Having noticed that half the exhaust was hanging off my car (well ok the wife did as she pulled onto the drive) and having a minor panic I managed to forget my camera again so it was back to the mobile phone for these few piccies and some more improvisation. It was a great event tonight with some very interesting games, here is a slighty more rounded event review ...

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James Phoenix was left cursing his luck once again as he was paired with Ste Hunt for his first round battle, he must be sick of the sight of Lex Junior by now. Anyway James "X +1 and a Bit" with Karma, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Marrow and a Paramedic (the one and a bit?) was facing across from the Avenger-tastic "Babes, Capes and a Butler" consiting of Angelica Jones, Wasp, Tigra, Marc Spector and Black Panther with both players electing to use placeholder cards in lieu of a BFC. The Huntmeister's superior experience and thus tactical nouse once again shone through as he took the game to JP, but on this occassion at least JP managed to KO one of his opponents, namely Black Panther (I think, but I can't quite work it out). JP's day will come, or maybe Huntmeister could team up with you in the forthcoming 2P v 2P event?

Parry Cooke's matches began with a toughie against the quick learning David Hansell's "My Sword's Bigger". Parry's imaginative title this week's was "Blades" for Jean Grey, Cheetah (Life Model Decoy), Wolverine (Ambush) and Speedy. David's Destiny, Scarlet Witch, Deathstroke, Karma and Jonah Hex looked and played strong and were way too much for Parry to handle as despite the loss of the Scarlet Witch this round, David scored 199 points of KO's to mark up a win and hand Parry a defeat on his Ordinary Day. As we will see, it wasn't a great night for the twins of Cooke.

Liam hadn't bothered giving his team a name tonight, so no change there then other than he wouldn't stand a chance to win the LE for 'Best Team Name' tonight. He wasn't too lucky with his first round draw either as he pulled Ste Date and "The Amazing Spider-Dude" 'out of the bag. Ste didn't play a BFC (read didn't need to bother) so Liam's Ordinary Day was a little wasted, but he wasn't to know that until they were revealed I suppose. Ste started this tournament in the way he is now accustomed to with his recent killing streak and he disposed of poor Liam without suffering any KO's. Whitewash is a word that Liam is now becoming all too familiar with and not a word he likes too much. Ste obviously jumped straight out in front with this result.

Paul Crosby had collected together Plastic Man, 2x Cheetah, 2x Destiny and Elektra into "C.D.E.D.C. Mail" for his first round clash with Martin Teece's "2 Blades + 5 Colours On His Dial". Martin's team saw Lizard, Sabretooth, Jean Grey, Dr. Mid-Nite, Destiny and Detective Chimp join forces to fight for the combined DC/Marvel Universe and they did so with a strong conviction in this early round. Paul managed a Liam-esque nil points that was most unlike Scandanavian Death Metal and didn't really help his League tally a great deal. Martin on the other hand was now hot on the heals of absent leader Craig with a smashing 394 points in the bag already.

Dale de Andrade's Hive Trooper, Guardian, Pyro, Mystique, Ragman and Scarlet Witch were subtlely renamed prior to their first battle from "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" to "Sisters Are Doing It With Their Freinds". The change of moniker certainly seemed to do the trick as he worked his little Probability Controlling Magic on Alec's "Odd Job". With no BFC in play from either player, Alec's Cheetah, Speedy, Johnny Alpha, Banshee and Firestar just couldn't quite manage to consistently roll hits with the Probability Controller in the air and Dale managed a narrow win, but a win non-the-less. Winning seems to be a habit Dale is getting used to of late.

The final first round bash fest saw Phil Guba's "Blades, Claws and Ghosts?" combine the DC and Marvel Universes once more as Azrael, Wendigo, Ravager, Ghost and Cheetah were joined together. Opposite them stood a fully Marvel-ous team built to the "Over Run" specification by Peter Davies. Peter's squad had 6 Hand Ninja (awesome) a Con Artist (less so), Doctor Octopus, Domino (no spots) and Viper (the venemous vixen) melded together into a potentially fierce force, but he needed a little time tonight to get used to the possibilities and started slowly. He didn't see a first round whitewash thanks to the KO'ing of Cheetah, but that was the one brief highlight as he lost his entire force and suffered first round defeat. Neither player using a BFC seemed to have been something of a Round One trend.

Half the players lined up and ready for their First Round poundings (some would be giving the poundings, whilst others would be taking them)

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Stephen Hunt also had a very familiar opponent for his Second Round rumble, he faced David Hansell's "My Sword's Bigger" once again. David cunningly Disbanded Ste's team so they could not be tempted to share Wasp's Defence (the lack of Thunderbolts obviously not impacting on his plans), whilst Ste played Inertial Interference Field to scupper Jonah Hex's Running Shot. In one of the most entertaining (and pretty close too) matches of the night Ste just about triumphed as he wiped out David's team and retained Marc Spector and Black Panther for the whole game thanks in the main to their Stealth. Nice try David, but on this occassion Huntmeister just about scraped through.

Dale's second battle for his Sisters and Friends was against the Red Skull led "Misfits" of Paul Brown. Dale was on fine form again tonight and thanks to Pyro and his Energy Explosions, not to mention another dose of Probability Control he managed to see off Paul's challenge with minimal damage sustained. He didn't mamage to KO the entire enemy squad as there was one figure left as time was called (though Red Skull or Impulse I can't recall as the both have the same point value), but having lost only Guardian and Ragman he tallied enough to take the win on points.

Magneto-less Paul Crosby, denied his metal manipulating friend due to the low points stipulation for this week this time had the manic Plastic Man LE (mailbox) as he figurehead and he was looking to 'bounce' back from his first round loss by beating Liam in his next encounter. Liam's awful dice rolls and bad luck continued as he saw a second sucessive whitewash. Even the Astral Plane he wanted didn't work out as Paul's Ordinary Day meant it was a fight on a more corporeal plane for Liam. Was Liam headed for the first ever nil point Swiss Round threesome in Middlesbrough history? If he was, then this wasn't the best day to do it with League Points on the line here too. Oh dear Liam, if you are going to keep using the X-Men maybe Jean Grey would be of some use?

James Phoenix and "X +1 and a Bit". having made a poor start, looked to improve their form in Round Two against Parry Cooke. JP must have dispaired at his first round opponent for his record againt the Huntmeister doesn't make good bed time reading for JP ... unless he wants to have nightmares. However his attempt to beat Parry with his Assembled team didn't go as badly as his first game, not by a long way and he was able to mark a W in the W/L column as he managed a KO on all of Parry's team and even managed to retain Marrow and Wolverine at the end of the battle. Alas Parry with his Madness was now 0 - 2 with only 146 points from his first two matches and not doing a lot to gather much needed League Points.

James Pattison tried to achieve a second consecutive win against Phil Guba with his "Cult of Sister Magdalena" which was proving a pretty strong outfit so far. However Phil's "Blades Claws and Ghosts" weren't just their to make up the numbers either and he had something to say about that himself. Guba's Armor Wars was in effect as Patto elected to play without a BFC this round. Wendigo and Ghost proved to be joint MVP's in this match as they cut and thumped their way through Magdalenas for fun. Patto managed to pick up 117 points of KO's for his efforts, but the win belonged to Guba who is on an impressive run himself after making last weeks final (only to be cruely denied a win by my Cheeselord and Toast Widow nastiness (a Cheese on Toast Theme Team? )).

Peter Davies was still taking some time to understand the dynamics of his team in Round Two as he took on Alec and the "Odd Job" (I seem to remember that being a ropey James Bond villain in a bowler hat). Improving on his First Round escapades a little, Peter managed to score 99 KO points this time round, but Alec improved on his League Point tally and notched up his first win tonight as he saw off the ninja menace and their villainous rookie generals.

Martin still camped in his start zone with the 'Minions of Date' fast closing in. The hold out tactics were worth a try, but in the end bad dice rolls and a lack of hitting power saw Martin fall foul of Ste once again despite the magic pencil in the ear routine

The rest of the Heroclix Community of Middlesbrough looking to work their way up the points total and win some prizes. What a great bunch we now have (and a very sizeable group too with an average attendance of ten to twelve each week these days)

Feat of the day has to be Pounce ... and a fine example of how to enhance an average to good character to make them a fearsome foe too. Hopefully this display will have some of the other players wondering how they can use Feats to their best advantage now

The eternal struggle of a match between Huntmeister and Dale was no less thrilling, in fact it was probably an even bigger cliffhanger ending. As many of the characters were knocked out the battle came down to Angelica Jones, badly wounded and an unhurt 19 defence Wasp against Ragman, a hurt Pyro and Scarlet Witch. After what seemed like an eternity of attacks and misses, Angelica fell and soon after Ragman followed. Finally Dale took the win by a slender, slender margin despite Hunt's Avengers being Assembled in one of the best Heroclix matches witnessed at this venue, well done chaps.

Just below the top spot matches David Hansell fought James Pattison for more valuable League Points and a potential top three placing. If Patto had had his way Madness would have ensued once more ... a very popular choice here, but alas David made it yet another Ordinary Day. The Church of the Magdalena Cult must have done something to annoy the gods they worship mid event tonight because they didn't get much joy in their last game as Hulking Hansell took Patto to the cleaners to earn a big fat whitewash, third place and a tasty total to add to his Boroclix League Points score. 'Goldenclix' may just be back!

At this stage Paul Crosby and Martin Teece had identical points totals and win records, but they had already played each other so Paul Crosby got to take on Alec for his last game. Alec actually managed to get a great score tonight after a slightly shaky start but he rounded off the night with a solid win only losing 86 of the points potentially on offer to clinch a top half finish. Paul had a rollercoaster of an event going L, W, L which just shows what can happen in the wonderful world of Heroclix ... he may be able to use Magneto again next time round though! Hail the lord of manetism.

Martin looked like he might pull another 'Teece' (see previous match reports) again tonight but thanks to a Round Three face off against James Phoenix managed to recover well after his second round massacre. In fact he managed to complately turn this whitewash round for his third match as he turned poor JP into a lamb to the slaughter and in the process got enough points to leapfrog the absent league leader (Craig) and jump into top spot after three events so far. The second time he has been in the top spot and something over the reverse rollercoaster ride to Paul ... were they on opposite tracks? JP's unfortunate demise in round three didn't help him get any extra points but his consistent attendance has kept him up there and in with a shout with plenty of events still to play out.

With Parry and Paul Brown both looking to pick up a first win and ideally a few points to go with it something had to give and someone's bad run had to end. Parry's Earthquake seemed an odd choice when his Jean Grey, Cheetah, Wolverine and Speedy were all grounded - so his full team then ... this made Paul's Rally seem an altogether more sensible choice. Parry rounded off a thoroughly miserable day by completing a hat trick of defeats as he managed to pick up a measilly 97 points, but he still finished 'a lot of points' above his brother who had a worse day.

Liam (nil points as he will no doubt be known for the forseeable future (are you a Gemini Liam?)) got 0 points again. I wont dwell on it, poor chap. On the plus side, the ninja had got their engine started and revved up a tasty 399 points this game. Sorry Liam, thats nil points (in a dodgy French accent).

Round Three gets underway and the two big matches are at the far end of these tables seeing Ste Hunt v Dale de Andrade and Ste Date V Phil Guba for places in the final

Poor Liam's scoresheet for this evening, if you look really closely you can see the sequence of 0's accross the score column, poor, poor Liam ... at least it hasn't be highlighted, discussed and shown of the web ... D'OH!

Dale was awarded Fellowship for two good games and a nice friendly manner, pipping Liam to the post. Liam will get something for his endeavours though, as well as the lack of respect, laughter and humiliation I mean (that will all blow over in a few months I am sure). Guba was awarded an extra LE for the 'Best Team Name' Award for the "Blades Claws and Ghosts" team and the night was over.

Thanks to the players for making it a great event, some really good matches this week. Look out for the 'Pole Dancing' Spider-Man figure coming soon at New Guy Night III (15th June to be specific), so bring along a friend and reep the rewards of Approved Play.

Dale fell a Probability Control (or two) short this week and was the losing finalist, but he was at least able to console himself with the Fellowship Award for sporting and fun play

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