May 2011 UK K*bot action photos from Toby Wheeler

Ana’s Journey : Seven Years in the Making

Article by Toby Wheeler 

K*bots was first set up in the UK in 2004, following my visit to America for the 2003 World Championships. I liked what I saw, and decided to set up Division 1 and 2 in Britain. Our very first event was in a little village called Alvescote, near Oxford, in April 2004. Only a few children came to that event, and little did we know that amongst them were two who were going to have a massive impact on the world of K*bots in the future. Their names were Andrew Martin, aged 10, and Ana Partridge, only just eligible aged 8 years old.

 Andrew’s story has already been told, and in fact he achieved stardom almost immediately. In many ways Ana’s story is the more interesting, because it took her seven years to reach the pinnacle of K*bots. This article will show you what myself and Mr V have been telling you for years – that hard work and perseverance will get you to where you want to be.

 The early years

At just 8 years old, Ana competed in Britain’s first K*bots event in April 2004. Her Division 1 and M machines were as you’d expect for someone in their first event, but it was in Division 3 that she showed flashes of real promise. At the time, Ravage was being used for the very first time, and Ana used it to create a multi-directional drive K*bot named Kitty. She won the Alvescote event with it, and though that had much to do with the quality of the opposition, it nevertheless marked her out as one to watch.

 This was confirmed one year later, when Ana went to work on a new Division 1 K*bot called Bingo. Continuing her personal theme of building machines that looked like animals, Ana put together a dog-shaped K*bot with a clever gearing arrangement that made the tail turn whenever it moved. It might not have been a great pusher, but the signs of engineering potential were evident.

 Kitty (left) and Bingo (right), Ana’s first two competitive K*bots from 2004.

 Ana came back to events in 2006 and 2007, gradually improving her machines and learning about concepts such as downshifting (gear reduction) and multi-pivot flippers in the process. Bingo went through several evolutions until it was included in the line-up for the first ever UK Championship, held in October 2007, where Ana stunned everyone present (and surprised even herself!) by defeating Andrew Martin’s highly-rated machine en route to an appearance in the Final, where she finished runner-up to Sam Steel.

In that same event, Kitty also contested Division 3 but was unsuccessful, although the major shock came when Ana piloted a multi-pivot flipper to the first Division M UK title, again beating Andrew Martin in the process. Despite her humble claims to participating (she had never won a trophy before the UK Championships), Ana had come good on the day. She was starting to earn a reputation as an emerging K*bot builder.

Left: Ana tests some improvements to Bingo in 2007. Right: Bingo’s crowning moment, facing off against Sam Steel in the UK Championship Final.

Growing up with K*bots

In 2008, K*bots UK organised our first event in tandem with Cookley Primary school – an event which has gone on to become our biggest and most competitive event on the calendar. Ana attended that event and, then aged 12 with four years of K*bots experience to call on, started work on a new K*bot. She wanted to show off everything she had learnt about gearing, structure and active chassis, and put it into a Division 1 entry that would replace the outdated Bingo. The name of this new machine? Destiny.

The new K*bot was an awkward-looking thing but it had all the bits in the right places, including a second-stage gearbox. Despite some inevitable teething troubles, it won the 2008 Cookley event in Division 1. For the record, Kitty took part in a K*bots event for the fifth successive year (a record to rival Godzilla), but went out in Round 1.

Left: Ana poses with all of her K*bots, both old and new, at the 2008 Cookley event. Right: Destiny was unbeatable in the Division 1 competition that year.

In 2008, with K*bots in the UK booming, David and I decided to bite the bullet and pay for TWO students to attend the 2008 K*bot World Championships. Ana wasn’t chosen, but Destiny was taken to America under the care of Andrew Martin. It really couldn’t have been in better hands. Andrew stripped and rebuilt the gearbox and re-allocated some of the high weight, producing a far tidier chassis. Ana’s K*bot made it to the quarter-finals of the 2008 World Championships, though its exploits were overshadowed by the successes of Sam Steel that year.

When Ana next attended a K*bots event, in 2009, great things were expected. However, life began to get in the way. She attended just two days in Cookley 2009 and could not participate in the final. Worse, when the UK Championships rolled round again, Ana was otherwise engaged in a St. George’s Day march with the scouts. It looked as though her K*bots journey was over prematurely.

Fulfilling Destiny

By 2010, with Ana 14 years old, it was becoming clear that she would not be part of K*bots for much longer. Her building ability and level of understanding were at their peak, and so it was decided that her K*bots would undertake one final challenge before being retired after an incredible seven years of service. Destiny was sent to the 2010 World Championships, as were two of Ana’s other creations.

All of them were capable of ruffling American feathers, but it seems fitting that Destiny was the one that triumphed. Just like Ana, it was the product of several years of learning and improvement. It had taken part in many events prior to the 2010 World Championships with gradually advancing results, and in my eyes had earned its right to represent Britain on the international stage.

Ana Partridge has been a part of K*bots in the UK since K*bots in the UK first began. With her World Championship victory, and subsequent retirement from competition, 2010 marked the end of an era. Destiny has won its place in the record books, and Ana’s name has entered the archives of K*bot history. In my view, there is no-one who has worked harder for it, or deserves it more.

                         The passing of a legend

Crosshair. 2004 Division 2 World Champion K*bot. 2005 semi-finalist. 2007 finalist. 2008 semi-finalist. Two UK regional titles. But, in 2009, it exited the competition in the very first round. The writing was on the wall: It was time to retire Andrew Martin’s famous K*bot and confine it to the Hall of Fame. Crosshair has set UK records which will, most likely, never be beaten. It’s the British Godzilla – although it achieved something which Godzilla never did, and that was to win a K*bot World Championship.

2010 will be the first World Championship for eight years that will not feature Crosshair – and the first EVER time that the UK have entered without it. If that doesn’t mark the end of an era, I don’t know what does!

February 2010 : K*bots comes to Marling

A first-time venue for K*bots in 2010, Marling School of Engineering in Cheltenham opened its gates in February to host a four-day workshop to kick-start the new UK season. England’s latest champion Sam Steel turned up on day 1 to give the new students some pointers, but he was unable to stay for the rest of the week, meaning that Cheltenham’s rookies would be first on the score sheet for 2010.

The biggest news of the week was the testing of a new Division, known as “alternative mobility”, which featured regular K*bots but built without any wheels. Students turned to legs or tracks to make their K*bots move, and overall it was a modest success. The first champion of the new division was Alex Johnson with his design named Jimbot.

Division 1 and 2 were amalgamated for this event, leading to a spectacularly powerful contest between very different design philosophies. A four-wheel-drive entry eventually won the day, The Unnameable, built by Zak Elkins.

In Division M, multi-pivot flippers and turret hammers ruled the day. The eventual winner was the UK’s first ever turret hammer builder, namely Alex Morgan with the aptly-named Dark Horse.

[Please use the pictures that are already on the website here – Division M Marling] 

               April 2010 : Clash of the Titans

As exciting as Marling was, it was really just a taster of what was to come at Cookley during the Easter holidays. Cookley is regularly the host of Britain’s biggest and most competitive event, but 2010 simply blew everything else out of the water. 

The “alternative mobility” division was on show again, and James Myatt proved that engineering class is universal by building the winning design, making it three trophies in three years – with three different K*bots! But that was all swept under the carpet by the prominence of Division 1 and – for the first time – Division 3.

 

Chris Millward-Jones finally won his first trophies after three years of popular support, emerging triumphant in both Division 3 and Division M.

The amalgamated Division 1 and 2, however, truly stole the show. An incredible five K*bots were in the mix for victory all week, amongst them James Myatt’s successful entrant The Incredible Bulk and Daniel Johnson’s 2009 UK Champion K*bot Fiddlesticks. In an unexpected twist, however, unranked upstart Ancel Davidson took out Daniel in the semi-finals, which meant he went on to face Bulk in the Final.

It went all the way to table-tapping and measuring tape, but the result was unexpected nonetheless: It was Ancel Davidson who had upset the big names of British K*bots to win the most competitive event of the year!