SE Tour Review: RIFT The Ridge (Bedfordshire)

[Asomodai]

Site Name: RIFT The Ridge

Contact details: 07751586781

Website Address: https://riftairsoft.com/
Facebook Page: RIFT Airsoft "The Ridge" Barton Le Clay | Facebook

Site Address: Luton Rd, Barton-le-Clay, Bedford MK45 4LG

 

I had put off going to airsoft recently despite having been packed ready to go for the past 4 weeks. A last minute dash to celebrate an anniversary resulted in me looking at Airsoft sites close to Dunstable for Easter Sunday. A second visit to Red 1 The School was on the cards but I did spot that RIFT Airsoft were playing The Ridge which was pretty darned close. A quick message to @Albiscuit and we got booked in. 

 

Despite doing these reviews for years, I had never visited a RIFT site, Always wanted to do COM 3 but never managed to get around to it. RIFT Airsoft have been going for years and have a knack for acquiring fairly unique sites.

General consensus about the site from previous reviews: "You get a work out, but it's fun". 

 

Medium sized ex Quarry turned 4x4 Trail of which the entrance is scarily located right on the onramp to the A6 (As in you are literally about to merge onto the A6 blink and you'll miss the site entrance on the left and have to come back around from the next junction).

 

The Ridge is a Sandy/Woodland site which has huge elevation changes around the North, North West and West sides of the site. Very steep hills which need careful footwork to navigate. Despite being promoted as a Quarry, it has lots of Bush style woodland vegetation which provides some cover and a challenge to walk through. 

 

Short/Medium/Long Engagement distances, though due to the stronger wind in the large open area long distance engagement was difficult. There are no man made structures at all. It's a pure site in that regard. 

 

The site has no permanent Airsoft event infrastructure. It is all brought in from outside in a van for the day. 

 

Good:

 

USP: Not many sites like this in the UK. Sandpit closed down years ago, Imperium's Quarry is quite small and the one used in Kent for the RUCKUS games is almost never used (More of a "Guest" site.) The Ridge quarry is not as good or featured as the other quarry sites, but it's open more often. There is no quarry machinery etc. Just the sand and rock left over. Very glad it exists though if you want a somewhat different game day to usual. (Roll out the desert uniform!)

 

Safety Brief: Very much a "mall" style safety brief, long, but covered everything and it was needed due to the natural dangers the site has. 

 

Shop: Pretty good shop. A large selection of low/mid tier pistols and rifles. Gear, gas and bb's. 

 

Game Modes: More complicated then your average skirmish, with multiple objectives (The pole game was quite interesting). You need to pay attention in the game brief to make sure your team win. Even if you dominate the opposing teams spawn point, they can score points if you aren't playing for the objective. 

 

Chrono: Mandatory, nothing was tagged, but everyone's rifle was noted and FPS was ticked off on a sheet. I do prefer tagging, but this is a reasonable way of doing it. (As long as people don't switch up to a different "M4". FPS limits are 350FPS for AEG, 370FPS for LMG (With MED) 450FPS for DMR and 500 FPS for BASR. Green gas pistols were not chronoed. 

 

Average: 

 

Playing Area: It's sandy, which makes it different, but with more woodland then you expect, and the woodland is where most of the play occurred. The sandy areas were "mostly" open and flat which did not encourage people to use them as anything more then a shortcut to get to the woodland. The woodland was dense, but passible to the West and North West, North was higher foliage and passable, The South East and South was more dense and mostly impassable. All woodland sections had open clay paths. throughout. Not as many brambles as you might expect for a Quarry site, but still enough to keep you looking to avoid. 

 

Value: £30 for a quarry site is perfectly fine, despite lack of features. 

 

Clientele: Appeared to be 18+, A mixture of serious and casual players. Seemed friendly enough and stayed within their friendship groups. Had a laugh with some on the way to the safe zone. Despite a zero policy on drugs there were a couple of players hotboxing in a car in carpark at lunchtime. 

 

Turn around time: Could have been shorter, but it was quite a hot day so appreciated the rest. (The walk down to the car was pretty steep as well)

 

Food: Pork Hot Dogs cooked on-site, No veggie/non pork option, when we asked if they had an alternative they said we needed to have contacted them before hand, but I couldn't find that information on the website. There was a fair selection of Sweets, Crisps and Drink. 

 

Hit taking: Mostly good, but with a few of the usual teflon Multiglam and casual players. Frustrating at times as they wont take their hits until they hit you. The determination to kill someone before admitting to being hit before is strong to those people. 

 

Marshalling: Mostly hands off. I didn't see them get too involved in the non hit taking aspect, but they were always within shouting distance to query the game objectives, directions and current points total. All had radios. 

 

Bad: 

 

Car Park/Entrance: Rough going. The Entrance to the site is right on the entrance to the A6. You need to go slow to catch it before you run out of On Ramp. The car park is split into two, an uphill dirt track where you park on the side of the road (I recommend parking as close to the top of this) Or a largish car park at the bottom of the track though whilst level, it means you have to haul yourself down and up the hill in-between games. 

 

Safe Zone: It's basically the Car Park and Entrance. People setup out of their cars. No cover. As mentioned, the site has no permanent infrastructure. All brought in on the day. 

 

Toilets: A single Portaloo for everyone to use. It was a hot day so I didn't dare use it. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

We liked the site, it's different. We can rock up here more often then other Quarry sites. But as much as you want it to be, it doesn't give you that "Quarry experience" It seems more like a Woodland site with large open sandy/rocky bits.

Going up and down the elevated areas does sap the energy and can be dangerous, but taking it nice and slow through the dense woodland bits tends to work better and require less effort. 

 

I am sure we will return as it is really quite close to London (With a car it's a doddle as it's all Motorway/A Road). 

 

Definitely a site for the more serious and experienced player. 

 

Bullpup Watch: LOADS, 2x FAMAS, L85, L86, UAR, TAVOR etc etc. 

 

Best Guess Map: 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Asomodai

[RostokMcSpoons]

That's useful info, as I'm just up the road in MK, and will eventually fancy a change of scenery from Spec Ops

 

My arthritic knees, chocolate ankles and tiny lungs might not appreciate the steep gradients though!

[Jacob Wright]

Thanks for the info, we’re going to be booking in for the 15th so all good to know!

[Albiscuit]

Nothing more to add really as usual you hit all the points.

 

I would certainly go back as the playable areas were great and I enjoyed the game types and feel there’s still half the site to explore.

I will just have to bring lunch next time haha

[Dan Robinson]

Just checking in really as its 15 minutes from my gaff and my mum can drop lunch round as she lives at the bottom of the hill LOL.

 

This place is re-opening tis week so considering it as an occasional foray as the steep hills are less appealing as the short drive.

 

Apparently RIFT have a two day event coming up too - has anyone heard about it?

[RostokMcSpoons]

I've booked in for Sunday 19th - maybe I'll see you there Dan

[Dan Robinson]

The boy has confirmed he wants to go too as a friend of his is goi lng as well.  Plans are now afoot to get our operative codenamed "little nanny" to Air drop lunch from her house. 

 

As it's a more open site, I'm wondering if one of my drones could be brought in for aerial surveillance ????

Edited March 7, 2023 by Dan Robinson

[Cannonfodder]

I've only played there once but definately enjoyed myself and would go back if it wasn't such a ball ache to get to. One aspect I really liked was that you have a good mix of short and long engagement ranges so you can be sneaky or pick people off (or at least try) from a distance. If it's a warm day make sure you take planty of water as the steep hills can be knackering