A scheme such as a Robot Wars entry for a UK TV programme doesn't happen without mishap or drama.

Here's a wee insight into some of the behind-the-scenes ups and downs during the 10 months of Slippery Strana's creation.

1.  Keeps an eye on the final objective
In the early stages, both Dave and I had repeated doubts about the likelihood of building a credible robot. Charlie never doubted it. At the end of an evening with Charlie, for a dozen barely tangible reasons, Dave and I found ourselves talking positively about 'our robot', in spite of the reservations we admitted to each other at the beginningof an evening. And we only ever drank coffee!

2.  Watches how much is spent
We had a gentleman's agreement to share all costs between us (in the beginning it was Charlie (CDS), Dave (DPC) and myself (CSP)).

A well known rule about managing costs and resources is to measurethem. If they're not being measured then they can't be managed.

It was Charlie who drew up our lists of expenditure-to-date and you can see the earliest page opposite.

3.  Gets others to cough up the cash !
Well of course we DID share the costs between us, but Charlie had an amazing knack of getting Dave and/or me to produce the cash or the credit card "just for now" ! (For the record, Charlie alwayspaid his whack - in the end!)

4.  Motivates the team
Those probing questions on the telephone that begin -"by the way ...", "have you ...", did you ..." and "when is ..." could all be construed as 'motivation'.

And Charlie construed to motivate us. Not very often, but often enough.

5.  Uses charm to smooth over the inevitable hiccups
As you can read above, our deadlines came and went for the Mentorn paperwork, but . . .

On at least three occasions, we left Charlie to telephone the lovely Mary-Jane Evans at Mentorn and talk us out of a hole. Yes, I admit that credit should go to Mary-Jane for her flexibility, but you can understand our relief that Charlie and Mary-Jane established such a good rapport.