On the 1st and 2nd of March, two teams of students from Tanfield School took part in the VEX Robotics UK national championship at the Telford International Centre. On Friday and Saturday morning the teams competed in their 12 qualifier matches, where they worked hard to continually improve their robots to stay competitive during these important matches. After the qualifiers, the teams took part in the alliance selection to get their seeding for the knock outs. The Y8 team "Ivory Toast XB" were ranked 11th after qualifying and were picked by the 6th ranked team to become 6th seeds for the knockouts, unfortunately the Y11 team "Cyclone" had difficult qualifying matches and ended up as 14th seeds for the knockouts.

Saturday afternoon saw the knockouts take place, with Y11 unfortunately losing their round of 16 match despite a valiant effort. In the round of 16 match the Y8 team drew the first match and had to go to a replay which they won convincingly meaning they moved into the quarter finals. Unfortunately they lost their quarter final after some strange referee decisions, a disappointing way to end the competition, none the less it was an outstanding performance in their first VRC season and points towards great things to come!!

It was a pleasure to take the students to the event and they were superb throughout the two days, competing well and with smiles on their faces - roll on next season!!

Mr Carr