A LEYLAND engineer could have a TV star on his hands - and it can travel at 35 miles an hour, has a pneumatic spear and can lift a grown man off his feet.

Glyn Jones helped pals John Pocock from Darwen and John Turnbull from Wigan create Schumey 2, their entry to the new series of Robot Wars.

The chaps have entered their second creation to the show after winning through to the second round of the cult show in which robots are pitted against tests of speed, skill, strength - and each other.

Glyn said: "We're still working on Schumey 2 but it's going to have a pneumatic spear which will fire out of the front to cause damage and a pneumatic lifting device to tip over competitors.

"And it can do 25 miles an hour. There's nothing clever about it. It has speed and strength which is what you need on the show."

So how does he feel about the challenge posed by the show's fearsome - and huge - House Robots, designed to tear apart the competitors' efforts in front of the audience?

"Well, it's unfair, isn't it?" said Glyn, "Our robot is only allowed to weigh around 170 pounds to qualify for the show, but their biggest, Sir Killalot, weighs three quarters of a ton!

"You haven't got much chance against him which is why we've gone for speed.

"We have better controls on Schumey 2 than we did on the first robot so we should be doing a lot better."

There were more than 300 entrants to the show's 'auditions' and the threesome are waiting to hear if they have been successful - around 170 should make it into the show's first round.

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