Robot Wars at Worthing on 6th December 2003

The Worthing event was starting to become a regular event, but this year the arena was a lot more substantial. It was round with a diameter of about 25 feet, and had a 2 foot high metal barrier all around. On the inside of the arena there were nasty shaped spikes that proved to be quite good at impaling robots on.

There was a good turn out of robots this year, with several unexpected ones arriving, which left the pits a bit crowded and cramped for space. There were three audience sessions throughout the day, and within each of these, each robot would fight at least one battle.

I managed to battle once per session, but robots like Killer Carrot, and Behemoth (to mention only two) managed several battles per session, showing how resilient they really were. During my last battle I was immobilised when a sprocket was bent and the chain jumped off. The sprocket was too badly bent for me to be straightened during the interval so I missed out on the final free-for-all melee. During this final battle there were ten robots fighting it out, which saw a fitting end to a very successful day.

I was quite chuffed to be asked for my autographs so often. Even if the Hog wasn't particularly impressive today, there were certainly a lot of people who recognised it and waved me across the pits to sign a few autographs. My son Jonathan too was signing his name and gave out loads of Hassocks Hog stickers.

My thanks must go to Mike Lambert and Gary who did a magnificent job of organising the day.