On August 26, Team Thud travelled to the London Docklands to participate in the heavy-weight melee.  After an early start at 4 in the morning we arrived at our destination at 9 am.  Thud was unloaded and taken to his place in the pits.  We met the two presenters of this years show, Craig Charles and Phillipa Forrester.  Before our match, Phillipa interviewed our team - much to Gordon's delight!
Due to a problem with Thud, we missed our heavy weight match and so had to be put into the super-heavy weights category at 3 pm!  So we settled down for a long wait.  Lunch was provided by Robot Wars and we watched the other matches on the TV wall in the pits.
At long last we were called and met our competitors for the first time.  We were in the ring with two other competitors and four house robots.  Among them were Sargent Bash, Dead Metal, Matilda and Sir Killalot, the new house robot.  Our two competitors were Siren, who weighed in at 120 kilos! and  Bumble Bott, who weighed in at 160 kilos!!  (Thud only weighs an anorexic 84 kilos!)  We were put on our spot, had a chat with some of the guys from special effects then it was time to start.  Paul went to start the chainsaw - and then disaster struck - the starting cord broke!  So our main weapon was out of use.  Siren had started and the covers were took off Bumble Bott to start its monster 8.5hp honda engine.  A few pulls of the starter, it jumped into life a took off across the ring and OUT OF CONTROL.  A panicky floor manager asked us to clear the floor whilst the beast was tamed and captured.  After it was deemed safe, we were due to start.
The competition started and Thud had a brisk encounter with Sargent Bash and after a heavy joult, track control was lost on the left had side.  We were left floundering in the middle, death most certainly awaited us as Sargent Bash approached.  Meanwhile whilst this was happening Bumble Bott had again gone out of control, smashed through the barrier and into a television camera.  The match was stopped and cancelled immediately.  So that was it! our first brush with Robot Wars - GAME OVER.   - But as somebody once said quote " I'll be back!".