On Friday 14 July, almost 100 Round Tablers from across the country descended on Sherwood Forest for the inaugural Woodland Games. And it was a cracker!
RTBI had put out the call for a ‘unique event’ - something new and different - something that could still satiate the innate Tabling desire to compete against each other. The boys from Penistone 1094 and the newly formed Todwick and Anston Round Table 1292 duly obliged, and smashed it out of the park.
Skirmish Activity Centre played host to a full weekend of camping, paintballing, axe-throwing, air rifle shooting and archery – with a Mystery Friday Night event to boot. Their base camp became the home to a craft ale bar, with a phenomenal hog roast, karaoke and late-night revelry.
Friday Night
Tablers arrived, cursed the weather and practically swam out to the campsite. They scoffed down dinner and a drink before the Exec arrived - wearing masks, dressed in bright pink jumpsuits and carrying paintball guns. The Squid Game had begun!
Each Tabler received 10 LifeCoins: representing their lives in the game and their lottery tickets to a better life (drinks vouchers). First up: “Red Light Green Light” – the players were led up to the far end of a distant field and told to make their way to the other side of the field whenever the ‘doll’ (our very own Events Officer, Ray Carr, in fancy dress) shouted ‘Green Light’. But, be warned, if their movement was detected after he shouted ‘Red Light’ the player would be ‘eliminated’ with a volley of paintballs. Carnage ensued – it was hilarious.
Following the Squid Game plot, in later games the players needed to carve different shapes from biscuits (without breaking them), compete in a life-or-death tug-of-war, or win marbles from their fellow players on general pain of elimination. The final game saw two lines of contestants trying to cross the “50/50 bridge”, where each step forward carried a 50% chance of elimination. Only 4 survived…
Saturday
Saturday saw the competition heat up with Tablers competing across the four key disciplines: paintballing, axe-throwing, archery and air rifle shooting.
The venue staff superbly navigated the teams of Tablers through each activity, while keeping track of the scores throughout. The evening’s hog roast was a roaring success and a raucous presentation ceremony followed.
Individual medals were awarded in each discipline and finally the Woodland Games trophy was awarded to Yorkshire’s own Area 9, with Area 46 in second place and Area 14 in third place. The evening rolled into the night in style with a mind-blowing karaoke session which truly demonstrated the strength and depth of Round Table’s vocal talents.
Sunday
Sunday was made for recovering, packing tents and celebrating new friendships. And as the final tents cleared the campsite, no doubt remained: this had been an epic weekend to remember.
Results
Woodland Games Champions
Area 9 - 653 points
2nd - Area 46 - 563 points;
3rd - Area 14 - 483 points
Individual Awards:
Squid Game Winner - Jamie Powis (other "survivors": Louis Puttick; Dean Bonner; Sam Longworth)
Axe Throwing - 1st Steve Eccles; 2nd Regan Dickinson; 3rd Paul Fryer
Air Rifle Shooting - 1st Nathan Dearn; 2nd Regan Dickinson; 3rd Michael Firth
Archery - 1st Andrew Bardsley; 2nd Bhavesh Maisuria; 3rd Luke Cutts
Paintballing 'Special' Awards - 1st Jon Fisher-Jones; 2nd Jules Devlin-Dickinson; 3rd Sam Longworth
