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The Challenge
This week, Geneva-based expats the Up 'n Atoms face up to the REME Rebels, an all-girl team of army-tank tinkerers in one of Scrapheap's most bizarre challenges to date. Our teams have just 10 hours to build a motorised bowling ball capable of toppling ten-foot skittles on a giant bowling alley.
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| REME rebels with expert Pete |
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| REME rebels' expert Pete Smith |
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REME Rebels
Gina Smith, Mandy Foster and Claire Riding are three female soldiers who serve in REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers). A Warrant Officer, a Staff Sergeant and a Corporal respectively, these girls are pretty much at the top of their field. Trained in heavy armoury tanks and weapons, they like big, heavy, grunting machinery. Gina and Mandy also train and instruct younger recruits and are considered to be highly experienced. Feisty, headstrong, active and used to succeeding in a predominantly male world, the REME Rebels will not be taking any prisoners!
REME Rebels' expert is Pete Smith. He owns a well-regarded private manufacturing firm called Nottingham UK, whose motto is 'technically the best!'. It is one of the few companies in the UK specialising in fairground and amusement park engineering as well as specialised one-off rides.
Pete is used to 'back of fag-packet' design and problem-solving manufacturing and has over 40 years' experience in the design and construction of fairground rides.
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| Up 'n Atoms |
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| Up 'n Atoms' expert Graham Bridges |
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Up 'n Atoms
Ali Day, David McFarlane and Jimmy Ridewood are expats living the life of Riley in Geneva. They work at CERN (Europe's largest centre for nuclear research) and explain their work as Star Trek-type stuff, experimenting with smashing particles together to see what happens.
They're science boffins but not in the slightest bit geeky. They enjoy playing on the slopes of Switzerland, rugby, British sports cars and a good pint or 14. They have a background in off-shore work and have nuclear power station training – so there is an extremely solid engineering skills base here. Their application video claims that James is the 'looks' of the team, Ali is the 'brawn' and David is the 'brains'.
Up 'n Atoms' expert is Graham Bridges, a skilled fabricator and garage owner from Hereford. His real expertise for this challenge is in his experience of manufacturing small, trailer-mounted, gyroscopic fairground and amusement park rides. He founded his company, Multirides Ltd, with a colleague.
Graham's company manufactures some of the most breathtaking and dynamic rides you will ever experience in a small package. His gyroscopic rides (Gyrotrim, Viper and Challenger) are based on designs originally developed by NASA to train astronauts and fighter pilots in weightlessness and orientation.
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| Bowling Bangers judge Richard Barnes |
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The judge
This week's judge is Richard Barnes, a ride-safety consultant for theme parks. He is a big man and an expert in the weird world of fairground rides and safety. He also sits on the safety committee of several important industry associations including NAFLIC (National Association for Leisure Industry Certification) and BSI (British Standards Institute).
Richard's company, Systems & Safety Consultancy (SSCL), is regarded as one of the leading engineers in the field of leisure safety. He has over 20 years' experience in inspection and assessment of amusement devices and machinery.
Having worked with all the major theme parks, Richard is a respected risk assessor. Richard's company also has equipment capable of measuring acceleration and forces on all types of amusement rides and he can speak at length about the sort of forces a human body can tolerate.
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