marshal (I can’t remember his name, but he looked like the blonde guy from Sons of Anarchy) was super excited to begin, ushering us through the forest and explaining, with the Oscar-winning intensity of Eddie Redmayne, our mission: capture the brick.
I’ll be honest most of the mission scenarios didn’t sound amazing, but once you were playing with your teammates that didn’t matter! I’d been paintballing once before and I have to say, there’s nothing quite like skidding through the mud, firing painful bullets of paint at a stranger on a Sunday morning.
“The paintball zones were built up in the middle of the forest allowing for maximum camouflage and a great feeling of isolation from the outside world”
After both your team and your rivals had had a go defending and attacking for each mission, we had a short five minute break allowing us to recap the best moments and re-stock our ammo. Although the centre did have free tea and coffee and cheap pizzas available for lunch time, I’d suggest bringing your own snacks and drinks. Plus they have lockers available to use, but do charge to borrow a padlock, so bring your own if you can remember!
My favourite mission of the day was set in a fake village in ‘Vietnam’ and the goal was to capture as many huts as possible, i.e. whoever had the most of their team in each hut by the end of the round won. Although I horrifically injured myself (I ran from a hut, slipped and face planted into a tree) the intensity of my team was rather fun to get involved in. At the end of the day all the scores are tallied up and the winners of the day are announced… Not to brag but my team won (not down to my help however.)
“The intensity of my team was rather fun to get involved in”
As for how much fun you’ll have paintballing, I think it depends on the people you go with and whether you enjoy getting muddy and out of breath. As my teammates took the missions VERY seriously, I was able to stand back and laugh and kind of half-arse it, which suited me just fine!
I’d definitely recommend Delta Force Paintball as all the marshals were fun, the scenery and mission zones were really good and professionally created and they have a tank you can sit on…which I thought was pretty cool.
For more information visit http://www.paintballgames.co.uk/paintball-nottingham-centre.
Natalie Mallory
Featured image: Max Warren via Flickr. Embedded image: Natalie Mallory
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Just posting the URL looks really half-baked. Put the URL so FB knows it’s a link, and then replace it with a catchy sentence from the article, in quotation marks.
Cool stuff! I remembered my first paintball experience. Everybody ended up getting bruised due to the impact. Was sore after but real fun!