Three friends from work and I went once more to the Cheshire countryside to inflict pain on each other, all in the name of fun.

 

Not wishing to put people off, but paintball is expensive and it does hurt: I’m £40 worse off and am peppered with bruises. But it is great fun and, if paintballs didn’t hurt, where’s the incentive to avoid being hit?

 

The aim of the game is to complete a series of tasks without getting splatted. The players (about forty of us) are split down into two teams, red and  blue, and are watched over by a group of sadistic marshalls. The only protection apart from coveralls is a face-mask, leaving most of your body wide open to being shot at. The special “guns” used by the players are powered by compressed CO2. You fill a small hopper on top of the gun with your paintballs and off you go. Paintballs consist of marble-sized, hard gelatin shells containing a fluorescent, snot-like washable paint.

 

Paintball would make a great exercise for social study. Although there are a few small groups there, you’re all thrown into one huge game. All the egos, all the nutters, all the weirdos are there….

 

A few beers afterwards numbed the pain a little, but the bruises are STILL quite visible even today.

 

Here’s a few pics.