removing their tag, rather than trying to evade the Gladiator, the event was stopped. Both participants were forbidden from climbing above the red orbs at the top of the sphere, although this was largely for safety reasons as this took them into the swinging mechanism. In 1998, the rules were changed: the contender's objective was to hit 4 lit sectors in different positions around the pendulum, while still avoiding being caught by the Gladiator. Contenders could score 2 points for each of three upper sectors hit and 4 points for lower sector (for a maximum of 10 points). Pendulum was originally planned to debut in the Sheffield live 1995 shows, but had to be dropped as the safety net was too big to fit in the arena. Instead, Joust was played. Pole-Axe First appearance: series 3, 1994 – heat 8 Last appearance: series 7, 1998 – semi-final 1 A contender and Gladiator each climbed a pole fitted with helically-arranged pegs. The first to the top pressed a button which retracted the pegs on the opponent's pole, causing them to fall to the crash mat below. If the contender beat the Gladiator, they would score 10 points. If the contender fell off at any point, they lost. There was also a rule that determined that if the Gladiator fell off before the contender had reached their button, the contender must still reach their button in order to score any points. This rule never came into play as the Gladiators never fell off by mistake. This event was removed in 1996 because of injuries to Gladiators and contenders. It was revived in 1997 with safety harnesses to stop the "freefall" aspect. This also meant a run up to mount the pole and a higher climb. Powerball First appearance: series 2, 1993 – heat 1 Last appearance: series 10, 2009 – “Battle of the Athletes” This cross between basketball and rugby in which 2 contenders faced 3 Gladiators on the Powerball pitch. Contenders had 60 seconds to place balls in the five scoring baskets on the pitch (2 points for a score in one of the four outer baskets and 3 points for the middle) whilst the Gladiators had to tackle the contenders, preventing them from scoring (though head-high tackles and similar moves were illegal for safety reasons and would result in the Gladiator being disqualified). A Gladiator could not touch a contender