It was another night with none of the early Heroclix pace setters as Ste Hunt had to work, Ste Date was recovering from flu and Craig was at an 18th Birthday party. Dave Smith will have been in bed as he is up at the crack of dawn each morning being a postie! We still had a very impressive eleven players turn out to battle for the Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) LEs on offer though and it was a night of fine Heroclix entertainment. The only downside being that we had to see a player sit out on a bye each round, but them's the breaks I suppose. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by the lack of Batman teams involved tonight. After last weeks good showing I expected to see a glut for this 200 point single Team Ability (or Unaffiliated) game, but there were in fact none. Hoorah for all the players for trying something different. Ok on with the event report ...

A decent showing tonight even with several regulars missing. We got eleven players, which is only 34,611 less than Boro got for their UEFA Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg

Match one was between Martin Teece and Alec Barret. Martin's Batman Enemy "Yami 'Hide & Seekers'" with poison, poison and more poison in the form of two Jokers and a Cheshire subdued Alec's "Mankillers" by leeching away their life as they hid in the bushes. Blackfire, Cheetah and White Queen tried to retaliate but the combination of two Outwits and three Poisons proved pretty darn deadly and Martin got 400 points to Alec's zero.

Paul Crosby definately won the quickest team sheet filling in award tonight as his "The Man In The Flying Chair" Brotherhood Team consisted of Magneto. Ok, Magneto and Armor Piercing to be exact, but he was a one man band. Magneto's first round opponents were Simon Swinbank's "The Death Hunters" (as in they were hunting for death?) with no Team Affiliation for the Rookie Manhunter twins, Deathstroke and Blue Devil, what a colourful combination they were. Unfortunately colours of the raibow and outdated fashion sense counted for nothing tonight or Simon's squad would have walked this round, instead the mighty Magneto through a few Pulse Waves and his nast damage destroyed "The Death Hunters", so I suppose their mission was a complete success?

Joseph Dollery was back for a game of clix tonight after a lengthy break from the game as I recall. Jo's "The Slapstcks" showed off two Elekra, a Bullseye (yay Bullseye), Blade, Silver Sable and Abomination and so were obviously flying the Unaffiliated Flag tonight. Opposite them for round one was David "Golden Clix" Hansell, who can do know wrong with a handful of clix and a blue clicky ring, wielding the awesome might of "The Brotherhood of Me" sporting the red symbol of the Brotherhood TA. It was Joseph that was on the wrong side of this map's whitewash as he just couldn't do enough consecutive hits to outfox Destiny and Scarlet Hag's dual Probability Controlling.

Yet another new tournament entrant tonight as Paul Spencelayh made a long awaited introduction to the Approved Play scene after joining us at a new guy night several weeks ago. Paul's "The Exasperators" collected Wade Wilson with Auto Regeneration (good call), Black Panther, Georges Baptiste and a Justin Hammer pog as another Unaffiliated entry team. Paul first opponent for a competitive game of clix was Phil Guba, another player back from a lengthy break, also using an Unaffiliated team. Phil's "The Doctor Is Cheetahing" comprised Doctor Fate, Cheetah (I bet you guessed that one), Ghost and Ravager with all but the Veteran Cheetah being the yellow-ringed Rookie versions. An early unexpected Charge with Blades/Claws/Fangs caught Paul unaware and he never really recovered despite some Regen'ing from Georges so Guba took this whitewash in his favour.

The final first round match-up saw Dale de Andare's "Titans Go!", which would you believe were all Teen Titans, take on Peter Davies "Peter's Avengers" who were all Mystics. Ok, I told a bit of a fib there, they were all Avengers, as I am sure you had already guessed, as the lined up with Spider-Woman, Meteorite and Captain America. Dale's Beastboy, Starfire, Arsenal (who incidenatally are another English football club also playing in a European final this season) and Speedy certainly 'went' to town on Peter's Avengers and the ranged supremacy won the day as yet another whitewash was seen and Peter was on the wrong end of it.

So more whitewash than an old picket fence in 1920's New England tonight in the first round. Master of the first round bye, as he seems to get lumbered with them more than anyone else, James Phoenix didn't get to play in this round, but on the plus side at least he didn't get whitewashed!

Martin shows good early form again as he takes Alec to the cleaners

Newb Paul Spencelayh learns a few quick lessons at the hands of the Guba monster

Magneto, or 'Eric No Mates' as he shall now be known, shows how to be your own team without even leaving the comfort of your favourite armchair as he inflicts a whitewash upon Simon's colourful fashion victims. Nice to see the colour of his drink matches Deathstrokes costume. It's the little things that keep me amused ... like reaching UEFA Cup Finals for example!

Table two saw David Hansell's Brotherhood team go toe to toe with their Mentor and Leader, the mighty Magneto (in his flying commode). Seeing this set up on the board reminded me of the quite good 'House of M' story arc, but also the pointless and awful 112 or so issues of alledged tie ins that in fact had absolutely nothing to do with 'House of M' at all. In this game, Magneto showed how well he had trained his followers as they used their skill and know-how to position themselves strongly and eventually deliver the coup de grace and take home the win.

On table three the last of the first round winners, took on each other as James Phoenix's Bye scoring and familiar looking and sounding "X-ish" took on Phil Guba's Dr. Fate and Cheetah combo, plus friends. James found Guba's Probability Control and Blades/Claws/Fangs cobo a little sharp as Cheetah and Ravager tore through Wolverine, Prof. X, Jean Grey and Karma and helped Guba to his second win of the night. Unfortuanetely Dr. Fate's flight stand end broke at about this point too, he didn't see that coming did he?

The remaining players were all 0 - 1 and zero points so they were shuffled to allocate the remaining two match pairings. First out came Paul Spencelayh's "Exhasperators" and they were matched up with Simon Swinbank and his "Death Hunters". Paul's first round appauling dice rolling luckilly evaporated for his second round and as he once again made for the rooftops he was eagerly persued by Blue Devil and his bright fabric wearing colleagues. Pauls saw off the Manhunter's and Ravager and was eventually left with Wade Wilson to go one on one with a badly wounded Blue Devil. Wade's killer instincts kicked in and he proved more than a match for the plucky Blue Devil and this helped Paul to his first game win in his Approved Play career. Well done Paul, but unlucky Simon, the dice were not with you tonight as you plunged to 0 - 2.

The last two players to be paired up were Peter Davies using his "Avengers" and young Joseph Dollery with his "Slapsticks". Whilst Josephs team did indeed take another good slapping at the hands of Meteorite, Captain America and Spider-Woman, they did a little slapping of their own as they KO'ed Spider-Woman and Cap., but lost their entire crew in the work that achieved this good work. So Peter recovered his score a little as he moved to a 1 - 1 position, but Joseph languished at the bottom of the table with 0 - 2 and only 114 points.

Alec had been the unlucky one to not get drawn for round two, so he had to settle for the tround's bye and the wina nd 200 points that went along with it.

Guba's Dr. Pepper versus the 7Up, or is it Irn Bru, of JP, who will be "Top ofthe Pops"?

Youth versus experience (?) as Joseph Dollery takes on Peter Davies by the tranquil pond. Joseph's youthful exuberance wasn't enough to prevent Peter picking up his first win of tonight's tournamnet, but at least it wasn't another whitewash

The top two players look to keep up their record and move towards a place in the final with a second win. Perhaps Dale was too focussed on that plate of chips though?

Well to be fair the broken Dr. Fate didn't prove much of hinderance to Guba as a fast move to Martin's side of the board prevented him bush hopping and really threw his tactics completely. Martin never recovered fully and despite mananging to to take out Cheetah and Ravager just couldn't harm the Blu Tac laden Dr. Fate who went on to prove to be the MVP. See I didn't break him, I 'fixed' him! Guba makes his first final with three wins at Martin's expense, what is the world coming to? Boro will be qualifying for EUFA Cup Finals next!

On the next table David "Golden Clix" Hansell has the opportunity to also finish with a 3 - 0 record and make his 3rd final in only four events. Standing in his way is friend Dale who needs to win big to stand any chance of progression as he only has a 1 - 1 score card. Dale's Titan's found that facing too Probability Controllers can be little fun as several successful attacks became near misses and allows David to get in some early blows with the Hypersonic Quicksilver and Sabretooth's Claws, with Pyro providing some ranged support. Dale took out Sabretooth but it was all downhill from there, in fact to be fair it was mostly downhill before that too, and David completed the win needed to join Guba in the final. Could he break his final hoodoo and finally win one this time around though?

Paul Crosby's Magneto Inc. (aka Captain No Mates) faced Peter Davies in his last game playing the disbanded BFC. So no free moves for anyone then, but its not as if they would have seen much use with a total of four figures on the map (LOL). Magneto showed just 'who's the Daddy' as he hovered to a very impressive victory with the umpteenth whitewash of the night. Not enough to reach the final, but certainly some fun games and fourth place isn't to be sneezed at, unless your sneezing anyway I suppose. Peter may have just got the one win, but it was earned from an opponent rather than a bye

Paul Spencelayh rounded of a very impressive first ever event by getting a second win, this time against JP's "X-ish". Paul was now more familiar with his small squad and their powers, not to mention the roof he had been hugging every game. If it works eh Paul? JP wasn't whitewashed this game at least ... he got 4 points for KO'ing Pauls pog! Unfortunately it wasn't enough to preventing him from finishing in the bottom spot this time round. No losers in this game though, only winners, so I'm sure we'll see him bounce back next time round.

The last game in the Swiss Round portion of tonight's event saw Simon Swinbank get his first win of the night at the expense of Alec Barrett. Alec had the potential to move into the top half of the rankings with a second win but couldn't manage to pull it off as Simon had saved his best 'till last and came out on top this time round. The win and the points gained here by Simon jumped him well off the bottom spot and allowed him to end the night on a high.

Paul Spencelay's Deadpool find his favourite suntrap again as he argues with Deathstroke over who has the best costume. Meanwhile Georges Baptiste chases the Blue Devil around shouting"tag your IT!"

Order, order ... lets have some order here for I am the CHAIR man (get it) here my Brothers.

"When GUBAs Strike!" Not waiting around to be poisoned to death like Martin's other opponents tonight, Guba shows his tactical nouse to launce a pre-emptive strike and take the upper hand. Good show sir!

The final was fought in great spirit ... after three rounds of both players passing! Once they realised that Guba was online for a win if there was no give, Dave came out of the blocks, later than expected, but efficaciously. Cheetah fell early for Guba and he was looking in apoor position until some radical ranged blasts from Dr. Blu Tac saw him come back into the game. One of the hits saw him roll above ten on three consecutive rolls (due to the two Probability Controllers on David's team) to a small cheer from the gathered crowd. Ravager eventually fell, but she had held her own and done significant damage to David's company. As the battle raged on we saw one of the most thrilling and entertaining finals yet witnessed unfold before us. Lets hope this happens in 13 days time when Boro take their place in the UEFA Cup Final (you know I'm not going to miss any opportunities to mention it by now surely).

At the last, after the sad demise of Dr. Blu Tac, it came down to Rookie Ghost against Rookie Destiny and Rookie Scarlet Witch. The slap fight that ensued was hilarious for the crowd and great family entertainment all round. Ultimately we saw Ghost push himself to hit Scarlet Witch, with all three attempts hitting) to the point where he KO'ed himself. Everyone cheered as this was a fitting end to a thoroughly entertaining finale.

So at the third time of asking David got to collect a Winner's prize and see his name entered on the Champions coloumn of the Records page. It was only fitting that such a fine display in the final saw Guba pick up the Fellowship Award, though Captain Lonesome was well in the running up until that point. It was a great event tonight, I really enjoyed it, I hope you all did too. Thanks for coming and see you all again real soon. Don't forget your bidding boots for the mega day when I try my first Auction Event! See you there.

As the photo of the final is taken, Guba hides from the camera and the bright, bright light whilst David will probably look at this and wish he had done likewise. What were you drinking tonight David? I want some.

David points the way ahead again as Dr. Blu Tac and his minions close in on the waiting Brotherhood.

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