Just like to correct something, the Rebel Robots Arena was inspected 3 times not twice, first time there was a miscommunication/misunderstanding as to what the insepction required, we part assembled the arena and had the rest of the parts avalible for inspection, this was not what was asked of me and therefore the arena was NOT graded on the first inspection
the second inspection took place in a warehouse we had hired especially for the inspection, Grant correctly states the arena was still being contructed when Geoff, Karoline and Steve arrived, we had stuggled with lack of power as the warehouse had no power when we arrived on the sat/sunday?? the day of the inspection and we couldnt get it fixed this is not an excuse, we continued to erect the arena after everyone else had left and were given a PROVISIONAL grading of 2, with Steve coming to see the finished arena later on to give us the oppertunity to complete the arena.

the third inspection Steve gave us a list of things we would need to do to get the Grade 2 we were hoping for and said at present it was good enough for a 2F therefore fit for purpose. This was the ONLY grading we received

Upon loading the lorry we had an incident where the wind caught 3 sheets of Polycarbonate for the roof as it was being lifted onto the truck and the forks caught the polycarb and broke almost totally in half the sheets for the left side of the arena roof, this caused a problem and we needed a solution there and then and we bought some 1/4inch plywood.

Once we arrived at the venue we struggled to get the arena up on time which caused the first show to be cancelled once the arena was up we found the arena roof was pushing out the walls which could of been a major problem but it was fixed while the rest of our crew duct taped the edges of the poly and strapped the roof inplace. This problem had not arisen at the 3rd inspection because the walls of the wharehouse were supporting the weight of the arena those who went will recall we were at the full width of the warehouse.

This was spoken about and logged in the event report which I understand has been lost since the event itself.

As i recall from the tech checks I shouted at Geoff for telling Dave Moulds he didnt need to tech check 360, I told him very loudly that every robot gets tech checked this was said infront of all of the people in the pits.

On EO communication I was NEVER contacted by the FRA to discuss any issues, I had to make contact with Andy Kane to get anything moving at all.

Im not going to be organising any more Events and the arena is is being resized to meet the next project which is a robot theatre, I wont be running any competitions and will NOT be bidding for any championships although I have stated an intention too, I wont be.