UK men’s team set to defend their world title in France while women’s squad hope to win gold 

Britain’s calendar of summer sport often just records a litany of disappointments – yet there is one unexpected area where we reign supreme… paintballing.

The men’s team will defend their world title in France in August and our women, ranked second in the world, hope to win gold too.

Paintballing is best known in the UK as a stag and hen-do activity.

‘But we’re coming out of the woods,’ says Ainsley Baddeley, who runs the UK league and is European Paintball Federation president. ‘There’s more to it than you realise – speed, skill and strategy.

‘When it started 30 or 40 years ago, there was this perception it was a war game, military based, using guns. Today it’s more like a fun, fast-paced game of chess.’ Team GB men and women’s teams will travel to Dreux near Paris in August with the veterans (over-40s) and youth squad (under-19s).

Paintballing is best known in the UK as a stag and hen-do activity. PICTURED: Stag Do in Bristol celebrating a win before the big day 

Our men’s champions are aged 19 to 41 and when not paintballing work in jobs such as carpentry, plastering and teaching.

Their 50-minute matches are in a 36m by 45m arena with 50 inflatable obstacles. Some are two metres high, others 50cm, and shapes include a brick and snake.

Two teams, with five players each on the field at any time, take shelter behind them while trying to ‘mark’ opponents with paintballs – a gelatine shell containing environmentally friendly polyethylene glycol.

It is usually dyed yellow but never red, so as not to look like blood.

Ainsley says: ‘What has perhaps put people off in the past is the perception of paintball as a war game.

‘But today we use ‘markers’ which are bright and colourful. There’s nothing you’d class as a gun, that’s the message to get across.’ The markers fire about ten paintballs per second and cost anywhere between £100 and £2,000.

Team GB’s amateurs provide their own, along with their protective kit, and pay for their air tickets, car hire and accommodation when they compete abroad.

They also cover the cost of training at the Central Premier Paintball Series tournament venue near Penkridge, Staffordshire. 

Now the teams are appealing to businesses for help. The UK league has three sponsorship packages: gold, (£1,000) platinum (£2,500) and diamond (£5,000).  

To assist, visit teamgbpaintball.com.