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No market for Walk On's in the Berkshire Area? - Really?

Sharpe_95

Member
Mar 16, 2011
26
1
13
Hi all,
I am a noobie here and am looking into getting into the sport (not so much sup-air but certainly rec/woodsball).

Having called several sites in the Reading, Newbury, Farnborough and High Wycombe area to see where/when I could look to play, I was shocked to hear from several sites that "there is no market round here for walk ons".

One site I called didnt even know what a walk on was (although to be fair they didnt know what a marker was either........).

So the only place that specifically catered for walk ons within about 10-20 miles of Reading was 'Weekend Warriors', two other sites basically said "we would do it if people booked onto the site, but we dont have a programme for it" we may do it in the future but at the moment there is no market for it in this area. One of those sites did say they used to do it with lots of interest but it all fell off a cliff in 2012 and they may look into doing walk ons every other month from Feb 2015.

So two questions to everyone here:

1) Is the woodsball/recball walk on scene in the Reading/Berkshire area really as dead as has been implied by the local sites?

2) Where do people in this area (assuming they exist) go to do their walk ons (assuming they do more than the 1 a monh at Weekend Warriors).

3) Is there any merit in starting a 'Berkshire Federation' of paintballers to get an idea of people in the area that want to play and perhaps facilitate organising other 'walk ons' at the sites that would do it ad-hoc if enough people could form their own game (it might even help encourage local sites to step up and start looking at this market).

Any thoughts anyone?

-Sharpe
 
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Jagtec

UK Head Hunter
Oct 14, 2012
7
2
13
No fixed adobe
Hi Sharpe,

There is few of us still in the area playing paintball, few of the UK Head Hunters are from Reading. Your right about walk ons in the area. You should try Bricket wood and blind fire in Cobham, good site which is well run and the staff have passion for the sport.

There is few other sites that do walk ons around the M25. You should try Reading paintball on junglebook or urban paintabll uk
 
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southernP8nt

Active Member
Aug 20, 2008
314
63
38
Hi all,
I am a noobie here and am looking into getting into the sport (not so much sup-air but certainly rec/woodsball).
I'm not from the area but I know that Skirmish Paintball in Bristol run regular walkons, I went to a couple last year and they were pretty good, and while it's not that local it's only about an 80 minute drive from Reading. Not the closest thing but might be close enough to be worth it.
 

Kevin Winter

Well-Known Member
Dec 10, 2008
1,958
559
138
The bottom line for most sites is that walkons are less profitable than punters. I'm just down the road in slough, and there's not too many walkons in the immediate area. You do have the weekend warriors one, the others I can think of are Campaign, which is not too far away, and Bricketwood, a touch more than an hour to drive
 

niloc65

Aka Colin
Oct 4, 2013
319
88
48
Worthing - West Sussex
Hi, I'm from Worthing, one of my Brothers is in Bracknell and our team is North Kent Based, we mostly play woodsball walk-ons, we've attended the Reading Weekend Warriors, Crawley Holmbush, Mayhem Sidcup and Cobham Campaign. All seem to be active walk-on days with good attendance. So as you can see we travel quiet a distance to find walk on sites. But this adds variety and mixes things up, which is good.

I have phoned many south coast sites from Brighton to Portsmouth and also had the "nope we don't run walkons, not worth our while" spiel, I cant fathom why because most walkon days can be run with two/three good marshalls and minimal site interaction apart from selling paint and lunch. and as seen at MSE Walkons (Sidcup) be run parallel to the rental players and be an extra income earner.

I've used a web site http://www.paintballcalendar.co.uk/walkons to check when games are on. And encouraged the walkon sites I attend to post on there so the word get about.

A fellow team mate and member of this forum called GEE TEE has been running walk-on pump days with me assisting at Campaign on their SupAir field, and we expect to run more during the summer.

So walk-ons are sparse, but if you look there are some good days to be had if your willing to travel.
 

Alansonit

Member
Apr 12, 2015
20
2
23
35
Glad this thread popped up as I work/live near Reading and am keen to start picking gear up to go to walk-ons.

@Sharp_95 please let me know what you find as I can't pm you for some reason! Cheers.
 

dfr350

Sad but true
Apr 22, 2007
557
115
68
Bracknell UK
I live in Bracknell and would be interested to play again after many years absence. Are there any sites around here that let you bring your own marker to normal punter days either mech or electros?? I know there is one in southampton that allows walkons with punters but would like something closer.
 

Adrenochrome

da puffmeister
Jul 12, 2001
506
35
53
surrey
You need to support your site when they do run a walkon, be nice to other players and the punters, buy some paint from them, don't discuss prices etc in front of the high paying public.

It tends to get to be too much hassle for the site owner and the income stream ain't that great so it stops.
Skirmish high Wycombe was.
 

thomasbear

Member
Aug 12, 2014
61
16
18
Milton keynes
Hiya Sharpe I'm not that far away from you I've found that most walk ons will involve some traveling. But think reading weekend warriors hold a walk on. Mayhem Essex and campaign both do. Brickett wood does mainly tournament stuff but do run a woodsball walk on but not managed to get to one yet. Then you also have Bristol here the main ones I now of to you.
 

david525

Active Member
Nov 17, 2015
138
22
38
58
beds
sounds like you went to these site who only want punter .get them in charge them the earth as long as they play don't care if they come back. try npf bassets pole jt 4 m6 as they sell as well as the site you can go down whenever also wraped sports or brickett wood all good sites as I live in beds I find I need to travel but npf is only 1hr30 min which is ok on the waythere but dose seem a long way home but worth it