Dartford Girls Grammar

"Aiming for excellence, developing the individual"

- The Dartford Girls Grammar School motto.

Dartford Girls Grammar was a team from the Kent-based secondary school which competed in the first five series of Robot Wars as well as Extreme 1. The team was made up of technology teacher David Crosby, and pupils Clare Greenaway, Rebecca Glenn, Victoria Allgood and Michelle Davey at various points of their time on Robot Wars. The team were most famous for creating Napalm, at one point a semi-finalist. None of the teams robots were aesthetically pleasing, but were hardy, if fortunate. Napalm was never the most secure robot, always with things hanging off it, leading the Robopig team to call it a "pile of junk", which team captain David Crosby agreed on.

History
The team entered a total of 4 robots; Detonator, Napalm, Shadow of Napalm and Napalm 2.

Dentonator (Series 1)
Detonator was a green dome-shaped robot powered by a petrol engine. After scraping through the Gauntlet, Detonator had battery problems in the trial, and was eliminated.

Napalm (Series 2 and 3)
Napalm, the team's most famous robot, was used in series 2 and 3, with only repairs between the series, and no upgrades. Napalm was a two-wheeled titanium hull, with an axe (more commenly known as mandibles) with two steel spikes. Origionally Napalm had a chainsaw but this was broken off by Sir Killalot during Napalm's Gauntlet run and never repaired. More by luck than by skill, Napalm won its Second Wars heat, and qualified for the series semi-finals, where is was eliminated in very controversial circumstances, despite scoring more points than Mortis in the Pinball trial. Napalm returned totally unchanged for the Third Wars, the only robot to do so. Despite the near-worthless mandibles weapon, Napalm reached the heat final, only to be eliminated by the eventual Grand Finalist Steg-O-Saw-Us on a judges decision. "...the chainsaw was a cheap plastic one and was easily ripped off as it was only cable tied down."

- Oliver Steeples, on the stability of Napalm

Shadow of Napalm (Series 4)
For Series 4, the Dartford team made a new robot called Shadow of Napalm, constructed from kevlar and titanium. Although it looked better than its predicessors, Shadow of Napalm's lifting arm and small rear spike was useless and, although entering as the 25th seed, fell in the heat semi-final to a far more promising Dominator II. After this, Shadow of Napalm was surprisingly never used again. At the end of series 4, a far outdated Detonator was brought out of retirement for the War of Independence special, with David and Tegan Crosby controlling the robot. Considering how old it was, it was no surprise that Detonator was defeated brutally by Frenzy.

Extreme 1
In Extreme 1, Napalm returned to battle and fought as two different models, a black painted version of Series 3 Napalm and the other was the Napalm 2 model that was also used in Series 5. For this series, Michelle Davey joined the team, in the absence of regular Clare Greenaway, who was on a World Challenge expedition in Africa. Napalm took part in the Tag Team competition, paired with Sir Chromalot, stood no chance against The Steel Avenger and Suicidal Tendencies, both being defeated with little ado. In the Mayhem fight, Napalm was the unlikely winner after Gemini fell on its back and The Spider burnt out on the flame pit. In the Annihililator, Napalm was shunted between Spirit of Knightmare, Panic Attack and The Steel Avenger. Despite avoiding elimination, it was too badly damaged to continue and was forced to retire. Its last appearence in Extreme was a grudge match against Thermidor 2, who had said that Robot Wars wasn't for women. Napalm broke apart after a barrage of flips from Thermidor II, before being flipped Out of the Arena.

Napalm 2 (Series 5)
"Are we watching this in slow-motion?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Napalm fought Warhog in the first round, struggling to cause any real damage, but nevertheless won. Napalm's last appearence in Robot Wars was against Wild Thing, stopping moving after a powerful hit, and then being pitted. As of series five it was known that only Vikki Allgood was still at Dartford Grammar School, sitting her A-Levels, Clare Greenaway was globe trotting, Michelle Davey was with the Bank of Scotland and David Crosby was the Head of Technology at Dover Grammar School for Boys.

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 8
 * Losses: 10

Series Record

 * Series 1: Heat, Trial with Detonator
 * Series 2: Semi Finals, Trial with Napalm
 * Series 3: Heat Final with Napalm
 * Series 4: Heat, Round 2 with Shadow of Napalm
 * Series 5: Heat, Round 2 with Napalm 2
 * Series 6-7: Did not enter