17th-20th August 1998:
Day four. We were told we had drawn Napalm in the head-to-head round. It was time to find out what Panda was really capable of. We'd put a steel plaster over the wound, and patched her up ready for the fight.
We did all the pre-fight interviews and generally paced around and re-checked the spikes for the thousandth time. Chris was getting more and more hyper, I was getting more and more withdrawn as the hour dawned. We entered the arena and set Panda's controls. We needed a straight run at Napalm to inflict maximum damage. We went up to the control box and waited to start...
We charged at Napalm. They stuttered towards us, but we hadn't quite set the controls up right. Panda just missed. I turned her back and we hit Napalm side-on. I backed up up and took another swipe. Napalm didn't seem to have any power. I backed up again. MISTAKE! I'd backed Panda into the House Robot zone and Matilda decided to get revenge for the damage. The lifting prongs went under the side of Panda and she was tossed into the air like a rag doll. She landed side down and the contest was over...Napalm was the winner because of my stupid driving.
We had had a great time. Chris was to be forever branded a women hater for his 'beaten by two schoolgirls' comment, and I was just pleased that we got so far. It was a great experience and I look forward to the future events. We learnt so much, that we HAVE to do this again. Next time, Matilda, yo' ass is mine!!!!
Panda Monium, post-Matilda. The marks below the cross on the close-up are where the chainsaw couldn't grip.