Es gibt den grossen Event in England am Ostern 2003, hier sind die Details (Kann Jemand das übersetzen ?):
EASTER ROBOT RUMBLE 2003
Sorry it has taken so long to sort out next year’s Rumble, but we should be “all systems go” now. We have agonised over the use of the Debenham facility, recognising that the event has outgrown the venue and have finally decided that it must move to a larger site. About 15 miles from Debenham, near the small town of Woodbridge is a former American A10 base called RAF Bentwaters. It has now reverted to the ownership of its former owners and trades as Bentwaters Parks Ltd. One Hangar has been restored and is now used for functions (we went to a “hangar dance” there a few months ago, with a wartime theme. The Squadronaires playing Glenn Miller music and an aircraft display including stunt flying with a Mustang).
It is the size of four sports halls laid side by side!!! This means that the whole Robot Rumble will be under one roof (none of the banishment to the Squash Courts overspill pits!). In fact the pits area will itself be the size of one sports hall and in the pits will be a licensed bar and permanent food facility + our usual tea/coffee urns. The arena will be centrally located and fully enclosed with macrilon polycarbonate, allowing tiered seating for audiences on three sides and the pits on the fourth. The arena will be modified to include an “ingate” and an “outgate” to speed the change-over of Robots. We will run for the two days of Easter Saturday and Sunday, with an audience session each morning and afternoon. We will be able to seat around 1250 audience at each session (formerly only 400), so can accommodate a total of 5,000 paying visitors. That way we will be able to cover the increased costs associated with this venue and continue to pay Roboteers their travelling expenses, hotel costs and provide the Saturday evening social event as hitherto. Audience and participants car parking is no problem as there are acres and acres of grassland and concrete. If all tickets are sold, we may be able to enhance the returns to Roboteers, but are keen to allow some surplus for selected charities. The seating will be professionally marketed, with a dedicated box office, opening around the end of January 2003. Within the same ownership, the other side of the airfield, is “Wantisden Valley”, where other events take place, including a very large annual jamboree called “Power of the Past”. On that site is a large function room that will seat 350 people at round tables (about 8/10 persons per table), with stage, bar and kitchens. We shall hire that for the Saturday evening social event, to which all Roboteer teams will be invited free of charge. We think Roboteer teams will take about 150 places, so to cover much of the cost associated with that, we want to sell the other 200 seats to the Robot fancying public and bill it as a “Robot Rumble Celebrity Supper Dance”. We would hope that Roboteers would be prepared to “host” tables on our behalf, so that the paying public can meet their “heroes”, obtain autographs, but also give Roboteers a perfect marketing opportunity for their memorabilia. This function room is also set in acres of land, much of which is under grass, so we want to encourage this year, camping and caravanning close to the function room. (But still award all Roboteers an hotel allowance whether they stay in hotels or choose to camp). There are also toilet and showering facilities there.
As you will recall, we have before run knockout competitions for Heavyweights, but we are wondering if you would like something different this time. Perhaps you could run an “email forum” to discuss the format for the event. Do you want three way melees instead of just head to head fights? How do prizes need to be awarded? What do you want to do about spinners, both vertical and horizontal? What do you want to do about crushers like Razer? One thing that we will retain though is the philosophy that limits damage to robots by expecting a Roboteer who has clearly won his bout, to stand back and do no further damage, as well as operating the surrender clause, allowing any robot to be withdrawn if its operator considers his machine has sustained as much damage as he judges to be sufficient.
We are asking Ed Hoppitt to display the foregoing information on the Robot Rumble website and as soon as he is able, to make the electronic entry form available to you all. Just one remark in respect of the younger guys who operate ants and feathers – please ensure that you have transport organised and genuinely intend to take part before asking for hotel accommodation. Last year, we had a massive withdrawal of entries at those weights in the last week or so before the event. Hotel rooms had been booked and paid for and it was too late to recover the money! This was a massive waste of resource. Anyone who is coming but cannot get a lift, can travel by rail to Melton railway station (about 5 miles from the venue) and we will seek to lay on a minibus service to meet certain trains. The only way those without their own transport can travel from hotel to venue and back is through arranging lifts in cars with spare seats, although for the Saturday evening social event we will lay on coaches as before. If you don’t have your own transport, then the camping option is by far the best one.
There will be much, much more to tell you as time goes by, but this is probably enough for the moment. Please start the discussion on how you would like the event to be run, please register your interest in joining us on the electronic entry form and please contact us direct if you have any specific questions. At this stage, we do not envisage restricting entries to particular numbers; pits space was the problem in the past, but we will have much more room at the new venue.
Oh and by the way, we have registered “Robot Rumble” as our own registered trade mark.
Eddy & Roy Alcock
Website with the online registration form: http://www.robotrumble.co.uk