2010 Featherweight UK Championships - 3 Days September

[Scorpionbuilder]

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?

I do appreciate the position parents these days are in, as school rules have tightened up. When we did Robot Wars we had to get permission from the school, it was harder then in some ways because it was an open-ended time scale (dependent on how good the robot was). It has to be worthwhile at least asking the schools.

For us we never stayed in the competition very long so the school didn't end up being a problem

John

[psycho_fling]

its a shame that the dates clash with school but sometimes you can't attend all events

maybe when the committee decides who runs fw champs next year they should look into more suitable dates or having the event a bit more flexible ie not attached to another sport/event

alex

[calumco]

any idea roughly what time the robot stuff will be finished on the saturday? and what time it would start again on the sunday morning?

calum

[teamshock]

I have been reading through this thread and I think its time that we stop finding problems with the dates of the event and start trying to come up with some workable solutions.

Since there are several teams with young drivers (us included) which may or may not be able to attend, surely we could reach some agreement about letting their robots compete in the first stages on the friday and if they get through, they could then take over and drive their own robot for the rest of the competition. This could be achieved by being a bit flexible with the 1 driver 1 robot rule. How about if a team has a young driver who cannot attend the friday rounds but letting someone else from the same team (if they can make it) drive for the first round? If there is a clash with 2 robots from the same team fighting each other, I'm sure that there would be plenty of volunteers from other teams willing to help out.

Of course this is just an idea, if it could work then great, if not no worries but I'm just trying to help everyone reach a workable solution. After all it is the UK Champs!!

The best solution (and the one that we will be using anyway) is to ask the schools directly, with enough notice there must be time to sort something out.

This is what I think anyway, just trying to get the ball rolling for some ideas which could help. I'm sure if we all work together it can be a great event!!

P.S -Aftershock is signed up and will be there no matter what- Bring it on!!

[swanaldo]

all i can see here is an oppertunity.......look at the bigger picture......

robochallenge could have stumbled on a good oppertunity to get robots noticed. all those teams have to do is approach the school they attend and explain their hobby and how they have been invited to take part in a uk robot championship.....the headmaster would love the fact a kid from their school could perhaps represent them and get behind the pupil. offer to do a show and tell before and after the event.

Any head of a school that doesnt see that as good is very narrow minded.

Problem sorted lads.....continue with your duties

[Mouldy]

Grant/James what do you want us to do about entry fee's for the ride on dragsters? Pay it to you guys or send a payment to silverline?

[RogueTwoRobots]

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 would imagine that would be the case too, based on the tag champs last year. Personally, I'm not so sure the main championship event of the year for featherweights should be squeezed in as an addition to a main event (seemed fine for the tag champs as they weren't a compulsory FRA event) but I don't want to b1tch and moan about it as it's a bit of a catch 22 situation for the guys. Run it as a standalone event with costs for the venue covered by ticket sales (which can mean a severe financial hit if sales are poor) or run it at an event where the venue costs are subsidised/sponsored but where it has to be split to accommodate another event? I know which one makes more sense.

To be fair to James and Grant though, there is a lot of time allocated for the robot combat. Of course this is done by having a large percentage of the fights on a Friday and this does compromise the position of those who have young school-attending members in their team. Will quite rightly says its time to move on from the date problem and find workable solutions.
First step; contact the schools. Even if there is sod-all chance of the child being allowed time off to compete, it's worth asking.
Second step; let's loosen up with the 1 robot 1 driver rule. If getting time off on the Friday is problematic, surely there can be some leniency with regards to who is driving what robot. If the teams with young drivers can get their robots down and have another team member/someone else drive for them on the Friday, that would solve some problems, yes?

Young drivers:
Alex (Team Toon)
Michael (Team Invade)
Tom (Team Cyberus)
Matt (Team Shock)
Shane (Team Tilly)
and some who I have probably missed.
Can we give them some leeway with the driver rule to allow them to compete in the likelihood that they cannot be excused from school?

[john]

ill drive all there robots on the friday and stick um all in the pit

[psycho_fling]

do everyone a favor and just use beauty for that john lol

[grant_ploughbot]

Hey guys,
First off, as James has said we will do anything we can to help your situations with schools or college's.
At this moment in time, we have not come to an agreement yet with Silverline as to what the time-table will be over the three days so we cannot give a yes or no right now on if we can run the extra rounds on saturday morning. We will keep you updated as soon as we possibly can on this, and will do our best to accomodate everyone we can. We understand that this is not 100% ideal for everyone, but we will always have this problem in one form or another due to holiday seasons and other issues so it's not always possible for us to pick dates and times perfect for everyone.

This event is held in a really nice venue, with the added entertainment of the powertool drag racing (Gadget show are looking to be there again).
We have done our best to make the UK championships a stand alone event this year, which is why it is not mandatory for anyone to build a dragster. We have pushed very hard for Silverline to put up the money to host the event for an extra day ontop of their already very costly weekend. We very much appreciate the support of Silverline Tools for their sponsorship once again.

There will be far more Robot action this year than last, the Friday being purely UK Championships, and the saturday having a significant number of rounds added too, with the final fights on the sunday. One thing we are very proud of is being able to put on uncomprimised championships - and please beleive us when we say that as per usual, the 2010 UK championships are not being squeezed in and comprimised as an add-on of another event.


We would not be able to leave the Event to another organiser no matter how good they are. Its 100% our duty to make sure that everything is run in a perfectly safe manner and that things are done our way. At the end of the day, we run by our insurance and it's our reputation on the line, neither of which we would be willing to sacrifice. We believe that the way we do things are what makes our championships memorable, and thats how we hope they will stay for the future.


Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it will answer a few questions.