PAINTBALLING: THE latest team to fly the sporting flag for Chester are the Chester Centurions - and when they win they could paint the town red!

They are among the pioneers of one of the world's fast-est-growing sports of paintball. Often classified as an extreme sport due to the levels of individual skill and high adrenaline performance required, paintball demands teamwork and communication.

With the restructuring of competitive paintball by the Paint-ball Association in the UK the sport can easily be viewed and played as a mainstream sport.

According to research the typical UK paintballer is male, aged between 18 and 33, owns a PC and at least one games console, is well educated with a passion for new gadgets, is aware of health and fitness issues and enjoys a close-knit bond with team-mates.

In its purest form paintball is a game in which two teams compete against each other with the aim of eliminating opponents by marking them with paint fired from a paintball marker.

In 2002 the Paintball Association was formed to inject professionalism and organisation into the game to make it acceptable as a serious sport.

A national league was formed with registration and transfer procedures and it now attracts sponsorship from outside the UK paintball industry.

Forty teams from as far apart as Edinburgh and Portsmouth, Camarthen and London take part in the first Motorola Paint-ball Association National League and Chester are currently in Division Three.

Games are played regionally with the next event scheduled for Ancaster, near Lincoln, on Sunday, March 20.

The Centurions, who were fifth out of 11 teams in their division on Sunday at the sport's headquarters at Ancaster, have a squad of eight players headed by manager and field captain Shane Evans, a 33-year-old make-up artist and hairdresser from Prestatyn.

Other squad members are Tim Salt, Andrew Bootland and Phil Nash, all from Manchester, David Evans, of Llangollen and Wrexham-based Mark Powell, Jonathan Evans and Richard Gibbons.

Said Evans: 'People think paintballing is done by people dressed in combat gear in woods, but it is properly organised and played in an arena and is about to be recognised as a sport by the Sports Council of England.

'It is very exciting and in the USA is bigger than skateboarding, rollerblading and snow-boarding combined with more than seven million participants.'

Information can be obtained from visiting www.tournamentpaintball.co.uk or from 01745560670.