Three designers cream of the crop

COLIN SMITH/ The Nelson Mail

BUDDING RACERS: Engineer Gordon Dacombe, right, takes measurements as Louis Rowell Williams left, Cassandra Cotton and Corbin Blackbourn see how their new trolleys fit.

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Three Nelson children, encouraged to let their imaginations run riot, have won a contest to design trolleys for the Collingwood Street Trolley Derby in February.

Louis Rowell Williams, 6, has won the nippers' section with his Submarine Trolley design, while Cassandra Cotton, 10, won the zoomers' section with her Cassanator design, and 12-year-old Corbin Blackbourn's Inferno Dragon Racer design took out the sprinters' section.

Organiser Andy Williams said the inaugural challenge was about children using their creativity and imagination to come up with designs without worrying about the engineering side.

The trio were chosen from 12 entries and have each won a chassis and the expertise of a "trolley nut" mentor to make their designs a reality.

Autofocus owner Gordon Dacombe will be Cassandra's mentor. She came up with her barrel-on-wheels concept when pupils in her class at Birchwood School were asked to have a go at designing.

Now she is looking forward to turning her artwork into a real trolley that she will get to keep. It will be her first trolley derby. "I really want to go down the hill. It's going to be pretty fast," she said.

Mr Williams said the derby was not all about speed, with a new Style Meister category which was about the look. "We want people who will put in real attention to the look of the trolley and their costume. The event is part of the Summer Festival and we want to promote the artistic rather than technical skills. There are a whole range of people who don't have the technical skills for trolley making but are creative."

The BlueBerryIT Backyard Brilliance Awards, for trolleys built for under $200 in parts, were also aimed at people who were not engineering nuts.

"They've got the whole of the January school holidays to do something and come up with a trolley," he said.

* The 2010 South Canterbury Finance Nelson Trolley Derby will be held in Collingwood St, Nelson on Saturday, February 27. Details are on derby.co.nz

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