EVENT REPORT
AIRSOFT SURGEON CHAMPIONSHIP 2020
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ACTION AIR AT THE
BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW
AIRSOFT ACTION HAS BEEN PROMOTING ACTION AIR SINCE 2012 AND THIS FEBRUARY SAW THE
UK’S BIGGEST EVENT YET. NIGE REPORTS FROM THE AIRSOFT SURGEON CHAMPIONSHIP SHIELD CUP
2020, WHICH TOOK PLACE ALONGSIDE THE GREAT BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW.
A
t just after 12am, on the 12th of
February, I found myself standing in
the empty vastness of Hall 9, at the
National Exhibition Centre, in Birmingham,
England, having just clambered out of
the seven and a half ton lorry I had driven
into the hall a few minutes earlier. It was
one of those “odd” moments, when you
feel both 100% alive and yet dreading
that something would go wrong - a
definite “Why the eff are we doing this?”
moment!
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
Regular readers of Airsoft Action,
particularly those who have been with us
from the beginning, will know that the
magazine has been a solid supporter of
(what used to be called) “Airsoft Practical
Pistol Shooting” since it made its first
appearance at Airsoft Arms Fair 5, in 2012.
In the July 2012 issue I reported from
AAF5, where I had the pleasure of meeting
a guy from Hong Kong called Clarence
Lai, also known as “Airsoft Surgeon”.
Back then I had very little idea of who
the Airsoft Surgeon was, although I was
hugely impressed with the Practical Pistol
Workshops he ran, tickets for which sold
out almost as soon as they were made
available. At the time, I wrote “Watching
him handle a pistol is not like watching
someone simply holding a pistol – it is as
though it has become an extension of his
arm and he doesn’t have to think about
doing something with it, he just does it!”
During a break between sessions I got
to chat with Clarence and we immediately
struck up a friendship but neither of us
could have imagined then where that
would lead – and why I would end up
standing in the middle of an empty Hall
9 at the NEC, in the middle of the night,
eight years later!
IPSC? WHAT’S THAT?
IPSC stands for “International Practical
Shooting Confederation”, which is the
worldwide governing body for practical
shooting and its many disciplines,
including handguns, rifle, shotgun and
“Action Air”. As their website says: “IPSC
shooters need to blend accuracy, power,
and speed into a winning combination.
Multiple targets, moving targets, targets
that react when hit, penalty targets, or
even partially covered targets, obstacles,
movement, competitive strategies, and
other techniques are all a part of IPSC to
keep shooters challenged and spectators
engaged.” Eagle-eyed readers might spot
the word “spectators” in there and it was
that word that set me thinking whether
we could leverage it to get more people
involved in the game generally.
Fast-forward to March of the following
year at IWA, in Nuremberg, Germany. I
was scheduled to meet Chris Kong on the
RedWolf Airsoft stand, which is where
I would also find Clarence Lai. Needless
to say, the three of us got to talking and
at some point in the conversation one of
us asked whether it would be possible to
run an Airsoft Practical Pistol UK Event,
which rapidly morphed into “Why just
the UK? Why not make it a European
Championship?” In October of the same
year the first “Airsoft Surgeon European
Championship” took place at The Grange,
not far from Coventry in the UK and
looking back at what I wrote of the event
at the time, I included the line “…less than
eight months later I found myself standing
inside a vast marquee….”!
THINKING BIG
Over the next seven years the event
continued to grow, as did Action Air
throughout Europe and in many ways,
I think what we were doing with the
“THE BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW IS HELD AT THE NEC AND ALMOST JOKINGLY,
I QUIPPED THAT “MAYBE WE COULD RUN THE CHAMPIONSHIP ALONGSIDE THE
SHOOTING SHOW?” IMAGINE MY UTTER ASTONISHMENT WHEN STEVE SAID “WHY
NOT? I’LL ASK THE BOSS!””
32
MARCH 2020