leave the M25 alone!!

[potbitch]

Originally posted by gaff
sorry potbitch and all others, i have just read the whole thread and there are some very inteligent suggestions and observations, but with regards to safety and children especially i can quite honestly say if my child was hit by a paintball whilst standing as a spectator through what should be (no excuses are acceptable what so ever here!!!) complete and unbroken SAFETY NETTING i would be everyones worst nightmare believe me! as all you parents out there will appreciate!!

SAFETY CANNOT BE BOUGHT CHEAP.....EVER!!!

sorry to sound aggresive but i feel an adult getting hit through netting is bad, but children! i would sue the ass off the organiser once they recovered!

in my daughters case the ball that hit her was probably a bounce and did not leave a mark on her head and i would not have let them near the area if the netting had been poor or broken and letting the balls fly through.
i'm sorry but i personally don't think you can make any paintball event really safe for instance the netting at the start of the day may be perfect but how many people lean on, push against or pull the netting down so the they can see better well that puts stress on the netting and then makes hole's every event has problems and somebody always moans about some thing but at the end of the day if the series was that bad then nobody would go and if the netting was really that bad i would not have taken my children to any of the m25 event's

 

[L J]

ok, so we get onto holes in the netting, why dont we, give the marshalls on each field bags of the small cable ties(like £2 per 100) and say every 5 games patch up any holes they can see, i know this isnt perfect, but at least they might patch say 5+ holes in the day that could be, potentially very dangerous! wont take long at all, just check the back and front ends and its sorted, usually we have a 4 mins turn around which someone isnt doing anything anyway so they can do that!

 

[potbitch]

my opinion is probably not worth much but if it was me doing an event for safety i would do area's of double netting to the average persons height to veiw from, try not to have field's opporsite each other to prevent cross fire, start games at the same time allowing spectators to access the viewing area's safely, and try to net the across the top corners to help avoid the ones that bounce off the corners
ok all of theses things may not always be appropriate but if some of them were in place then it might help

 

[potbitch]

i never said that the marshalls were to blame for the netting through out the day if you read what i said about the holes it's the players and spectators to blame for leaning on it and cable ties make new holes when you patch a hole so it wouldn't make much difference if you did go round with them

 

[gaff]

Originally posted by potbitch

1. i'm sorry but i personally don't think you can make any paintball event really safe for instance the netting at the start of the day may be perfect but how many people lean on, push against or pull the netting down so the they can see better well that puts stress on the netting and then makes hole's

2. every event has problems and somebody always moans about some thing but at the end of the day if the series was that bad then nobody would go

3. and if the netting was really that bad i would not have taken my children to any of the m25 event's

please understand that i was not directing anything at you and was definately not incinuating anything about your abilities as a parent!!!

but as you have replied i will respond to your comments directly. i have broken your reply into paragraphs for ease of reply.

1. this comment i think is where we are going wrong, we are sooo lucky at the mo that the HSE are not interested in us, cos if they suddenly did take an interest the work required to put on a tourney would be huge. Safety is the only thing that cannot be avoided, ie if you child or anyone else for that matter had been struck with a ball in the eye and been blinded, the costs would probably be somewhere in the region of £500,000.00. what tourney organiser can afford that? and no if the netting is found to have holes etc in it your insurances are not valid!

2. we are not moaning we are merely offering suggestions and making constructive critisism, to enable such tournaments to flourish, and avoid any seriously bad press and impending law suits

3. the netting should be safe for all spectators, let alone just children!! come to campaign and see the quality of the netting and safety they have, this is the only standard we should expect!!

again this comment is not aimed at any series or promoter in particular and is the opinion of me only, not my sponsors or team

 

[potbitch]

i was at campaign last year with out the kids as i was the first time i went and wasn't sure if it would be suitable for them and this year i will be taking them but last year i don't know how but i managed to get caught by a ball that had bounced off a corner on one of the fields round the back so theses things still happen just not as often
i am very health and safety conciuos and i can see an accident waiting to happen but from what i'v heard and seen there are place's that are worse but with most of theses places there isn't the amount of general puplic milling around most of which are totaly unaware of what could go wrong. so yes the safety does need looking at but i still stand by what i said earlier i know what the dangers are i checked out the first event without the kids b4 i took them so there for i would be the only person to blame if they got hurt no different then it would be my fault if my daughter came of her horse becaus i allowed her to get on in the first place

 

[Kieran]

Netting

One of the problems with the netting at these events is seams, they're often putting seams in stupid places with insufficient overlaps. There are at the moment no guidelines or standards for promotors to look at with regards to netting. The m25 netting is two stretches joined together, one 3m in height and one 2m high.... this creates a seam al the way around the edge of the fields that is exactly where you don't want a seam to be, at head height for kids and in some places for adults..... the 3m stretch should be the one touching the ground if a seam is necessary, this way if there are weaknesses in the join, any balls that do escape will be higher up, also the volume of paint 3m up in the air is much lower so balls would be far less likely to escape.

6m high netting is available, if this is used then seams are eliminated (apart from where rolls are joined).

With paintball coming into more and more public areas, the netting issues need to be resolved, we need to do everthing we can to stop paintballs leaving the fields.

In my opinion, with stadium style venues, certain rules should be adhered to:

-Netting should be at least 5m high except between fields where it isn't a safety issue.

-Seams need to be kept to a minimum, where a horizontal seem is necessary, THINK about where it is, dont seam netting at ee height!

- Seams should be overlapped by 2 feet, this should eliminate holes in the netting.

-When netting starts to develop holes, either use it for internal field dividers, or as an extra layer in the chrony area.

-If you need to patch up netting DO NOT just zip tie it to itself!!! All that happens is that the netting becomes pulled tighter and the zip tie ends up working like a knife and creating a bigger hole. When patching up holes, use a patch of netting sothat there are no additional pressures on the hole.

- erect a fence (rope, bunting or similar) a metre or two back from the netting to stop people leaning on it etc.

If we are going to be playing in more public places the netting needs to be as safe as we can possibly get it. OK so we will never be able to keep all of the balls in the arena but we need to take every step possible (short of roofs on fields) to make the netting as safe as we can.

K

 

[QuackingPlums]

Go Jiggy... woooo!

Listen to the field-setup master...

 

[Tiny(D.R)]

Originally posted by cockersrule
well i 'heard' sparklie was being given the netting from CC(dont quote me on this) so theoretically that means the further series can have double layered netting or something

Mate i hope this was not from the same source that told you it was at Dartford when it was at Reading

 

[Vampire]

Originally posted by potbitch
it's the players and spectators to blame for leaning on it

How about simply erecting barriers around the outside of each field's netting?

This would keep people (slightly) further away from the field, giving everybody a better view (ever noticed how people push their faces up to the netting just to peer around the person standing next to them?).

It would also stop people from damaging or disturbing the netting, and the increased distance should reduce splatter from direct hits against the netting from reaching people.

It won't get around the problems of balls finding holes, but should help alleviate one of the causes of the holes and make spectating better.

Just an idea...