Click on the logo above to go to the updated Boroclix League Table and see the standings after four events. The new leader ... David "Goldenclix" Hansell

The fourth event in the League series of Boroclix Events was scheduled for tonight and it was Blue Ring figures only (non promo Mr Hunt), so no Feats or Bystanders allowed, and was appropriately enough titled "Experienced Encounters". Seemingly in the habit of breaking local records of late, the venue went several better than ever before and broke a stonker of a record tonight with a staggering attendance of twenty players ... yes that's 20 players (all humans too, no dogs or cats involved). That's what you call a good rate of growth from less than 5 regulars in January 2006. As you can see below, we are even getting some younger players to join in now too. If we get a couple more it will be worth running special Junior tournamnets to make sure these guys can pick up a prize or two. The biggest winner tonight may have been the new store that was making a roaring trade in second hand Heroclix doubles "Hunt's Heroclix Skanking Emporium" in the corner of the room. I shouldn't mock really as he kindly gave me a Veteran Shocker for my Sinister Syndicate box.

It's not just us old codgers that can play Heroclix, the young 'uns can have a go too!

ROUND ONE

Such a big crowd turned up tonight that they were so spread out I couldn't fit them all into one frame for a photograph, not complaining ... just bragging!

The randomised first round draw always throws up a stonker or two and tonight the pick of the first round matches saw arch rivals Ste Date and Martin Teece drawn together, I swear if this keeps happening I am going to make them wear arch enemy bases on their feet. True to recent form, this wasn't so much a game as a reconstruction of the charge of the Light Brigade as Martin scored a very measilly 8 points for KO'ing a Moloid and saw Dr. Mid-Nite repeatedly heal up Black Adam. Obsidian and Red Tornado seemed almost irrelevant as Black Adam Hypersoniced around the map picking up objects and smashing them over Martin's character's heads never too far from Dr. Mid-Nite and his healing hands. Martin's "What's Pyro Up To?" with Joker, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask, Pyro and Cheetah didn't stand a snowball in hell's chance, they were lambs to the slaughter and Ste's "X-JSA" certainly knew how to slaughter.

Ste Hunt's first Approved Play game in Middlesbrough since become the new 'unofficial' UK Heroclix Champion was against a new guy to the venue and tournament play Liam Crilley. Ste's "Check 1-2" (what no Craig McLachlan) saw a Checkmate Agent and four Medics in support of Arsenal, Deathstroke, Mr. Terrific and Fire. In opposition to this awesome force was"JLaT" with another Arsenal (two in fact) Superboy and Powergirl on the newbies force. Ste had to do a fair bit of explaining as he played this match due to his opponents inexperience, but as ever he took this in his stide and tried to be as helpful as possible. Liam managed to KO 103 points of Ste's force but Ste won by virtue of his 299 points of KOs and 178 points of remaining squad.

Another new player, this one courtesy of last weeks New Guy Night used his "America's Greatest" of Kingpin, Rogue, Spider-Man, Katana, Captain America and Black Mask against the now relatively experienced in comparison Paul Spencelayh. Paul's force or "Royal Blues" as he named them consisted of Doomsday, Captain America (hmmm, Cap on Cap action eh?), a SWAT Specialist and an Intergang Medic. Paul's extra knowledge and experience helped him pull out a first round win on points as he only lost the SWAT Specialist and retained the rest of his squad. Unfortunately for Paul, he didn't quite have the killer instinct to score a huge number of KO's and go play with the big boys in Round Two. Actually that's probably a good thing as he managed to avoid the real cut-throats types.

David Hansell, promising a return to his previous 'Goldenclix' form combined Quicksilver, Cheetah, Marvel Girl, Deathstroke (not Slade! I know that's his real name, but it is not the name on his dial) and Executioner to form "SAS" (Stealth & Speed). His first victim, ahem opponent tonight was Parry 's "Brotherly Love". Sweet name, you should have done that for the event with the prize for best named team. "Brotherly Love" saw Sinestro and Green Lantern joined by Star-Spangled Kid for a somewhat small looking team at 294 points. David's promise of being back sure looked to be accurate as he chopped and smashed his way through Parry's small squad and soon left nothing in his wake. Parry did manage to KO Cheetah, but that's scant consolation really is it? He's back ... look out Heroclixers!

Paul Crosby has been in fine form lately too and he looked to continue his impressive streak with "Destined To Damage" tonight, using Blockbuster, Cheetah and Blackfore to do the damage, Johnny Alpha to TK and Destiny for her inavluable Probability Control. Showing his true killer instinct (NOT) he even applied the Madness BFC to his first round match against Peter Davies. Peter's "Boys In Blue" (ahhhh flashback of god awful Cannon & Ball movie) was Batman, Blue Devil, Impulse and Elongated Man and they really had a bad day at the office as Paul crushed them to a whitewash. Good sport Peter kept a smile on his face though.

Another new guy in tonight's masses was Simon Fox, though looking at his performance on the night I am suspicious he was a ringer (just kidding, but you did play awfully well). Simon's "Random Band of Power" was lead ably by Firelord with Batman, Cheetah, Dr. Mid-Nite and a Hive Trooper for company. Simon's first match saw him take on Anthony Prior's "Wooooo!" with Hulk (yes Hulk), Spoiler, Wolfsbane, Red Tornado and Human Torch. As mentioned, Simon looked anything but a newb as he set straight to work in impressive form. Here he went without a BFC but still pulled in a win with 540 points losing only Cheetah, hmmm sounds a familiar story.

Paul Brown's "Terrible Trio" consisted on Darkseid and OMAC and Fire and they were drawn against Dale's "Dr. Blackburn" (I assume from the team make-up rather than a homage to Tony). "Dr. Blackburn" with Blackfire twins, Quicksilver, Pyro, Dr. Mid-Nite a Hive Trooper and a Skrull Agent didn't see the Overconfidence that Paul sent them make much impact on their ability as they also had a very good round one losing only Pyro and the Skrull and KOing all but the OMAC. Paul hoped for better points in the later rounds, but even 83 was more than some people could manage.

The tightest tie of the round, if not the night was between Liam Cooke and Simon Swinbank's "The Scrounged Up In The Pub Team O'Doom" (honest being the best policy here?). No BFC's meant it was straight slug fest between Simon's Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Psylocke, Blackfire (ever popular tonight like Cheetah) and Vixen and Liam's Sinister looking Kingpin, Hobgoblin, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Venom and Shocker ... definately my favourite team of the night, nice one Liam. As time was called this table honestly didn't know who had won until the points were totalled. As it happened Simon had 187 KOs and 130 remaining to Liam's 170 KO's and 106 remaining, so by a narrow margin Simon picked up his forst Win for the night.

Craig Woolnough had once again torn himself from his PC (with new graphics card) and World of Warcraft to try to bump his League placing back up after missing the last Boroclix Event. His "Chop Chase" with Johnny Alpha, Taskmaster (hoorah) Magdelena (two of), Deathstroke and Hawkeye had the pleasure of a first round tie against Alec Barrett's "Iron & Claws" that saw Iron MAn, Titanium Man, Cheetah and a Paramedic join forces. Craig's recent break from Heroclix and social interaction didn't seem to have too much impact for this round as he used Deep Shadows to good effect and gave Alec something of a trouncing with all that Stealth. Could Craig be headed back to the top of the League (obviously not - I told you who was leading at the top of this report you idiot!

The last game this round (as my fingers begin to bleed from all the typing) saw two more players coming back from New Guy Night proving that the sucess of this promotion does indeed continue after the weeks give-aways. Young Heroclix padawan (couldn't resist that line) Christopher Larkman became the youngest player to enter an Approved Play event in Middlesbrough at the tender age of eleven (he is 12 next month) and his "Dudes" were drawn against Dominic Dodds' "Hippy" for their and his first ever game. Chris's Judge Fear twins, Wolverine, Abbey Chase, Sentinel Trooper and Hobgoblin struggled against Superman Red (not surprisingly), Starfire (oooh lots of Arch Enemies for you later), Ice and Sabretooth. Not disgraced Chris managed to score 39 points from a surviving Hobgoblin ... that's 39 points more than someone got in an event once isn't it Liam?

Even here we can't sqeeze all the players into shot, but if you squint and look carefully you can just about make out someone not playing Heroclix in the distance ... wayyyy in the distance, LOL

ROUND TWO

Peter Davies ponders his next move and the crowd in the background gives an indication of the size the Middlesbrough Gamers Club venue has now grown to

Top of the ten winners for Round Two were Paul Crosby (595) and Ste Date (575), so they faced each other on table number one. Ste chose to go without a BFC so the Ordinary Day provided by paul was a little wasted. Fairing somewhat better than Martin had Paul managed to KO the Moloid, but also added the scalps of Obsidian and Dr. Mid-Nite. However Black Adam, with the help of his friend Dr. Mid-Nite proved too hot to handle as he rampaged around the board picking up objects and smacking them over Paul's character's heads at Hypersonic Speed. Ste ensured a 2 - 0 scorecard after 2 rounds by obliterating Paul's whole team, mostly with Black Adam and the afore mentioned hypersonic boinking with objects. See what happens when you do too well in the forst round Paul? Oh well at least its a nice addition to your League Points already.

Next in line down the tables were Dominic Dodds (558) and Simon Fox (540) after both had great sucess in their earlier matches. Simon must have got some good teaching from David and Dale as he did another demolition act this round and his "Random Band of Power" looked anything but random as this time round he lost nothing whilst inflicting a whitewash on poor Anthony, what a way to go after such a good round one result. "Hippy" wasn't Happy, but Simon was simply exstatic as his Power Dampening Field helped to take him way out in front on points.

David Hansell's "SAS" faced Craig Woolnough and the "Chop Chop" squad for his second rounder. Craig did his usual trick of playing the Debris BFC and not having enough tokens (damn you man, bring more objects if you are playing Debris!) whilst David throw out a Disbanded so those nice +1 attacks weren't going to get in the way from Johnny Alpha's Team Ability. Dave gave yet more proof that 'Goldenclix' was indeed back as he again took no prisoners as he rampaged into Craig's hastilly assembled squad (proper prior preparation prevents poor performace) and once again only lost Cheetah whilst inflicting mass chaotic damage ... a theme definately developing here. Looking strong after two matched David, but Ste D has an obscene recent record and you may just meet him in the next round or the final.

Ste Hunt and Dale de Andrade's good first round wins lead them on a path to face each other in Round Two. A tough second round challenge for the impressive Dale, though Ste's choice of team was definately from the 'friendly and fun' box rather than Hunt's Hardcore Heroes. "Check 1 - 2"'s biggest claim to fame from this match was that they managed to KO 62 points, though I'm not sure if it were 62 points of Blackfire of Quicksilver. In the meantime Dale's "Dr. Blackburn" had proved a big hit again and risen up the charts as he cleaned up Ste's team with surgical precision. The Madness BFC further showed Ste's emphasis on fun play tonight or at least it may have if Dale hadn't played an Ordinary Day damn him. Judge Duck is beginning to panic ... if Hunt plays fun themey teams every week I will HAVE to award him a Fellowship Prize at some point!

Paul Spencelayh's previous gaming experience has helped him to get into a decent level of play in Heroclix very quckly and his first round win again today saw him come up against a strong begged, borrowed and stolen (ok not stole, I hope) team thrown together by Simon Swinbank. Simon certain got the upper hand with his "The Scrounged Up In The Pub Team O'Doom" here as he made short work of each and every one of Paul's team only stopping to give a brief memorial service for the Metamorpho who was lost in battle. Another strong round for Simon saw him with every chance of reaching the final with a good third round showing, though of course the field of likely opposition was narrowing to the nastiest and most hardcore teams now too. The "Royal Blues" and Paul meanwhile could be happy in the knowledge that thier third round challenger was likely to be rather less deadly and rampant than Simon had been.

Of course as well as ten winners in Round One, we also had to have ten losers to face each other in the next round. Top of the flops (oh that's harsh) at 11th and 12th position were the ever nameless characters of Liam Cooke and Jonathan McNamara's "America's Greatest". Liam made amends for his earlier loss by using his bunch of Spdier-Man bad guys to take out his hotch-potch opposition. One Kingpin won as another lost and soon we will see a strange Kingpin (he of Hell's Kitchen) as the Sinister Marquee brings a highly sought after LE figure to town. Liam looking to make up for his unforgetable showing in the last Boroclix Event (and not in a good way) just about washed it out of his system with this near 600 point victory as his greater experience took its toll on the new guy. Go Shocker and Mysterio!

Meanwhile the other Liam, as we had two tonight, was taking on Paul Brown in his second round tussle. It wasn't the best draw Liam could have hoped for as Basher Brown went for all out war and annhilation. The youngster was certainly given a hard lesson in the school of losing your characters as Paul's "Terrible Trio" made up for the lost ground of his first round defeat by marking the second round with a whitewash. Looking to improve his league points and position was obviouslt the priority for Paul as Liams "JLaT" wasn't even allowed to KO Flame for a few free points. Its a hard life for newcomers when the old hands show no mercy!

Alec Barrett's first round 76 points saw him face Anthony Prior who managed just 45 (one of two players on that score after one game) for his second match. Alec's "Iron & Claws" saw Iron Man and Titanium Man have a lot more success this time round as Anthony's "Wooooo!" were squeeling in shock rather than excitement. The Paramedic didn't manage to survive until the end to see out a whitewash, but other than that the team remained intact until the end as the metal men and Cheetah dealt out their own brand of punishment. Total number of points for Alec after 2 games ... 666. He's just a couple of weeks to late to really spook me out and make a claim to be the new anti-christ. If he had done this on the 6th June, just 18 days ago I think I may have ran out of the building screaming, especially as those numbers are also on his head. Just kidding there aren't really on his head, they are on his inner thigh (so I hear ... I have never actually seen his inner thigh ... no really I haven't).

Liam's brother Parry had faired even worse than his brother in the first phase of tonight's event as he picked up only 45 points with his "Brotherly Love" team. Due to the way the Swiss pairings work he still managed to play a player with less points than himself for round two as he took on the youngster Christopher Larkman's mostly Indyclix "Dudes". Poor Christopher, in similar fashion to Liam Crilley, had no mercy shown to take account of his inexperience and Parry crushed his force like a sand castle in a hurricane. Another new guy whitewash shows that the League isn't bringing out the best in people's sporting behaviours. I hope these new guys still come back after their hammerings. Parry managed to claw an extra 594 points out of this one.

It was hardly surprising to eith Martin or Peter that they ended up on the bottom table after they had recieved something of a mauling in their first games (that's a pair of maulings then) and got a combined total of 8 points, all of which were on Martin's scorecard. Not the most auspicious start for the current Boroclix League leader (Martin) but surely things would improve this time round? Well in a manner of speaking, yes things did improve. They improved in the way that saw Martin score 109 points more than he had done in the earlier round, the bad news was that that was still only 117 points and his second consecutive loss. Is there a curse on the league leadership I begin to wonder? Peter meanwhile was highly satisfied at pulling back to 1 - 1 and scoring 462 points more than last time as Batman, Blue Devil, Impulse and Elongated Man's "Boys In Blue" triumphed in fine style.

Ste Date ... taking no prisoners with his light blue ringed "X -SA". Meanwhile David Hansell commentates on his match through an imaginary microphone in the backround (look carefully!)

ROUND THREE

Simon looks to be literally pulling his hair out as he struggles to get to grips with Paul Crosby's team and tactics whilst Martin uncharacteristically ends with an 0 and 3 after losing to Paul Spencelah

With the huge turnout today nothing short of three wins and a great score would be enough to reach the final. Ste Date, who seems to have been camped on the top table for the last three months, this time had the challenge of Dale to try to see off to reach his 5th consecutive Thursday final (in those events he has attended). In another Black Adam lead onslaught we saw an outcome reminiscent of the first round Martin massacre as only 8 points were gained against the "X-JSA". Highlight of the match and possible the night though belonged to the Moloid squeeling "Stand still damn you" as it critically hit Quicksilver for two damage knocking him off his Hypersonic Speed, before its unfortunate demise. Dale's Poor Teamwork prevented Black Adam from being TK'ed and on the face of it seemed a great BFC choice, whilst Ste's Disbanded stopped the Skrull Team Ability and free move Hypersonic attacks, in the end though neither was game breaking as Black Adam ruled the world once more. Needless to say after collecting another 580 points Ste had reached another final with 1487 points total.

Table two saw an interesting contest as newcomer Simon Fox played against his friend and Heroclix mentor to reach the second final spot. Could he emulate David's achievement of reaching the final in his first ever event or would David prove too strong and march on into his fifth final? Asking Dale's opinion (as he has seen them play many times) ellucidated that it should be a close match and if anything Simon had the edge as his "Random Band of Power" team was "slightly better". Dale proved to be as good at predicting Heroclix results as I when when David's "SAS" stormed out of the blocks to assault Simon's squad. It was a fair old scrap, but David's well constructed and deadly force (which I experienced first hand and at close quaters last week) had the edge and won on points. Still a very decent showing by Simon, if you become a regular I imagine it's only a matter of time before you too reach a final and kick some butt. David had the pleasure of trying to put an end to Ste Date's reign of doom and good luck to him, he would need it.

Outsider to reach the final from table three had been Simon Swinbank who had also scored two wins but a few less points than the others left him playing Paul Crosby on table three for his chance. Paul was armed with a McDonald's take out due to the lack of cafeteria service at the club tonight, how off-putting for his opponent that must have been! Paul's "Desined to Damage" fulfilled their destiny again this game BIG STYLE as they clocked up a top possible score of 600 points with their whitewash thus ending Simon's march and final challenge in a very grand manner. Simon still had a decent points total from his early rounds but was very disappointed to have his hopes dashed in such dramatic and devasting fashion by Paul and especially when there was no Magneto or Norman Osbone in sight (perhaps they are holidaying together?). Paul scuppering Simon's chances guaranteed the Daveid Hansell versus Ste Date final.

Battling for points to inprove their standings on table four were Alec Barrett's "Iron & Claws" and Paul Brown's "Terrible Trio". If I were a betting man I would probably have given Alec the edge with the fact that he had a paramedic, having said that OMACs can regenerate too. Proving my knowledge of future Heroclix results is as poor as much of my tactical play Paul Bron took this match in his stride and won on points. Alec managed to KO the OMAC and Flame but Darkseid proved a bridge too far and swept up Alec's remnants to give Paul a handy final total of 1177 points. Alec wasn't totally disheartened with his 1 - 2 record though as he had bageed an fairly impressive 799 points, which isnt too bad for a 1 - 2 record.

As has now become more inevitable than a 'Battle of the Stes' Parry and Liam were matched for Round Three so they could take part in the Cook family challenge (I don't make these up, its all in the points totals).Coming into this match Liam's nameless ones had a slim 50 point lead over his brother's "Brotherly Love" and he also had a more balanced looking squad but with less in the way of heavy hitting. I wish I had have got to watch this match in its entirity as both competitors got stcuk into each other and bashed or blew away anything in sight ... this is the way the game should be played so well done you two! As Mysterio and the Kingpin managed to survive the bloodback on this table Liam took the win on points with 380 this game for a grand total of 1060. A grand total indeed as it was 1060 more than the last total he got at a League event.

Craig Woolnough's hastilly assembled "Chop Chop" didn't do his skills justice so he was looking to go out on a high against a new opponent in Dominic Dodds for his last match. Dominic may have been new, but he had other ideas and also fancied finishing with a 2 - 1 record with his Superman Red, Starfire, Ice and Sabretooth. Dominic's "Hippy" took the spoils in this game though it was another tight and hard fought match with Craig managing to score a KO blow on all but Starfire before his force was eradicated. Craig's 786 points total wasn't a complete disaster, but it did see him start to lose touch with the league leader a little mor ethan he would have hoped.

Martin Teece rounded off a thoroughly miserable event as he lost to Paul Spencelayh's "Boys In Blue" in a closer than close match, but one that still left his scorecard reading W 0 - L 3. Only 27 points separated winner from loser as Paul's only remaining figure at the end of the match was ... an 18 point SWAT Specialist. Now that's a close and fun game whatever the outcome surely? Its also a stange cycle completed for the "Boys In Blue" as in their first match the SWAT Specialist was the only character to be KO'ed. Bragging rights for being top of the League are definately witheld from Martin until further notice after tonight (the forseeable future in fact on this showing). The burning question on all of our lips now ... "What Was Pyro Up To?".

Stephen Hunt and Peter Davies are often found at opposite ends of the standings and thus the room for the third round matches, but not tonight so they saw a rare match against each other with "The Boys In Blue" coming up against the bold creation of "Check 1 -2" (surely fully knowing I would have to mention Craig McLoughlan at least twice is this write up). In a game described by the current UK Champion as "a great laugh and very enjoyable" Peter played the only way he knows how to and the way the game is most fun, going for the jugular (and often missing!). Peter didn't manage the second win that would have given him a finishing postion above 'Hardcore' (please feel free to use this name for the Huntmeister, he deserves it after winning an event with 50 + players, the second in two days, even though he had claimed he was taking it easy and just playing for fun that time round). So Hunt managed a respectable 2 - 1 and over a 1000 points despite his less than deadly team selection. I give you HARDCORE, the man, the myth, the monster! : )

Jonathan McNamara had to leave early as his ride home arrived so Liam Crilley scored a Bye this game and that unfortunately left Jonathan with 3 loses. On the plus side its a performance he should be able to improve on (especially if I run a Junior Event or two).

The last game of the Swiss Rounds (to be described as obviously each rounds games are all played out at the same time) saw Anthony Prior break his duck against Christopher Larkman. Even better news for Anthony was the perfect 600 his "Wooooo!" managed to amass against the "Dudes" who weren't having to much of it their way tonight, but its tough enough when your new and inexperienced and even harder when you are a youngster too. If we see the youngsters coming back a couple more times I will definately sort out a Juniors only event so they can have things their way for a change. Must acquire more LE prizes for you guys! (PLEASE Wizkids, begging begins).

FINAL

So tonight's final saw the first meeting of Ste Date and David Hansell in a final, though they have met several times in rounds leading up to the main event. I didn't fancy David's chances of taking out Black Adam with the one man medical support team behind him and for once my prediction was about spot on. Ste had saved his Ordinary Day BFC card for the final but as it happened it cancelled out nothing as Dave was left with only a proxy. Dave's cunning strategic mind did enable him to avoid a severe hammering as he managed 176 points of KO's, but the night and the prize once again belonged to Ste Date, destroyer of dreams, and the Tornado Tyrant LE was his to take home.

For the might sporting way he played with a continuous smile and always looking to learn Paul Spencelayh was awarded the Fellowship Prize so he got a spanking new Tornado Tyrant LE too. Well do Paul, keep smiling and showing how games should be played, win lose or draw (actually you can't draw so forget that part of the previous statement).

The final standings after three Swiss Rounds read as follows ...