Due to the particular attendance tonight, two things were guaranteed. Firstly there would be no 'Battle of the Ste's' at any point in the procedings as Mr. Date was cuddling up with this weeks offerings from Marvel and DC and then de-stressing on his X-Box360. Secondly, there would be no 'Cooke Family Feud' round as Liam was taking a break from Clixing and playing Zombies!!! (the 3 exclaimation marks are obligatory) instead!!! (not here, this was just for effect). As time was tight each pod was allocated a set map for the whole tournament.

As there was a late surge (can you have a surge of 2 people?) of players there were a total of ten mightly clixers battling it out tonight so that meant three player pods for table one and two and a four player pod on table three (that was almost as bad as "East Fife four Forfar five" on the Scottish football results). Drawn out for pod one were Craig Woolnough (winner at last week's 200 point minimap clash), Martin Teece and Anthony Prior (who having bought 3 Icons boosters and pulling Flash™, Lex Luthor™ and Brainiac™ will be buying all my boosters from today onwards).

Martin's "Dark Devastation" with Blockbuster™, Elekta™, Killer Croc™, Penguin™ and Riddler™ was a little slow to get going and took a bit of a whallop, gaining only 30 points in total. Anthony's "Titan-X" with Flash™, Starfire™, Raven™, Scarab™ and Lian Harper (ok so they were babysitting tonight) did a lot better almost breaking even with KO's for and against and picking up 298 points. The winner in pod one round one was Craig's "I'll Give Them Name Later" team. Sentry™, Spymaster™, Echo™, Ghost™ and the Professor and Wyatt Wingfoot pogs got Craigious Baseballcapious of to a flyer with the all important win and 556 points to boot.

The lesser spotted Craigious Baseballcapious takes to the roof to get a crack at Anthony's team. Too many Green rubber rings and not enough Kobra™ Fanatics for my liking!

NEXT THURSDAY AT MIDDLESBROUGH GAMERS CLUB (26-01-06)

GET A FREE SUPERMAN™ LE HEROCLIX© FIGURE!

Just bring along a new player (who has not took part in an approved play event in the last 6 months) and both you and the new player can receive the free figure just by you showing them how to play Heroclix© Its that easy!

Due to the lack of action, Ste's "My Name is Legion" with Kid Quantum™, Live Wire™, Wildfire™, Brainiac 5™, Chameleon™ and Saturn Girl™ as well as Paul's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" consisting of the Arachnos™; Lord Recluse™, Ghost Widow™, Captain 'hit me with a baseball bat and watch me fall' Mako™ and Black Scorpion™ both picked up a decent 300 points but a defeat in the W/L column.

Its no wonder no one got a KO in - look at that face ... the opposition were mesmerised by Ste's 'I'm a little teapot' (with a broken spout) stance and manical grin! Meanwhile Paul W. does a most impressive job of hiding from the camera once more.

The other pod three players saw a lot more damage all round with Paul A's "Lead By Metal" Titanium Man™, Annhililus™ and Deathstroke™ looking set to score a victory as his point total was 306 thanks to 138 points of destruction. Unfortunately for him a recount by Parry and his "Love Triangle" came to 313, so Batman™, Robin™, Joker™, Lobster Johnson™ and Happy Hogan crept into the win spot in pod three. As all the results came in it turned out to be the 'Group of Death' to pod two's 'Group of Sleep' as Phil had also a decent score of 301 points.

Judge Duck is ambivolent towards Paul A tonight as he does not wish to be accused of "wanting to marry him" again by certian nameless cynics

Craig chose round two to play Disbanded upon his opponents, not an unwise choice with Batman™ and Robin™ on show but it was to no avail. Craig was well and truly Outwitted by his opponent and his frustration became apparent. Whilst Craig escaped with only Echo™ and Wyatt Wingfoot biting the dust he didn't manage to inflict any serious pain and came away with 0 KO points and a total of 262. However, the Outwitting fiend Parry, faired no better notching 38 KO points and a total of 242. The top performance of the top table was delivered by JP clocking up 80 KO points and a round total of 378. This gave JP a 2 - 0 record with 673 points, top spot and a more than fanciable chance of reaching the two player final.

"Today I shall be mostly Outwitting Sentry's Impervious"

A valiant effort by Anthony netted him 304 points, though admittedly 285 of these came from preserving his own team and 19 from swatting the annoying Wasp™. This wasn't enough to take the win though as Paul A's power trio struck the right chord and ammassed a mighty 531 points losing only the Rookie Deathstroke™ this round.

So whats Juggernaut™'s Defence? It seems to have been stolen by the Invisible Woman™

A distinct lack of KO's at the other end of the table (does that make Mr. Hunt the common denominator in the dull games - just wondering?) saw James Pattison score 297 in neither KO'ing nor being KO'ed and Martin similarly not KO anyone but he did suffer KO's blows to Riddler™ and Penguin™.

It was a real shame to see my favourite shark-man Captain Mako™ get pasted during this game but it does seem to be his Heroclix© fate in Middlesbrough.

It was also a shame to see poor Killer Croc™ be abandoned by his team mates so early in agame (see the picture on the right). Is he really that odious?

Paul fails his hide in cover roll and Crimson Duck manages to snap him with the camera ... HA!

Ste was on course for a crack at the Fellowship Award until he was overheard to encourage Paul to run into the open and take a pop at Craig's Sentry™ which would have left the attacker very exposed. Shame on you! He did though manage to stop Craig trying for a second successive tournament win with the innocuous looking shot to take out Ghost™. As it happened this shot and the following tactical manoeuvres saw a seriously close points decision give Paul the win by 18 points. Oh how he laughed as he realised he had been robbed of a second consecutive place in the final. He was even happier to discover that his points total was higher than Paul's opponent for the final, but his 2 - 0 win record made Craig's points total count for nothing.

The McChicken Sandwich Meal Voucher Vulture narrowly fails to book his place in the final. He might have got away with it if it wasn't for you pesky Legion kids!

In fact it was a case of the 'Group of Sleep' depriving JP of the spot as once again pod two proved fairly uneventful as far as KO's were concerned with JP's Moon Kinght™ being the one and only casualty. As Anthony had taken the takedown shot he pulled a last round win with a tight 303 points over James Pattison who was oh so close on 297.

James ended the night with an 0 - 3 record, but that can probably be explained by only KO'ing one pog all night as he only lost one figure all night as well and actually ended with a decent poinst total of 868. A bit more 'Hulk Smash' next time and I can see bright things ahead. Don't be disheartened though, I have a surprise planned for you later!

Martin saw his "Dark Devastation" devastated again as they were all out for 117 (KO's). Parry's Batman™ and Robin™ triumphed over the dastardly Riddler™ and co. but this doesn't explain why the Joker™ was working with Batman™ today. Oh well, that's Heroclix©!

At the other side of the map, Paul struggled to hold back the fits of laughter as Phil decided that the villains must triumoh and proceeded to repeatedly push to attack the Arachnos™ for 2 damage (when he hit ... which wasn't that often). The sacrificial lambs were duly slaughtered meaning Phil collected 171 points to Paul's 422. The joy of Heroclix™ has never been so clearly seen on players faces.

The green rings face off against the orange rings and still there are no Kobra™ Fanatics in sight. Bah! Neither team deserved to reach the final, dishonouring the colours of the kobratastic hoard

If I were a betting man I would probably have backed Parry to take the final win as his team had good Outwit capability coupled with the Batman™ team ability and Stealthers. Evidence of why I should NEVER place a bet on anything was soon found as the pressure of the final seemed to show on Parry and his tactics somewhat faded. Leaving Joker™ exposed on a rooftop and Batman™ and Lobster Johnson™ exposed in the street, Titanium Man™ Deathstroke™ and Annhililus™ thought Christmas had come last as they blasted the opposition from their advantagous longer lange.

Whilst Parry did use his pog to good effect for gelping Joker™ to Mastermind his damage, he then failed to give Joker™ extra backup and relied upon his good defence However when another hit reined in Joker was powerless (pun fully intended) to stop it and he fell to his doom. He wasn't alnoe though as Parry's entire squad were exterminated by the "Lead By Metal" boys before time was called. It was a lot less close in the final than I had anticipated and Paul was triumphant to secure his first ever tournament win. Nice to see and I doub't it will be his last (oh dear, now I will be accused of wanting to marry him again).

Parry's head becomes too much weight for his neck to bear and he requires the use of his fist and elbow as extra support. You see, it isn't as easy in the final as certain people make it look. You are so close and yet so far away from the prize and the glory and the kudos and the ... ridicule!

Judge Duck handed out an extra reward tonight, it was the "First time I have ever seen a full REV set of non generics used on a team" award. This of course went to James Pattison for his Magdelena™ triplets.

Final standings tonight showed a huge variety in perfomance due to the three/four player pods being in place. The final placings were ...

Thanks to everyone as ever for turning up and taking part and making the pod system work at the first time of asking, I may even try that again sometime. I enjoyed the games tonight and really hope you all did too. Stay tuned for more events coming up very soon, same Bat time ... same Bat channel.

Batman™ surveys the area, but soon Joker™, Robin™ and Lobster J will all be gone

First time winner ... Paul Atherton, he looks so happy at having to have his picture taken again doesn't he. JP managed to run off before I got a pic of him though, damn you!