Anxious time as rivals stalk Team Paranoia

It's pretty common to discuss sport in terms of battles won or lost but at this Sunday's Northland Super Air Paintball Open, the sole Northland entry has plenty to be paranoid about.
Seven other teams from around the North Island will be stalking the mainly Waipu-based team - who are called Team Paranoia - with rapid firing weapons hoping to kill them off before they reach the final.
The team's captain, Jeremy Clouston, said although getting hit by the paintball pellets signifies the end of an individual's game, they don't really hurt.
"The guns are firing at 15-20 balls a second, so it's not uncommon to get hit by several balls, but to be honest, it's the muscles that you didn't know you had that bother you the next day, from all the squatting and crouching."
The attraction of the game is the adrenaline rush the pseudo combat gives you and the challenge of carrying out a strategy under fire.
"It's a lot faster than most sports, you need to think fast or you're out. I've never been into other sports like cricket - to be honest it's one of those sports where you don't want to catch the ball," he laughed.
Super Air competition is named after the air-filled barricades that make up the battlefield, or more technically an "air-field", during a game that lasts seven minutes - or sometimes less. The aim is to capture a centrally- placed flag and take it to the other end without being shot.
Points are also awarded for opposition players tagged, and after the round robin competition, there are semifinals and finals.
The game is spectator friendly, unlike other paintball tournaments, because the air-field is surrounded by mesh screens that allow spectators to get close to the action without risk.
The team of Clouston, KJ and Selwyn Thomas, Kaleb Smith and Tim Murray will be joined by a couple of new players for the competition this weekend. They have been coached by Strategy Tag Paintball's Brent Matthews who along with the team are all members of the Whangarei Paintball Club.
The Northland Open is held at Strategy Tag Paintball Games on Mangapai Rd and starts at 10.30am.