Did the lights on the dash/radio go dim/off and is the trip meter at zero when you tried to start it? Have they loosened the battery connections?

mine did this today. It was accompanied with ticking sound. Behind dash. Checked all connections disconnected and reconnected battery checked earth and lead to starter solenoid. Both tight. Like the starter of this thread I had two sets of mats so hopefully with me moving the mats it has resolved. However, my car cut out in traffic. Dead not even hazard lights worked.clock set to zero PID powered down etc. It did start again after 30 mins.so just wondering if it is something else!

Cutting out in traffic, whilst running, sounds more like the alternator fault tree to me. Needs looking at. This may have taken the battery out with it if it's been drawing juice from that to start and run for a while. Get it looked at pdq.

On another note, washing the starter bendix down with petrol to get rid of accumulated clutch dust was one of the regular jobs on the set of minis I have owned over the decades. Almost as painful as taking the fan belt off to get the radiator out. Happy days when car diagnostics involved a mug of tea in one hand, bonnet open and sucking air past your teeth whilst rubbing your chin. I always carried a tiny set of spanners and screw drivers (longish one for bottom hose jubilee clip, spare fan belt, points, jump leads, water and a collapsible hose that you could replace without having to take the head off. AA membership, when it was sensible money, was a must have too.

Wow! That was a nostalgic trip.

Thanks for the comment. The days when you could fix things with a small tool kit. Use to fix my old skoda 110LS with a bicycle cable on the carb butterfly actuator. It used to wear all the time. Happy days

Just to update. I have now been able to get the multi test out and done some testing. Basically the battery had failed. Although it had the volts under load these dramatically reduced to the point it could not turn the starter. Tested the alternator which was fine. Also checked for fault codes but none listed. New battery fitted and so far so good. Never had a battery fail this way i.e. no weaknesses displayed before failure. Maybe a feature of stop start system. At least the local parts factor had a 30% off sale. Car is 3 and a half years old but very low mileage 10K when I brought it 3months ago and done 3.5k since.

I would have thought that the clutch switch would operate on the very first bit of downward pedal travel, not the very last bit.

Have you experimented and tested Skoda's theory?

 

If you think about it logically you would want it on the last part of the travel or at least the majority of the travel, that way you can pretty much guarantee the clutch is fully disengaged. 

Just to update. I have now been able to get the multi test out and done some testing. Basically the battery had failed. Although it had the volts under load these dramatically reduced to the point it could not turn the starter. Tested the alternator which was fine. Also checked for fault codes but none listed. New battery fitted and so far so good. Never had a battery fail this way i.e. no weaknesses displayed before failure. Maybe a feature of stop start system. At least the local parts factor had a 30% off sale. Car is 3 and a half years old but very low mileage 10K when I brought it 3months ago and done 3.5k since.

I've had several stop/start cars (non Skoda) before and their battery condition used to be more carefully monitored and trickled up at service intervals than other cars without that feature. Depending on the length and type of trips, it can usually cope but the charge can go south quite quickly. Bigger battery than normal but still susceptible to discharging damage. It'll probably be fine with a new battery now that you know what to keep an eye on.