2010 Featherweight UK Championships - 3 Days September

Hey everyone,
Some good news atlast... We've finally got an event now schedualed for the Fighting Robots 2010 Featherwight UK Championships :proud:

Keep your diaries clear for Robo Challenge's 3 day UK Champs from September 24th-26th.
This event will be sponsored by Silverline Tools, and run in conjunction with the 2010 PowerTool Drag racing at Fleet Air Arms museum in Yeovil/Summerset.

http://www.fleetairarm.com/

Some good news for everyone, there is NO requirement to build a Powertool drag racer this year, although I hope everyone enjoyed it enough last year to want to compete again!

We will be running First rounds through on Friday (purely robot's on the friday). The next rounds up untill the semi finals will be held on the Saturday, with a mix of Robot fighting and Indoor Drag racing. We will then be running the Quater Finals, Semi Finals and Grand Finals on Sunday, with a mix of Robot fighting and outdoor Powertool Drag Racing.

Minor details are set to change over the next few weeks, but I will keep you all updated along the way.

There is a local campsite down the road for everyone to stop at, there is a small charge, but it is only a very small charge (about £5 per tent/caravan I believe).

As with last year, we have the custom made trophy currently held by Beauty2 - and the FRA have kindly donated £200 for 1st, second and 3rd place trophies that you will get to keep. Details on these trophies will be shown closer to the competition.

Prizes, entry forms and requirements and any other details will come shortly!

I'm looking forward to it already!

:) very good news :)

Now lets start the banta :)

Excellent news!!

I'll have all summer to rebuild Aftershock for this event so hopefully it will be able to do one better this time round :proud:

I'll definately be there with Aftershock, Matt will probably be there with Heatwave and we'll dust of the dragster for another run too.

I hope I can have both FW's there for this one, I presume its still 1 robot per driver?

Yep same rules as always - 1 robot per driver. We hope to add in a good number of whiteboards too, but will keep you updated on that when we start on the official timetables.

I love you guys :proud:
Just started buzzing as soon as I read this - bring it on!

EDIT: The kilt-wearing, haggis-bearing belt sander will be back, with just some small weight-saving mods, doubt it'll go much faster though, it is the cheapest of the cheap after all :)

most of the young roboteers will be at school for the 1st round of the champs.

What time I may be at school?

I might well end up just running drag racers this year. Got a hell of a lot of work to get saber together and I'm not sure I'll bother before the champs. Spending all my time and cash on a ride on drag racer this year, so much fun!!!! :O

Thats a shame, I was hoping to get to fight you again Gary :)

beauty 2 will be there , ready to take its 3rd consecutive title

Every time a Robochallenge event rolls around, we all say (hope!) that Beauty 2 won't win it again yet it always does. So time for a new tactic; I think Beauty 2 will win! :proud:

Gary, go on, enter Hornet 2 with its spinning drill bit of doom :)

Ha nah hornet 2 is done and dusted. I'd need a new mag and I'm using the A123s in my ride on racer to power the multiple pumps I'll be using for various systems. My racer is gonna be awesome though!

John one word

SERAPHIM

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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SERAPHIM Posted: 16 Jun 2010 20:24 typhoon_driver Post subject:

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Lol

Every time a Robochallenge event rolls around, we all say (hope!) that Beauty 2 won't win it again yet it always does. So time for a new tactic; I think Beauty 2 will win!


i think Beauty Iv this time realy do with a special drive ;) (not me)

Pete raises a very good question about attendance on Friday. Many of the 'young' roboteers will be at school...I can think of at least 6 that would normally attend....including a certain stroppy 13year old if he cant get a shot at Beauty !

So what provison will be made for them ? Schools are a nightmare to ask for time off these days....and please dont suggest sickies for those that have left school allready - Lets be adult please !

I think some may be very dissapointed if they cant qualify / attend.
cheers, Ian

Hate to be the unpopular one but it might just be a case of tough luck.

If anything I believe that a school should have no problem with attendance at a robot event. I can't think of many hobbies that offer such a wide range of topics to learn. My high school never had a problem with me dropping out of school for a few days to take part.

Sorry John, how many times has Beauty OOTA Seraph, or any other robot for that matter! :D

personaly i would ask any school nicely if they do say no perhaps we all would have to have a rethink dont know up to robo challange but (i dont think any one would want to win) knowing some bots were not there

i personaly will have to book holiday for all 3 days any way as im a shift worker but at least its a few months ahead :)

Hi Guys

Thank you for the support so far and raising the question of school time off. We understand having the event on the friday as well is more of a pain for those who have school. Unfortunately the dates cant be changed however, I would be more than happy to write a letter for you to take into your school inviting you to compete at the UK championships. Schools generally are very good when it comes to supporting children in sport, especially when you are competing at the highest level.

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Originally Posted by james...venom

Hi Guys

Thank you for the support so far and raising the question of school time off. We understand having the event on the friday as well is more of a pain for those who have school. Unfortunately the dates cant be changed however, I would be more than happy to write a letter for you to take into your school inviting you to compete at the UK championships. Schools generally are very good when it comes to supporting children in sport, especially when you are competing at the highest level.

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Have to say schools are normally very good. With events such as Barnsley happen when we get back a lot later than would be the norm we normally arrange for him to go in for the afternoon. As it's only two or three times a year the school is actually quite comfortable with that. Most of the time you just need to ask.

Hey guys

check out the Robo Challenge website for more information. Sign ups are now open!!!!

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Entry into the UK Championships is free when you enter a class of the Power Tool Drag Racing. For those who wish to compete in both events there is a £15 entry fee per team.

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I'm probably mis-interpreting this but surely if you enter a class of the PTDR and you gain free entry into the UK championships, you are effectively entered in both events, for which there is a £15 entry fee?? Help me out please James/Grant :crazy:

I've just been doing some cost calculations to see if I can afford to get Drumroll II ready in time, as I really want to have it fighting at this. Just need to confer with the old man, work out a few logistical things then I'll get entering :)

heres a better option for you jamie enter your sander dragster in both comps then you might win a robot fight :rofl: :rofl: :D

James thanks for your reply. Thats a good idea to offer writing to the schools. Of course I wouldnt expect anyone on our forum to say that this sport of ours is not educational and I agree whole heartedly with that and some schools may indeed encourage it.

But the fact of the matter is the school that my boys attend doesnt. Even to the point they would not authorise a formal holiday request on the last day of school last summer (and they finish at 1:00pm !) to attend RIAT. We even had the school ring up when the boys didnt show - crazy I know but thats the truth of it. Incredibly the school also awarded Will the Engineering prize for the last 2 years for running the robot club so its not that the school doesnt recognise the value.

And of course its the start of a new year, new school for some so I am sure there could be many in the same boat and inevtiably many of our young roboteers may be dissapointed. Of course RoboChallenge or Silverline dont want to be seen to be encouraging time off school without permission and the letter may help in that respect.

For Matt, we'll just have to see what the school says in September. Will can please his self as he wont start Uni till October !
(That might please some becasue Matt and the other kids of his age have grown up with Wii, PS3, DS's etc and have great dexterity and have proven time and time again they can drive !)

Rgds, Ian

It is looking very likely that we are going to have to tell Alex that he cannot compete in this years UK Champs event.For us to attend on the friday we would have to leave thursday afternoon,he will have started school with a new teacher less than 3 weeks prior to this event.If thats a case of tough luck then so be it.
But I am sure that all things being considered that a lot of the teams with younger members ( a large percentage of featherweight drivers) might be unable to attend, which is a shame for a championship event, not to have a broad, varied and competitive entry list.
One possiblity might be if a compromise can be sought.Can the champs not be fought on the saturday and sunday.If Grant and James are busy with the PTDR then maybe Alan Young and or Jonno might be able to help in the periods where there is a timescale clash and help with marshalling the Robots if they were attending?
I am prepared to nail my flag to the mast and say that if we were to attend it would be because of the Robots and not the Power Tool Dragsters, but I would like to attend but find it very hard to think that schools will be sympathetic to taking the children out of school three weeks after a seven week holiday and reluctantly feel that the decision has been made for me.

front page of the robochallenge website looks good now

I've just signed up (my feather, currently in bits, will be an up-scaled version of my beetleweight), should be fun!
I also reckon someone should bring a beetleweight arena! (maybe I'm asking too much =))

Signed up sabre but there is no guarantee that it will be ready.

Also signed up for each of the drag racing comps. Who else is entering what drag racing comps?

This should be a good one!

sounds good,

360 will be there to do the normal... smash beauty, then blow up. Hopefully me and ed will be running a PTDR aswell if we pull our fingures out.

..come on guys, you really expect an E.O to change the date of an event because a few kids carnt make the Friday?

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Originally Posted by mr_turbulence

..come on guys, you really expect an E.O to change the date of an event because a few kids carnt make the Friday?

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I would be very interested to see how many other people share this opinion, as I suggested keeping the dates but rescheduling the fights.

Problem is that (as far as im aware) the power tool drag racing is the main event with the sponsorship for the costs of the venue etc being paid for by silverline. The robot comp is squeezed in alongside everything else so it therefore has to squeeze alongside the drag racing. I don't think running the arena without James or Grant being there is an option and quite rightly so. It is their arena and if something goes wrong, their necks on the line so to speak.

It is a shame that the dates aren't fantastic for everyone potentially involved but has anyone contacted any schools yet and explained the situation?

... that's one person then

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Originally Posted by mr_turbulence

360 will be there to do the normal... smash beauty, then blow up.

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no messin around this year then dave, beauty vs 360 in the final!

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Originally Posted by cliveb

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Originally Posted by mr_turbulence

..come on guys, you really expect an E.O to change the date of an event because a few kids carnt make the Friday?

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I would be very interested to see how many other people share this opinion, as I suggested keeping the dates but rescheduling the fights.

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I seem to recall that i asked for both our fights for burgess hill to be rescheduled to the saturday and a few of our other fights were rescheduled because other people couldn't make it for a particular day during the heavyweight uk champs. Maybe it's your writing style but it does come across as particularly flippant when you suggest this isn't a possibility because it's just a 'few kids' it shouldn't even be discussed.

Andy

PS: I reckon it's cos you don't want to break your robot on Tiny Toon again :rofl: :rofl:

PPS: Or maybe it's that those 'few kids' seem to be doing rather well and being beaten by a nine year old is just too upsetting for such a well engineered robot (sorry that's John isn't it?? Oh sorry it wasn't Alex last time so I suppose with Luke being a 13year old it's at least a bit better :rofl: :rofl: )

PPSS: Yes after that England game I have had rather a lot to drink and I am looking for an outlet so I'll probably regret this post in the morning :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Originally Posted by widow_twanky

PPS: Or maybe it's that those 'few kids' seem to be doing rather well and being beaten by a nine year old is just too upsetting for such a well engineered robot (sorry that's John isn't it?? Oh sorry it wasn't Alex last time so I suppose with Luke being a 13year old it's at least a bit better :rofl: :rofl: )

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which john are you on about theres to many on the forum, cant see it being me as i dont lose....


i know what you mean about school moaning about days off, used to phone my mom like 5 times a day to say i wasnt at school even if she knew i wasnt or if i just turned up late and missed mornin reg, my school was a joke for this lol

Id suggest you sober up before posting again...

Why would people not being able to go to an event on a set date have anything to do with me/my robot?..Dont try and make things personal. Its pathetic.

Calm down ladies, Just wait to see what else Grant or James have to say, We do have to remember its a Silverline PTDR event and Robo Challenge are just running a UK champs event along side it so we cant really be running into the PTDR event time. If the UK champs competition layout is anything like last years it will be very hard to find the time to reschedule some of the fights to another day as there was 3 qualifying fights each with 3 robots in each fight, So say 3 robots cant attend on the Friday they would have to try and fit in an additional 7-9 qualifying fights on the Saturday before the rest of the competition can continue, And going on how tight it was for time last year fitting everything in, I would have thought it would have been near on impossible to make it happen. Its up to Grant and James. Plus it will be nice if the weekend goes nice and smoothly, It will give the Coopers a chance to enjoy the weekend rather than been rushed and stressed out.

Not used forum much lately, it went kinda dead and boring for a bit but it seems to have livened up a touch now, This post probably doesnt make much sence but it is half 4 in the morning and been up since 6 yesterday morning, I think its nearly bed time.

Just noticed forum times an hour behind the real time. It says 3:39 but its really 4:39
Sum one should fix that. Wrong thread to be telling sumone to fix the forum time?... I think so