The SARPL 3-man Event 2 that happened this past weekend started for me and two players from Demon Crushers as one of the biggest challenges that we have faced so far in our lives.
Friday evening, after starting to print membership cards and trying to get the card printer to print the membership database I went to bed at around 11pm. At roughly 11:45pm I was woken up by a tap on the shoulder and when I opened up my eyes, I was staring into the barrel of a real gun pointed at my head. After various warnings of the armed robber I ended up face down on my bed. Soon to join me was Richard and Combrink from Demon Crushers who were also sleeping over in the cottage. We were all tied up with a duvet thrown over us as we heard them going through the room and the rest of the cottage loading the stuff they wanted to their hearts content into the back of my Condor and a Hyundai I20 (Europcar rental vehicle) standing outside. After being tied up for 2 hours they left, or so we thought. We were just busy breaking loose when one of them came back into the cottage and pointed the gun at us again. This time around they brought a friend that was also staying on the property into the cottage as well that heard the noise and switched on his light in the caravan. They jumped him as he came out of the caravan. They tied us all up again, even tighter this time around, with our arms and legs attached to each other, a pillow case over the head and rope around the neck. We were placed in various places in the cottage with the doors being closed behind us. At last we heard them driving off and soon enough I was lucky to break the rope that was attached between my arms and legs. With my arms still behind my back, pillow case over the head and legs tied together I managed to hop to my room door, opened it with my mouth and made my way out of the cottage and hopped all the way to the main house where I woke up Brian and Werner to come and assist us. They got us loose and we phoned the police. We lost pretty much all our belongings from clothing to TV’s, Laptops, Camera, Xbox and more. The ordeal definitely imprinted in our lives forever. No one got hurt and no shots were fired and that was all by the grace of God and His protection over our lives. Belongings can be replaced, but human life is irreplaceable.
With absolutely no sleep, we had to get through a extremely busy Saturday on the property with 4 parties and 2 paintball groups that came through while still trying to resolve some of the previous nights ordeal. Thank you to all the support that was received from those that I relayed the story too.
That brings us to Sunday morning 12 Feb and the SARPL 3-man Event 2 at our venue, Adventure ‘n Beyond in Muldersdrift.
We were up at 6am starting to get things ready, and even though we were extremely tired from the previous night’s ordeal and the little sleep we had we gave everything to help make the day run as smoothly as possible.
Elaine and Hardie from the Paintball Shop were first on the scene just after 6am and everyone jumped in to help with setting up gazebo’s, and everything else that had to be ready when the teams arrived.
Teams started to arrive from around 6:30am and the buzz started around the property.
Shortly after 8am we kicked off with the first game and the action was on. Teams played strong and in general players obeyed the rules, accepted the calls and cleared the field, put on the barrel socks after being shot and got ready for the next round.
Just after 1pm the prelims were done and after a nice lunch break and some that went for a cool down in the swimming pool we went into semis and finals.
Dark Legends, Redemption, Battle Bros and FreeRunners 1 battled it out on the field to decide who will be the day’s champions.
The end result for Division 4:
1st FreeRunners 1
2nd Battle Bros
3rd Redemption
4th Dark Legends
It is clear to note that the teams the make it in this sport are dedicated and committed players that play for the love of the game, but at the same time take it serious enough as a sport and give it their all on the day of the event!
Congratulations to all these teams for their dedication and commited to the sport and the SARPL!
PaintJob, Apocolypse X, Apocolypse and Gym Bunnies the some serious battling on the fields to decide their standings for the day!
The result for Division 3:
1st Gym Bunnies
2nd Apocolypse
3rd Apocolypse X
4th PaintJob
The questions is now if the new comers to the league will keep their position at the top, or will the other pro teams take up the challenge and take on the current leaders for their place at the top of the ranks for this season? Only time will tell.
We would like to thank the referees for their hard work during the day. We sometimes forget how difficult it is to stand in the sun the whole day focusing on every move of the players make and looking for that shot and making sure that players are safe on the field and sticking to the rules of the game! Thank you to Johan van Niekerk, Lloyd Burger and Michael Goldsmid for giving up their day to assist as referees. Thank you also to all the Div 3 players that assisted during the day as needed.
The day ended with the prize giving and some spot prizes being handed out that was sponsored by Strike Paintballs and Paintball City for the day.
Thank you to our season sponsors for supporting the SARPL during this year! We ask all our members and players of the league to keep on supporting our sponsors during this year.
Sponsoring Brands:
- Planet Eclipse
- Valken
- Strike Paintballs
- DYE Paintball
Sponsoring Shops:
- The Paintball Shop Centurion
- Paintball City
- The Xtreme Shop
- Adventure n Beyond
- Bunker Monkey
- Rockstar
As special thank you to Hentie Pauley from FreeRunners for sponsoring two new gazebo’s for the SARPL and helping us to stay in the shade while running the SARPL events! The slogan for these two gazebos “FreeRunners don’t hide!”
As the day came to a close the property started to drain empty slowly but surely until the last few players from Demon Crushers and staff from Adventure n Beyond were all that was left behind to start with the clean-up of the day.
We would like to thank each and every player and support for being at the event today and for your continued support of the SARPL and making this day yet again another success story!
This coming weekend is the first PSP / SARPL Referee clinic which will be presented by Rob Daniels from the PSP in the USA. Rob Daniels is one of the referee’s that have ref’ed at the PSP World Cup for over 7 years and we are looking forward to learning from him about the PSP rules as well as how to become a better ref. We invite you to come and join us in acquiring your PSP/SARPL referee certification. Training clinics are available on Saturday 18 Feb and Sunday 19 Feb at the Adventure n Beyond field! If you haven’t booked yet, contact us ASAP to book your space.
We invite you also to come and join us for the next and first SARPL 5-man Event for 2012 at Paintball City in Germiston on 25 March 2012. Don’t miss out on this event where we will see a few new teams making their way to the SARPL 5-man event this year and we are sure you will enjoy every moment of the day!
SARPL
The Future of Paintbal