Ste Date's "Back in Black" opened up with win against David Hansell with Telekinetic Strain causing irritation for Marvel Girl in the Astral Plane. Craig also scored a first round win as he beat Dale's "FNS" team with a whitewash ... Dale de Andrade nil points (dodgy French accent here again). Rounding off the first round win, Dave Smith's "Sons of the Spider" used his thematic team of Pouncing Venom, Carnage, Spider-Man (obviously) and Black Cat to score a big win against Ste Hunt's also nicely themed "Spidey & His Amazing Friends (All Of Them)" sporting Spider-Man (well Doh!) Cloak, Black Cat, Daredevil and Silver Sable. With only six players in this part of the event it would be easy to recover from a first round loss and two good wins could see you through to the final so it was all still to play for in the next head to heads.

Round Two's top match up saw Dave's symbiote enhanced spider crew bring Craig back down to earth with a bump as he thumped Spider-Man, Electro, Bullseye, Swordsman and Jessica Jones leaving all but Venom and Black Cat basking in the glory of a second win. This was a feat unequalled as the only other first round victor Ste Date, came a cropper against his arch nemesis Ste Hunt. Black Cat and Daredevil didn't survive to see the end of this caper, but they were on the winning side and the 587 points picked up threw the Huntmeister right back in the mix in this one. On 'losers alley' David Hansell and Dale were playing each other for the umpteenth time. David's dual Mockingbird mockery with Alpha Flight and the nanobot eating Outwit and Probability Control of Black Panther and Scarlet Witch was too much for Dale's thrown together Marvel mix up and David scored a win again.

Round Three was intense as only Dale stood no chance of qualifying for the final, but all the other five players could see it within their grasp with a win and a good points haul. Favourite to compete in another final was David Smith as he needed only a win of any sort to progress thanks to his two previous successes. Dave had already played the two players who placed second and third behind him going into this round, so his last match was against David Hansell. Unable to hit the mighty defences of the Mockingbird twins, Dave found himself on the wrong end of a big defeat, scoring only 39 points in the match. This left the final placing wide open for other players to slip in under Dave's radar and with the huge win David Hansell was already ahead of David on points. Thanks to the table one result, either Craig or Ste Hunt could be certain of a fianl spot with a convincing win. Using the technique that is now named the 'Hunt Phoenix Assault' (as I have just called it that) Ste saw fir to destroy Craig's hopes with a thorough thrashing leaving himself on top of the table and facing David Hansell for the event win. Craig's poor display left him just of the bottom spot thanks to the other result. This other result saw Dale suffering for the KC Green Lantern cheesyness of not so long ago as everyone wanted to put the boot in. In his best result of the three games tonight, Dale still managed to lose but this time he scored 289 points and it was actually a very tight game. So after nine hard fought pitched battles Ste Hunt and David Hansell had earned the right to play in the final and try to win the monkeyless brain of the LE The Brain. I know who my money is on and he could pass for Kevin Spacey at long range if you were short sighted, colour blind and complately insane.

Its all to play for as the Sinister 6 kick off the Elite Event!

What's this? Ste Date smiling? You would think he was having fun!

To the corridor of death my amazingly stupid followers

Another relative newcomer Carl Sidgewick also did very well tonight and with his first two matches won he played Alec for a spot in the final. In a tighter than tight third game Carl scored 290 points and was beaten by Alec by just 19 points. So Alec went on to play in the final against Simon leaving Carl with that oh so nearly feeling and an eventual 5th place finish.

Youngest player at the venue, Chris Larkman, had picked up his first win at the weekend when he managed to force a victory against JP. Tonight he went one better and achieved a 2 - 1 scorecard beating Paul Crosby and Paul Spencelayh. He lost his first round game to Paul Brown ... I wonder what the chances of facing all three of the Paul's were? Anyway a very good performance to win 2 of the 3. The performaces of the Paul's were mirrored by their performace against Chris as Paul Brown achieved a very impressive 2 - 1 score but was edged out of the final as 2 players had 3 - 0 records, whilst Paul Crosby and Paul Spencelayh both struggled to a 1 - 2 record with a fairly forgettable points total. Of course they were also both beaten by a small child! Mwhahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!.

Liam started tonight with a very strong win against Peter Davies but then as is often the case his momentum rather petered out and he finished on the end of a less than memorable whitewash at the hands of Paul Brown. Liam's brother Parry saw the opposite effect as he started poorly with a defeat to Simon Swinbank, but recovered sufficiently to win his last two matches and thus end as the top Cooke on the night.

Peter Davies had no less than seven ninja joining his Spider-Man, Viper, Silver Samurai and AIM Agent as his team had a very oriental flavour to it. No, I don't mean he had curry flavour clix ... mmm curry! Peter's spicy number took a good while to get going as it got no KO's in either of its first two outings but then it explode into action as it collected a bye from a player who had to leave early. Oh well, not the most destructive team we have ever seen at the venue then.

The last two of the twelve were also relative newcomers to Approved Play as Matthew Cannings took a Veteran Spider-Man, Electro, Magma and Hulk as his "Bomb Crew" and Jonathan McNamara ""It's Totally Shocking" was made up of Shocker, Magma, Green Goblin, Skull Buster and the obligatory Spider-Man. The only win for either player came for Jonathan as he beat Matthew in the first round as the more experienced field was rather unforgiving. Just as well the Elite were separated or it could have been a real massacre.

It's just as well we have small maps available in enough quantity to be able field them for a whole event because eighteen players on full size maps takes up a heck of a lot of room. Thankfully I have an ample enough supply of 'The Prison' that even after giving one to each attendee of the Sinister Pre-release and Marquee I still have enough left to make that the new staple size for tournamnet play in Middlesbrough. Hopefully I will be able to scroung up a couple of the old Collateral Damage and Armor Wars maps too so we can get a little varietey ... oh yes and maybe I should take the scissors to one or two of my remaining full size maps.

Chris Larkman plays Paul number 2 of his three Paul haul

I wish on was on commission for the number of poker chips and rubber rings being sold in Middlesbrough these days!

Ste Dates new Spider-Man mod watched the event with interest!

In the Elite Event Stephen Hunt had once again recovered from an early setback to finish in first place and thus reach his gazillionth event final. David Hansell and overcome the odds to pound David Smith in his last match and just pip him to the second spot. Ste Hunt's "Spidey And His Amazing Friends! (All Of 'Em)" had started slowly but picked up a good head of steam to reach the final. The Disbanded he played had no effect on his all wildcard (bar Pouncing Daredevil) team. David's nameless minions had a similar story having lost their first round game to Ste Date, buting coming back with two good wins to reach the final, Armor Wars was his BFC choice for the final encounter. Dave's double Mockingbird (both Veterans) looked a little scarey, but getting something right for once I had called the Cloak Poison trick to one of the spectators and wasn't wrong. Ste wasn't in the mood for a second place finish today and stormed to victory with only the Black Cat losing her way in a strong 551 point performance. David had to settle for second again, but in the strong field second was a good finish and the Huntmeister had reasserted his authority on the local scene ... but for how long?

The Challenge Event final was no less of a scrap than the Elite final and Alec and Simon Fox were both hungry for their first ever event win. Alec's Spider-Man, Jessica Drew,Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Magma had a clone-esque look to it under the heading "Night of the Spiders & Magma" (LOL). Simon's force was lead by Scarlet Spider (allowed as a Spider-Man) and also had the mighty Veteran Firelord, Black Panther for Outwit, Scarlet Witch for Probability Control and a Paramedic for Support. "Spider-Man Meets Firelord" was just plain nasty! Alec took out Scarlet Spider early doors and whilst Firelord still proved an eternal menace, surviving until the end of time his lack of offensive firepower support lead to Alec collecting a very hard earned win and picking up an LE for his troubles.

Ste Date and Chris Larkman were also given LEs for their Fellowship Awards in the respective events and the "Night of the Spider" was complete. Thanks to all for playing and see you again very soon for the mighty Marvel Marquee! Please someone stop the Hunt from getting his hat trick of Marquee wins (3 out of 3 that would be).

Arrrrggggggghhhhhhh. It's true, he does look like Lex Luther from this side!

Alec and Simon developed quite a small gathering to observe their final (but I have cropped them out as they aren't important) Mwhahahahahahaa!

The final placings after the Three Swiss Rounds were as follws...