Nestled in the English countryside just over an hour's drive from London is the world's biggest multi level urban paintball field. Situated at Greenham Common on a disused RAF air base, Hot Shots was once home to the hub of the NATO's European Strike Command. What was once the site of nuclear protests and a deadly arsenal of cruise missiles is now 17 acres of adrenalin pumping paintball action. With the end of the Cold War in 1988, NATO removed its nuclear stockpile and RAF Greenham was sold in 1992.
Hot Shots opened in January 1994 and features 70 two storey buildings. Literally a whole suburb to explore. All the buildings are completely intact except for the glass from the windows which has been removed for safety. Hot Shots must have without a doubt the best facilities of any paint ball field in the world, and includes a cafe and a licensed bar. Get there early in the morning and you can sit down in the dining room to a full English breakfast. Highly recommended. Whilst most sites don't have a decent car park, Hot Shots not only has ample sealed parking near their HQ but the fields themselves contain a network of roads and car parks complete with painted lines.
Hot Shots plays host to up to 150 rental players at a time and exclusively uses Sterling pump action markers. All are chronoed down to the site limit of 280 feet per second. As well as the usual camouflage overalls and face masks, players are provided with a protective hood - a vital piece of kit for close up shots when storming enemy held territory.
The check in area, player lounge, cafe and bar are completely separate from the playing fields and provide a base for players to relax between missions. A number of scenarios are run throughout the day with briefings and pre-game speeches being held in the players lounge. Once kitted out and briefed, teams make their way across to the playing fields where it is goggles on. First stop is the armoury where players pick up a Sterling allocated to their number which is pre-loaded with paint. In an adjacent room players can visit a counter which is constant b manned with staff behind a perspex screen ready to fix any equipment problems or reload extra paint throughout the day. Out the door and it's onto the playing fields.
After the obligatory introductory games of Elimination and Capture the Flag there are a number of variations including Assassination, Cruise Control, Risk and my personal favourite, Embassy Siege. In this game, one of the teams are confined to their "Embassy" which, like all the other buildings, is two storeys and has over a dozen rooms and corridors with a central staircase. The opposition has to gain access to the embassy and retrieve a "detonator" which they need to blow up the building. As you can imagine, the team inside the embassy doesn't stand a chance and very quickly comes under fire from all sides. Pity the poor referee who has to carry out a paintcheck in the middle of the siege as there is often more paint flying around inside than in a Dulux factory in the middle of an earthquake. The whole thing culminates in a very loud bang and a cloud of smoke as part of a pyrotechnics display supervised by the paint splattered referees.
Facilities for walk on (own paintgun and goggles) players are very impressive. Not only do teams get a whole room to themselves but they are carpeted and furnished with lounge chairs (albeit tattered ones) and workbenches. Because of the very obvious firepower advantage with most walk ons using state of the art Autocockers or Automags, they play completely separate games to the rental players. There are anywhere up to 100 walk ons at a time each Sunday.
The fields themselves can be very paint hungry and just to make sure players get their fill, Hot Shots keep a third of a million rolling stocks of paintballs. Paint is kept from four different batches so that if one batch doesn't measure up they can switch to another one and credit the dodgy paint with their suppliers. Field fees and paint prices for rental players are very similar to those in Australia. Walk ons pay a field fee of about A$35 and can either BYO paint or buy it on site for ridiculously low prices which are well below the Australian wholesale price.
Hot Shots is run by Justin and Steve who between them have over 12 years experience in the paintball business running fields. They also run two woodland fields, one of which, Skirmish Lasham is the oldest paintball site in the UK. On a busy weekend Hot Shots has more staff than most fields have players. With 150 rentals they would have 18 field referees, three handling administration (one with each group), two staff in the amoury, two catering staff and two bar staff making a total of 26. I'm told there are also five full time sales staff and two part timers who work marketing the site mid week. There is staff accommodation on site with some staff actually living there full time whilst others crash there on the weekends.
Hot Shots recently played host to camera crews from the UK drama series Soldier, who were filming an episode set in Bosnia. The production team left behind quite a few goodies including plastic barb wire and some sand bags to add even more effect to some of the buildings. The bar opens at 4pm after all the Sterlings are packed away. The lounge area includes a pool table, poker machine and a Terminator 11 pinball machine. One downside to all this is the bar serves Fosters on tap. l travel halfway around the world and they still serve Australian beer! Still how many other paint ball fields can boast having a watering hole this close. "Another pint thanks guvnor." Now that's what I call civilised!
Hot Shots, RAF Greenham Common, Newbury, Western Europe RG15 8HJ. Phone: 01635 41308. FAX: 01635 41310.
Paint site design and contents Copyright Mike Wallis |
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