It was a battle of the Titans. Volleyball-playing robots constructed with the children's building toy, Lego, scooted about on a down-sized court, knocking a ball back and forth over the line.
These were the first automated robots developed specifically to play volleyball and the competition provided something decidedly offbeat for the opening of the annual British Association Festival of Science in Sheffield.
One hardly noticed that the competitors contesting the £1,000-prize for best robot design were all university scientists and not your usual short-pants Lego consumer.
And in a gripping finish, robot designers from Manchester, Edinburgh, Wales and Reading were vanquished by an Irish team from the department of computer science at Trinity College, Dublin.
Hyperactive four-year-olds couldn't have had more fun than the gaggle of professors, Ph.Ds and science graduates clustered around the square court of six feet, cheering on the five teams.
The constructors' competition rules were simple: build your robot out of off-the-shelf Lego, then add the small sonar sensors developed by the University of Reading, whose Prof Kevin Warwick dreamt up the idea.
The competitors met six months ago to work out the rules and come up with a challenge for the robots.
Several ideas were considered, including robots that could scale obstacles, but cyborg volleyball was the final choice.
The design approach taken by each team was a secret, explained Trinity robot heroes Dr Gerard Lacey and Mr Derek Cassidy.
Theirs was a clear winner, involving a two-robot team that included one with a foot-long "sweeper" to position the grapefruit-sized ball, and a second fitted with a paddle that would wheel itself up to the line and bat the ball. The University of Wales, Cardiff, which was placed second, used a robot player that marched across the court like the Roman Legions taking Gaul.
The third-placed University of Edinburgh built twin robots with crab-like claws to grab the ball and drop it over the line.
None could survive, however, against the Irish robots who won all but one match.
The loss came when a competitor's electronic output wiped out one Irish robot's software brain.
It was all harmless, if somewhat partisan, fun while it lasted.