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"This Centurion will go Rome-ing the arena floor to Caesar them all!"
— One of many Jonathan Pearce Centurion puns

Centurion was a competitor robot in Series 3 and 4 of Robot Wars. After defeating Excalibur, it broke down against 101 in Round 2 of The Third Wars. It was given a last minute seeding in Series 4, but was defeated in the first round of Series 4 after being ganged up on by Splinter and Small Torque, becoming one of several seeds to fall in Round 1.

After Series 4 of Robot Wars, Centurion was retired. Ray Tait, the captain of the team, joined the Sir Chromalot team and donated many of the electronics from Centurion to the Sir Chromalot machine entered in Series 5 and 6.

Design[]

"They lovingly hand-crafted that axe, which I find a bit scary."
— Philippa Forrester
Centurion s3 arena

Series 3 appearance

Centurion was a blocky wedge shaped robot, built from polycarbonate and aluminium armour around a steel chassis. The armour was the same material used to create riot shields. It had two weapons, one at each end of the robot; front lifting forks powered pneumatically by nitrogen, and a hydraulically powered axe custom designed by the team. Internally, the robot was powered by two Bosch 750W motors and ran on go-kart wheels. Centurion had a high top speed of 15mph.

Centurion s4 arena

Centurion in the arena during Series 4

In Series 4, Centurion (now written on the robot as Centurion II) remained much the same internally but abandoned the longer lifting forks for shorter prongs on a flipper. The flipper was capable of lifting two feet off the floor and could lift up to 120kg powered by an 80mm cylinder to produce half a tonne of force. The axe was capable of producing 15 tonnes of power. Overall, this version of Centurion was 40cm shorter and slightly lighter than its predecessor. It retained the same motors, wheels and similar armour. Centurion also had a pair of high-beam headlights.

The Team[]

CenturionTeamS3

The team in Series 3

CenturionTeamS4

The team in Series 4

Team Centurion were based in Dagenham, and was captained by Ray Tait, the driver and builder of Centurion. He was consistently joined by his brother Matt Tait, who designed the robot, did the artwork and helped the robot's construction[1]. The two brothers were accompanied by David Whorlow in Series 3, and Jeff Bradford in Series 4. In Series 3, the robot was driven by David Whorlow, and Ray Tait controlled the robot in Series 4.

"David does the driving and has nothing to do with build or design so he has no inhibitions in terms of getting it scratched up and damaged!"
— Ray Tait, interviewed on RobotWars101[2]

Ray Tait's work on Centurion allowed him to learn skills with pneumatics which proved to be critical in his future Robot Wars appearances, competing as part of The Hub Nuts and their robot Sir Chromalot, using a pneumatic flipper of Ray Tait's design.

Robot History[]

Series 3[]

In its first Robot Wars appearance, Centurion was drawn up against Excalibur, the successor to Series 2 heat finalist Disruptor in the first round of the Heat.

"The day before we were due to go on we noticed that Centurion, after months of fine tuning and rebuilding, was suddenly steering erratically. The problem was a burnt out pot which was controlling the drive. You tend to find that when you really need something everyone is sold out. We got a cheap set in the end which got us out of trouble. Also in the first fight we lost control of our forks and the rear lift that sends the robot into a dive. Could have been a weak signal as several sweeps were done of the arena and the entire spectrum was clear."
— Ray Tait, interviewed on RobotWars101[3]
Centurion vs excalibur

Centurion wedges underneath Excalibur

Axes locked

The axes locked together

Centurion was quick around the arena floor, taking one axe blow from Excalibur but retaliating by pushing Excalibur into Sir Killalot and later Sgt. Bash. After it managed to escape, Centurion attacked with its axe, the two axe weapon locking together momentarily. Centurion retreated and the House Robots closed in on Excalibur whose movement was notably impeded. Cease was called and Centurion progressed to Round 2.

Centurion went up against another new robot from a veteran team in Round 2, 101.

Centurion 101 1

Centurion is knocked back by 101's spike

101 centurion

101 pushes Centurion into the side wall

Both robots were fast on the arena floor. Centurion started off lifting 101 with its prongs, but it was unable to overturn the invertible robot. Centurion then pushed 101 into the arena wall, but 101 recovered and after a few stabs with its retracting spike, slammed Centurion into the side wall. One of Centurion's drive chains was dislodged by the Arena Spikes that were emerging from the ground[4]. The weapons continued to fire but Centurion was deemed immobilised, and subsequently attacked by an incoming Sir Killalot. Sir Killalot badly damaged Centurion's lifting forks with its claw, almost ripping them right off the robot.

"The Roman wars are about to come to an end here! Et tu, Killalote? Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it "in for me"!"
— Jonathan Pearce, referring to Caesar's assassination with two famous quotes, the first from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the second being from the film Carry On Cleo

Cease was soon called, and Centurion was eliminated from the competition.

"Strangely after we lost and Chris Reynolds & the HR (house robot) guys came up to us, genuinely gutted that we went out in the manner that we did. In fact we started having a conversation on stage which really annoyed the floor manager! It was nice to get compliments from the enemy!"
— Ray Tait, interviewed on RobotWars101[5]

Series 4[]

"Capable of Rome-ing the arena floor"
— More Rome puns from Jonathan Pearce

Centurion was granted one of two substitute seeds that was brought in after both Trident and Blade's Big Bruva dropped out of the competition at the last minute. By the time of filming, Centurion was seeded 31st. In Heat I of the Fourth Wars, the seeded Centurion was drawn up against two other veteran teams in Small Torque and Splinter, in the first round melee. Before this battle, the other two teams had agreed to team up on the seeded Centurion.

"15 tonnes of pressure, I don't think so."
— Jonathan Pearce as Centurion's axe causes only minor damage to Small Torque
Centurion flips Splinter

Centurion's opening flip on Splinter

Splinter Centurion Small Torque

Centurion's axe comes down on Small Torque

Centurion pitted

Sir Killalot pits Centurion

In the battle, Splinter and Centurion clashed, and Centurion managed to flip Splinter up but not over. Splinter then rammed Centurion into the side wall, and this combined with several follow up attacks from Small Torque was enough to knock Centurion's drive out. It continued to fire its weapons, unable to gain purchase on Small Torque with its flipper or cause damage with its axe when Splinter later pushed Small Torque back into it. The robot briefly came back to life and rammed into the arena wall, where it remained until the House Robots closed in. Sir Killalot came in to break Centurion's flipper, pick it up and carry over to the Pit of Oblivion where it was dropped, eliminating Centurion from the competition. This was Centurion's final appearance in Robot Wars. It was later revealed that the safety device's pin had sheared during the battle, and the power from Centurion had been lost as a result.

"We were sitting ducks."
— Ray Tait

Results[]

CENTURION - RESULTS
Series 3
The Third Wars - UK Championship
Heat, Round 2
Heat J, Round 1 vs. Excalibur Won
Heat J, Round 2 vs. 101 Lost
Series 4
The Fourth Wars - UK Championship
31st Seed, Heat, Round 1
Heat I, Eliminator vs. Small Torque, Splinter Eliminated

Wins/Losses[]

  • Wins: 1
  • Losses: 2

Series Record[]

Main Series Centurion Series Record
The First Wars Did not enter
The Second Wars Did not enter
The Third Wars Heat, Round 2
The Fourth Wars Heat, Round 1
The Fifth Wars Did not enter
The Sixth Wars Did not enter
The Seventh Wars Did not enter
Series 8 Did not enter
Series 9 Did not enter
Series 10 Did not enter
Robot Wars Extreme Appearances
Series 1 Did not enter
Series 2 Did not enter

NOTE: Ray Tait would compete in Series 5, 6 and both series of Extreme with Sir Chromalot. Sir Chromalot also attempted to enter Series 7, although Ray Tait had left the team at this stage.

Gallery[]

Outside Robot Wars[]

Centurion4Prongs

Centurion at the High Wycombe charity event in 1999

Centurion took part in the High Wycombe charity event organised by Bledlow Ridge CC School in June 1999, with its forks having four prongs instead of two. It took on other robots such as Panic Attack, Griffon, Miss Struts and both versions of Inquisitor.[6] Centurion also fought at the Sevenoaks 1999 charity event, where its only known battle was a loss to Razer.[7]

After many of its components were used for Sir Chromalot, the frame of Centurion was scrapped due to being damaged though Ray still kept a few pieces of the robot, such as the wheels, forks and axe among others.

"Sadly there's not much left of Centurion apart from some poly body panels, front armour plate, lifting forks, Axe and the wheels. Centurions framework got cut up as it sustained some damage, the motors, batteries and airvalves went into Sir Chromalot."
— Ray Tait

Ray Tait also built three other robots that appeared on various other television shows;

  • Skeletron, (often called Skelly), an innovative humanoid robot originally entered into the rope-climbing events of Robot Wars' sister show Techno Games. Based on a human skeleton, Skeletron relied on articulated arms and legs, along with a pneumatic system, for locomotion, using this to win multiple gold, silver and bronze medals throughout its appearances on the show. In July/August 2000, and October 2002, it was present at both Robot Mayhem 2000, and filming for Extreme Series 2 respectively, performing demonstrations to audience members as part of the 'Hall of Champions' section of the Robot Wars Experience.[8] Skeletron remains in working order to this day, making various appearances at UK and international events such as those organised by Roaming Robots.[9][10]
  • Mechatron, another humanoid-style robot for Mechanoids.
  • David Wreckem, a further humanoid design appearing on Blue Peter, where it acted as a waiter, and Innovation Nation.

Trivia[]

  • Both of Centurion's appearances were in the same Heat as Eric.
    • King Buxton was also present in both of Centurion's appearances, although it only appeared in the Pinball in Series 4.
  • In the Robot Wars Official Sticker Collection, Centurion was listed as Centurion II. Apart from on the front flipper panel in Series 4, this name has not been used outside of the book.
  • Team member Matt Tait went on to work for the Robot Wars production company Mentorn, was a member of the first steering group and managed the Robot Wars website and forum from Series 4-7. Ray Tait was also part of The Steering Committee.
  • Two of the robots that beat Centurion (101 and Splinter) would then go on to win the heat and then lose to Hypno-Disc in the series semi-finals.
  • Out of all 11 Seeded Robots to fail in the 1st round, Centurion has the lowest seeding at 31.

References[]

External Links[]

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