GROUND ZERO
WOODLAND WALK-ON DAY
H
Ground Zero is a very popular site, just
outside Ringwood in Hampshire – but as
this was Father’s Day it was surely going
to be a quiet one. How wrong can you be?
018
October 2011
ailstones! That’s what it
sounded like - millions
of them hammering on
the roof and walls around
me. A staccato barrage of
sound assaulting my senses, pounding
my eardrums and muffling all other
noise as I tried to squeeze myself even
further into the corner of the hut…
Welcome to a Ground Zero walk-on
day!
For those of you who don’t know
Ground Zero Woodland, the site is
about a mile off the main road, down
a well-maintained gravel track leading
to the car park, a large open area
which, despite the rain from previous
days, was dry and firm. Bounded on
one side by a firing range and with a
camping area set further back, they are
obviously used to running big games
here and this was confirmed when we
met up with Neal and Dan Collins, the
father and son team that own Zero One
Airsoft and operate Ground Zero.
“About 150, was Neal’s estimate
”
for the number of expected players,
although as it was Father’s Day it could
be less but, being the kind of people
they are, they had brought enough
supplies for considerably more, just in
case…
Also in evidence was a good number
of hi-vis-jacketed marshals, who were
already busy getting the site prepared,
the on-site shop stocked and (most
importantly) the catering van fired up.
Headed up by H, the site manager, it
is easy to see why the marshals know
what they’ve got to do. H’s enthusiasm
and passion for the game is obvious.
“There is a right way and a wrong way
to do things” he said, “and we haven’t
been doing what we do, for as long as
we have been doing it, by doing it the
wrong way.
”
As the clock ticked past 10:00 the
car park looked much fuller and, as