Ancaster Karting, home of the East Midlands Airsoft Club

Site and Amenities

First impressions were really promising, after driving 1 hour 15 minutes from Derby I was a little concerned I may struggle to find the site. This was unwarranted as the site’s entrance is well sign posted and adorning the perimeter of their premises was a huge disused tank, which was an awesome thing to see.

The site itself was a mix use site that catered to Paintball, Laser Tag, Quad Biking and Archery. They did, to their credit advertise and showcase Airsoft, which I have seen play second fiddle to paintball on some mixed venues.

There was ample car parking in a gravelled area, the main safe zone was a collection of buildings from porta-cabins, to cargo freight containers and a large sturdy marquee. We didn’t feel cramped for space when laying out our gear.

The area was clean and well looked after and the various buildings had coverings to protect you from the elements, the safe zone was surrounded by either a large gate or netting on the sides facing the game area. Connected to the safe zone was a mini firing range with about 6 metal targets, this was also where the chrono took place.

On to amenities and pricing, the price for a full day as a non-member was £30 and £25 for members, these prices did not include lunch. This was an added extra with a few options, burger, burger & chips or just chips. Of all the Airsoft sites I’ve been to that offered food, this had to be the poorest I’ve sampled. The burger was very dry low quality in a solitary dry bun, no cheese or onions to be see anywhere. The condiments available were lacking and by the time I got up there all they had left were sachets of brown sauce. For beverages the fridges were almost barren with only around 15 bottles of Lucozade. They did have ample bottles of water for £1.50 each and free tea & coffee to go around which was a welcome addition due to the lack of alternative offerings.

Staff and Game Arena

The marshals were very friendly and welcoming, the safety brief was short but concise. I did like the addition of people having to use a gun sock while in the safe zone however, found this rule was not enforced and started to be ignored more as the day went on. I appreciate it may be hard to enforce but perhaps have or don’t have it.

The game area was good and had some great undulating terrain which allowed for interesting gameplay and use of cover whilst attacking. The site also incorporated a couple of key points with button-controlled lights which either showed Red or Blue and could be changed during the games to indicate control.

The games were fun and the turnaround was quick and well organised, I especially enjoyed the Battlefield Rush style of attack and defend games, they worked really well with the site as it was long and relatively narrow in parts.

There were some teams playing with us which made the day a good challenge, something I really relished. Hit taking was above average and there was for a friendly laid-back atmosphere to the day.

Although overall I enjoyed the terrain and what had been done to the site, I think the use of blue see-through mesh walls were over used and seeing your opponent make their move while being behind cover ruined the game play somewhat for me.

I did have a massive gripe with the yellow tape that was strung up across parts of the game area, which I obviously started assuming these areas were out of play. I soon found out it was there as a reminder to keep your goggles on, like I’m going to take off the one thing protecting my precious sight from the bad men shooting at me with plastic balls. I think a little over zealous and frankly quite irritating, perhaps an insurance thing, not sure.

Final Thoughts

On the whole I found the Airsoft at EMAC to be enjoyable and the site providing good style of games and a varied dynamic arena. The marshalling and organisation were of a decent standard. Sadly, the venue was let down by the facilities which I heard so many good things about prior. I’m not sure this site offers something extra that closer sites don’t already provide.

THE GOOD

• Clean and well-presented site

• Interesting props added as objectives

• Positive steps towards safety

• Good and Friendly marshals

• Experienced teams playing which made games a challenge

THE BAD

• Terrible food

• Poorly stocked fridges

• Very annoying paintball tape all around the game area

• Over using the same mesh fencing

• Long distance for similar style gameplay offered locally

OVERALL SCORE

7/10 - Good