Cold Fusion Team

"The Friendly Team...with Unfriendly robots!"

- The current team motto

Team Cold Fusion (renamed Team Kat in Extreme 2) was a very experienced team from Robot Wars. They fought across six wars and two Extremes, making them one of the longest competing teams, along with Team Panic, Team Make Robotics, Team Chaos, Team Firestorm and Team Trinity. Team Cold Fusion created two heavyweight robots; Bodyhammer, which reached the Grand Final of Series 1, and Pussycat, an extremely successful robot that placed second in Series 4, as well as winning five side competitions and an international event. The team also entered two featherweight robots; Katnip in Extreme Series 2 and Kitty in Extreme 2 and Series 7.

The team was originally named because Herrick, Dayton-Lovett and Jones were nuclear engineers. However, once none of these men remained on the team, it took on the name of Stuart Barnwell's Team Kat (Not to be confused with Team KaterKiller, who sometimes went by that name).

Throughout Robot Wars, Team Cold Fusion were always willing to lend a hand. In Series 7, Alan Gribble even helped M2 repair its flipper at the last minute, even knowing that M2's next battle would be against Pussycat. The team were recognised for their helpfulness in Series 5 when they won the Sportsmanship award.

Team Cold Fusion has seen more team members than any other, and is the only team to have entered in Series 1 and qualified for Series 7, albeit with different robots and completely different team members.

Origins
The team originally consisted of Robin Herrick, Andrew Dayton-Lovett and Steve Jones. In Series 2, Jones was replaced by David Gribble. For the formation of Pussycat, the team consisted of Herrick (the captain), Gribble (the driver) and Robert Bettington (the weapon operator). "I got involved with Robot Wars via my son David, The Cold Fusion Team needed a good driver, and some help finishing their robot Bodyhammer. The Team visited our local radio control racing club, where they spotted David, he is the club two wheel drive champion. They asked Dave if he would consider driving for them, he of course jumped at the chance. I have a small engineering business and was able to help out with finishing Bodyhammer."

- Alan Gribble on joining Team Cold Fusion For the Series 4 Heats, David's father, Alan, joined the team in place of Herrick and took over his role as captain. Robin later returned for the Semi-Final and Grand Final in place of Robert Bettington, but left the team after the Fourth Wars. "I'm not really in the team anymore because I live a very long way away. I'm designing a new robot by myself. Look out for it in Series 8!"

- Robin Herrick on the Team Cold Fusion website The lineup for Extreme 1 and Series 5 was the same as the Series 4 Heats.

Tragedy
Shortly after Extreme Series 1 and Series 5 had been filmed, the team and the entire roboteering community was rocked by tragedy. On Saturday 13th October 2001, David Gribble, Pussycat's driver, was involved in a motorcycle accident and was taken to hospital. Unfortunately he suffered severe internal injuries and died at around 8:50pm in his parents' arms. A book of condolences was compiled on the official Robot Wars website, and a memorial was shown at the end of the first episode of Robot Wars Extreme Series 1, as well as the last issue of the first Robot Wars Magazine. This was the main reason behind Pussycat not returning for Series 6. However, Alan Gribble did act as a Technical Consultant for that series, and was seen helping teams in the pits. He would also fulfil this role during Series 7.

Stuart Barnwell
As Team Cold Fusion began to recover, Alan sought out a new driver. At the time, Rex Garrod from Team Cassius had been running a feature called Rex's Robot Challenge for Real Robots magazine, which explained in detail how to build a featherweight robot. Stuart Barnwell was building a robot for that challenge, following the magazine, but ended up speaking to Alan via email for advice and the two became friends.

Alan offered to make the weapon for Barnwell's robot, which was Katnip, out of metal as his plastic one was not strong enough. After the tragic death of David, Alan invited Stuart to become the team's new driver.

Stuart Barnwell also joined the Tomahawk team in Series 7. Tomahawk captain Paul Kendrick's wife was heavily pregnant during the filming, and since Tomahawk's controls required a second team member to operate the axe, Kendrick asked him, to assist him in the main competition. Stuart Barnwell had agreed to operate the axe, but ended up driving instead, as Barnwell had experience driving the robot at some live events.

Merge with Team Kat
Stuart Barnwell was originally a featherweight competitor, alongside his parents Roger and Amanda. Together, they were called Team Kat. Team Kat merged with Team Cold Fusion in Extreme 2, with Stuart also entering his featherweight Katnip. Ann Gribble is still part of the team, but since Stuart Barnwell took over as team captain, it has been known as Team Kat for convenience, and it is also the name of the team's official website.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 37
 * Losses: 14

Series Record

 * Series 1: Grand Final with Bodyhammer
 * Series 2: Heat, Gauntlet with Bodyhammer
 * Series 3: Heat Final with Pussycat
 * Series 4: Runner-up with Pussycat
 * Extreme 1: Annihilator Champion and Tag Team Terror Champion with Pussycat
 * Series 5: Semi-Finals, Round 2 with Pussycat
 * Series 6: Did not enter
 * Extreme 2: Iron Maidens Final with Pussycat and Featherweight Championship Final with Katnip and Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Kitty
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2 with Pussycat and Featherweight Championship, Round 1 with Kitty
 * 2016 Series: Did not enter

Outside Robot Wars
The team entered Techno Games 2003 with a weapon-less Pussycat in the football as Pink Pants along with a weapon-less pink fur clad TX-108, which was under the name RaMyA (Razer My Arse), but lost to Typhoon Rover and Typhoon 870 in round 1. Pink Pants also competed in the Assault Course but lost to Incy Wincy in round 1 (Incy Wincy did not qualify for round 2 however). The team also built Twigworth Breaker for the Shot-Putt in 2001 but it failed to launch the ball out of the cage on both throws, the second throw actually going up vertically upon launch and being caught by Alan Gribble.

The team still occasionally makes an appearance in the touring organisation Roaming Robots, with Stuart, Amanda and Roger Barnwell and Alan and Ann Gribble making up the team. Of the three robots that were entered into Robot Wars by Team Kat, none of them are still in the possession of the team; Katnip was scrapped in 2007, Pussycat is currently in the possession of John Findlay of Team Roaming Robots (but is only used for static display) and Kitty has also been reowned. "Technology moves on and technology costs money, which at the moment we are not prepared to move on with, we have no money"

- Team Website

After Robot Wars, Team Kat also entered a featherweight called KX, which was built in 2006 but has since retired from fighting altogether. This is the only robot from Team Kat (that has fought) that still remains with the team. In 2014, KX was turned into GiAnto by Shane Lale of Team Tilly.

The team also built an invertible featherweight rambot originally called KatRip but eventually renamed KR2 and then renamed again as KR3-SP2, which never fought in competitive battles.

Sadly, Alan Gribble died of cancer on the 1st November 2013 at the age of 63.

Trivia

 * Team Chaos and Team Cold Fusion were the only two surviving teams from the Series 1 Grand Final to enter Series 4.
 * Team Cold Fusion/Kat is the only team to have competed on the televised show in the first and last Wars.
 * The band Inkwell performed a song named The Tragedy of David Gribble live, to commemorate the life of David Gribble.
 * There is a Facebook page to remember David Gribble, which can be found here.
 * Typhoon 2 is the only Grand Champion that Team Cold Fusion did not fight, though the team did compete against Team Typhoon in Techno Games, having fought them in the Football event. If this is included, Team Cold Fusion are the only team to have fought all six UK champions so far.