THERE was nothing mechanical about the performance of the Barclay School robot team taking part in competition for the first time. The Stevenage team won its first international award at the FIRST Vex Battle at the Border championship event in San Diego,

THERE was nothing mechanical about the performance of the Barclay School robot team taking part in competition for the first time.

The Stevenage team won its first international award at the FIRST Vex Battle at the Border championship event in San Diego, California.

Members were eliminated at the quarter final stage of the 36-team tournament, but won the event's Amaze award.

During the day-long tournament the team played a series of qualification matches and finished 11th.

However, under the competition's complex scoring and ranking system, the team was made 8th seeds for the quarter finals, pitting it against the number one seeded team which went on to win overall.

Alan Fuller, who as a governor at Barclay arranged the trip and accompanied the team, said: "The reception we received at the Madison High School was exceptionally friendly and the atmosphere throughout the competition was tremendous with about 400 people watching the matches.

"To reach a quarter final at our first event was an excellent achievement. We were competing against several older and more experienced teams and our students did exceptionally well.

"To see the boys called forward to collect the Amaze award amid such loud and sustained applause was a very emotional and proud moment for those of us who accompanied the team. We have taken a lot of learning from this experience and hope to return next year and go at least one step further."

The team would like to thank its mentoring engineer David Mair and Tim Stroud (from MBDA) and its sponsors, MBDA, Stevenage Community Trust and Stevenage Rotary, for their support.

Anyone interesting in sponsoring the team's 2008 championship challenge should contact Alan Fuller on 01438 752811.