PAINTBALLING centres in Worcestershire are suffering as youngsters steer clear of war games because they are "too close to reality", in the wake of the Gulf crisis.

Paintballing is a popular group sport where teams take to the countryside dressed in combat outfits and attempt to shoot one another with guns firing paint pellets.

Across the country interest in combat games and computer simulations have rocketed, with civilians attempting to recreate the exploits of the coalition forces in Iraq.

Many paintball centres around Britain now offer Baghdad Palace siege scenarios, with one team attempting to capture an unarmed Saddam Hussein, while the other has to defend the dictator.

But, in Worcester where several anti-war protests took place prior to the invasion of Iraq, consumers appear to have resisted the military fervour.

Nicola Kennedy, spokeswoman for Worcester's branch of National Paintball Games, based in Arrow Lane, near Ragley Hall, said March was "unusually quiet".

"Far from being busy we had a group cancel a booking during the war because they felt it was too close to reality," said Ms Kennedy.

"I'm sure the summer will be busy again but that is just a seasonal change, the war has certainly not improved our business."

Similarly, March Hare Leisure, which runs a paintball centre at its Broughton Hackett site, confirmed Worcester's paintballers had not been drawn to combat games by events in the Gulf.

The Territorial Army, based in Silver Street, has also noticed the trend, among Worcester's youth, to resist the lure of the military.

And while sales of computer games, such as Splinter Cell - where a secret agent has to stop a terrorist attack on the United States - have risen across the country, players in Worcester have resisted the consumer surge surrounding the war.

A spokesman for the Friary Walk computer shop Game also confirmed that sales of military games were "running normally".

Yet, elsewhere in the country, the conflict has undoubtedly sparked military interest, with sales of Army surplus goods and military vehicles on the increase, and computer games based on the latest Gulf War conflict in the pipeline.