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| The moment of truth: the trebuchet collapses ... |
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| ... but Andy and Robin manage to look on the bright side |
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Barley Pickers' Diary
We rolled up once again at Crowthorne, slightly subdued because we knew this was to be the last time, no matter what the outcome of the competition. We ambled into the hotel bar, where Gary, Shane and Tim – the Cat-alysts – had beaten us to it. Having seen them competing last year on Scrapheap we felt rather honoured to meet them in the flesh. The Cat-alysts came across as a little arrogant and full of themselves in last year's series. Every time we were lucky enough to win against another team, they told us: 'We hope you go all the way and beat the Cat-alysts.' But contrary to everything that had been said, these boys were three very nice chaps and extremely interesting to talk to.
We were then introduced to Paul, our TC. He told us that he had been on Scrapheap before, he hadn't lost a challenge yet and he wasn't about to lose this one. But we were now competing against the 'big guns', who also hadn't lost. Paul told us tomorrow's challenge was to be huge and we had two 10-hour days to do it. He said that if both teams went along with the TCs' ideas, our design was without a doubt the best - providing we didn't have a structural failure. The more empty glasses there were, the more wind-ups and rubbish the crew told us. When the Cats and ourselves finally waddled up the stairs to bed, none of us could decide what would be so big that it would take us two days to build.
Build day 1
Once again up with the larks. Keith, Robin and I piled into our Land Rover, whilst Gary, Tim and Shane hopped into their brand-new, top-of-the-range Jag, which made us feel inferior and the day had only just started.
Chatting to Robert before the challenge was announced, he was very excited about it – it was going to be big, but he was not sure how the teams were going to go about building the machines. At last Robert and Lisa told us we had to build a car-flinger. I think Robin summed it up well when he said: 'What dipstick thought this one up?'
After some discussion with Paul it was decided to build a trebuchet, a sort of medieval catapult. It soon became apparent that Paul was something of an expert on this type of weapon. So Keith and Robin were sent out to find some long bits of steel or something, whilst Paul and I had some board chat about the build. Very quickly I became very worried about the actual size of this machine. Two A-frames 17 feet high, with bearings on top supporting a 27-feet seesaw arm. Monstrous.
An exchange of views
Right on cue, Keith on the radio: 'Andy, we have found a mountain of telegraph poles.' Proper job. So we all set about the huge task of getting those poles back to the build area and cutting the threads and bits of iron off them. Then Robin on the radio: 'Come here quick – I've found some nice pieces of long RSJ (H-profile steel, very strong and light) and the Cats are coming this way.' So off we went. On arrival we found Robin proudly standing on the steel telling Captain Gary: 'You're not having any of this, because I was here first.' Which can be very intimidating, because Robin is a big chap. but the even bigger Richard, the Cats' TC, arrived, and an argument arose with some pushing and shoving. In an attempt to save us all from World War III it was decided to toss for it. So Richard and I did the deed and the Cats won, but they cheated. I told Gary we would accept the result providing they kept away from all the telegraph poles.
Back to the build area, where the A-frame construction was going well, but Keith, Robin and I still hadn't got our heads around the idea, so Paul was commissioned to make a model and prove to us it would work. After some long and hard scavenging, we couldn't find anything to make the seesaw arm out of. Another team discussion was in order. The Cats had not picked up those RSJs yet, and after all they did cheat. So we decided if the Cats weren't going to play by the rules, then neither were we. I was sent to the Cats' build area to keep them amused while Robin and Keith slipped the crane driver a fiver and hauled those all-important RSJs back to our build area. The rest of the day was spent on hard graft and sweat, fixing telegraph poles together.
With the first day's building over, it was time to retire to the hotel bar to resolve our differences, and probably redesign the machine, and get a good night's sleep.
Build day 2
Straight to work on finishing the A-frames. Paul was still perfecting his model, but at last a demonstration was imminent. The first attempt didn't quite work, nor the second. But by about the fourth – or was it tenth? – it worked like poetry. Keith, Robin and I looked at each other doubtingly: could it work as well on a scale 10 times bigger? Now we had some idea how much weight was necessary, Keith set about scavenging for something to act as a counterweight. He came back with an old skip and told us that he had found at least three or four tons of old roofing lead down on the heap.
The skip was dangled from the seesaw arm with some chain, the pivot was fitted with some flat steel gusseting for strength and the whole lot was lifted in place with a crane. All that was left to do was bodge up a trigger to release the arm when primed. With only minutes remaining, we stood back to look at the enormous tower of terror standing 35 feet high with the arm pointing skywards. Robert suggested that maybe we should put an aircraft landing light on it. Keith had found a winch earlier in the day, but it was decided to fit that properly during tinkering time tomorrow. After two hard days' work, we were all looking forward to a rest and a pint in the bar.
Test day
We all rolled up at a disused airstrip, where both machines were stood waiting. They both looked huge. We had a load of scaffold planks to be fitted in the bottom of the trebuchet for the Mini to run on. Three tons of lead had to be loaded into the skip, and there was the winch to fit – there was not much time to waste, certainly not enough for a paint-job.
We went across to the Cat-alysts' camp where Gary and the expert were sitting down with a laptop computer working out how fast the Mini will leave the end of the Cats' ramp. The calculations were that the car would leave the ramp at 61mph. So with high expectations, the challenge started.
The Cats went first. The car was loaded on to the machine; a lorry tractor unit was used to pull the bungees back and off it went. But the car travelled just to the end of the launch ramp and didn't go anywhere. So much for 61mph – perhaps there was a knot in the wire on the computer when they worked it out, or something.
Glorious failure
Next it was our turn. The massive arm was winched down, with a load of creaking and groaning from the frame work, the chain was wrapped over the arm and the Mini was loaded. We used a rope tied to a quad bike to pull the trigger.
With great anticipation and many fingers crossed, Robin set off with the bike. Everything went well for the first one and a half seconds. Then disaster struck. The release chain snagged on the arm and the whole machine went into self-destruct mode. That lovely green Mini went nine metres in the wrong direction amongst a load of very impressive crashes and bangs. We had a complete write-off on our hands. Still, if the machine was destined to fail, at least it failed in style.
Now it was all hands on deck to make sure the Cat-alysts' mighty machine would actually throw something. With a load more bungees fitted and nothing to lose, off it went. Happily for all of us, and with a deep sigh of relief for the production crew, it managed a very respectable 15 metres. If only the chain hadn't snagged on our machine.
The last 'proper job'
So the Cat-alysts are the winners of the champions' trophy. Well done to Gary, Tim and Shane - they are very able, clever and pleasant chaps to be working with.
Being involved with Scrapheap Challenge has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience which none of us would have missed. We would recommend anyone with an interest in engineering and who doesn't mind a few days' very hard work to enter a team. Choose your team with colourful characters, and people that are not afraid of hard work – or making a bit of a prat of themselves.
Speaking for all teams entered in the 2002 challenge we would like to thank the Scrapheap team and Robert and Lisa for giving us all a good time down on the scrapheap. We hope you enjoyed watching the series as much as we enjoyed making it.
Proper job.
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