Thanks to test driving a car and trying to sort out a deal on it (which didn't end up coming to what I wanted) I had to rush to the venue late and managed to come without my camera! Oh well, a report without pics once in a while isn't the end of the world is it? Fourteen players tonight made another impressive turnout as is now the regular case in Middlesbrough ... GO HEROCLIX!

Paul Brown was looking to lick his wounds after a disasterous League Event last week in which he had his worst beatings to date. His "Dark Claws" team of Magdelena, Ravager, Storm, Shadow Lass and Wolverine keep out of the blocks well with the help of a Ground Zero BFC and Paul achieved an earlky victory at the expense of Jonathan. The second game for Paul was even more successful and he erradicated the memory of last weeks shambles by taking David Hansell's team down with a very strong performance and an Inertial Interference Field. With a win pretty much ensuring a final game Paul fell at the last hurdle as Dale managed to pip him in a very close game by a single KO to leave him with an excellent score on a 2 - 1 record. If only this week were the League Event eh Paul?

Canny Mathew Cannings was looking for better things today too having won only one of his three matches last week. His "Marton Heroes" were back and this time their line up included Marina, Echo, Ghost, Doc Samson and Warpath. Only 22 points was all Matthew had to show for his first round efforts as Dale (there he is again) took a convincing win. Better things were to come for Matthew though as he scored two big wins in rounds two and three, first against Peter and then against Simon. Finishing with over 1000 points and a 2 - 1 record was enough for a mighty impressive fourth place today. As an unregistered player Matthew isn't elligable to win prizes so I hope he changes his mind and decides to fill his registration card in as a repeat performace could well see him in the zone!

Carl Sidgwick is still relatively new to Heroclix and is something of a dabbler, but he made a mighty fine dabble tonight. The "Very Vengeful & Victorious" saw Electro™ combine with Stargirl, Valkyrie™ and Venom™ (and he even included the ™s on his team sheet).Carl started impressively beating Heroclix golden boy David Hansell in his first game which was an excellent result for him. After a mid round dip, losing at the hands of the industrious Simon Fox he went out with a bang hammering Craig by 598 points to zip ... close it was not. So Carl also finished with a great position having secured 2 - 1 and 1122 points. The competition and heat is certainly stepping up for the guys with the urge to win. Just think what might have happened if Carl had used BFCs!

Ste Date looked as if he was wanting to draw level on wins with Mr. Hunt again tonight as he turned up with my very favourite piece of plastic (feel the sarcasm once again), the mighty Icons Superman. He was aided and abbeted by A Gotham Undercover, a DEO Agent and a Moloid (cunning disguised as Jimmy Olsen with some blue tac and a bystander pog). "I'm With Superman & Justice" went true to form as they decimated Ste Hunt first and then equally decimated Craig in round two. Round three was more exciting as Supes came up against his old nemesis Darkseid under the control of Simon Fox. For once evil prevailed over good and darkness surrounded light. Superman was KOed and Simon took the win. Another example of my predictions going to manure as the fabled expert of things clixy (yeah right, what the heck do I know, someone call a proper Judge).

Paul Crosby toned down his cheese feast tonight and his "The Fantastic 3" only contained one Invisible Woman to keep Thing and the Human Torch company. Madness was the order of the day for the first BFC (so a few Brownie Points recovered, but your still well down after last weeks display) and it helped Paul turn a strong display into a first round victory as he defeated Peter Davies. That was as good as it got for Paul this week though as Dale got revenge for the barrier blues of the last event by inflicting Paul's first defeat in 6 matches and then Chris also managed to get Paul on the wrong side of a result. 1 - 2 and he still scores over a 100 points, bah humbug!

Peter Davies had a pretty bad start to tonight's event as Paul Crosby beat his "Hit and Hope" (proving to be more of a "Miss and Prey" in actuality) with a whitewash in the first round. Things didn't get much better for Peter in the second round either as young Matthew cannings also inflincted a whitwash defeat upon him. In his third and final game, this one against Ste Hunt (just who you really want to play when you have an 0 - 2 scorecard ... the UK Championship Winner!!) he did at least manage to score his first points, 128 of them, but he couldn't prevent a hat trick of defeats on the night. The line up of Thing, Ghost Rider and Mr. Fantastic just didn't do the trick for him.

Speaking of Mr. Hunt, he didn't have the most productive event of his Heroclix career (coming up to 12 months as it is). The "I'm With Iron Man" title referenced a Civil War theme to his team as pre-arranged with Craig who had taken the opposition. With Iron Man fighting for justice (yeah right - have you read what they do to those who don't register yet?) where Black Widow and Mr. Fantastic. Battling Ste Date in round one saw Ste H. lose with a score of only 49 points. The second match up, against Simon Swinbank, didn't see much of an improvement either as he lost again this time scoring 54 points. As we have heard he turned his fortunes round in his final game as he won amatch with Peter Davies to avoid a regrettable 0 - 3 final record. Nice to see the top players don't always have to go for the jugular though, well done Mr. Hunt.

Christopher Larkman's records have improved considerably in recent events, but his "Mad Men and Woman" team couldn't start tonight's event with a win as Craig's Civil War rebels took him down early. Christopher came back well in his second game though as he beat fellow youngling Jonathan McNamara in convincing style. Finishing off his trio of swiss round match ups with a fine win against Paul Crosby, Christopher once again ended with an impressive 2 - 1 record and a respectable 8th place finish with his Speedy, Black Cat, Blockbuster and Killer Croc combo..

Simon Swinbank's "The Infernal Demonic Horde O'Doom" saw Fury, Jack O'Lantern, Solomon Grundy and Blue Devil make an almighty unholy alliance. The combination didn't prove particularly effective in it's first outing as the other Simon (Foxy as it proclaimed on the scorecard) dented Swinbank's hopes by inflicting a heavy defeat. Recovering well from this poor start Simon gave 'Hunty' a sound thrashing with the assistance of Ground Zero before suffering a second defeat this time at the hands of Matthew Cannings. The Disbanded didn't really help as Simon only picked up 38 points in his final game.

Jonathan McNamara is young and inexperienced compared to most of the clix regulars in Middlesbrough and unfortunately for him it showed all too obviously tonight as he finished on 0 - 3 with his "Ravager, Ghul and the Brain". Paul Brown inflicted the first defeat on Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, Ra's al-Ghul and Ravager (bet you'd guessed the line up) and then in the second round Chris Larkman did the same but with even more venom. David Hansell rounded off the treble tariff of defeats and also ensured that Jonathan hadn't had a character left standing all night. 'It's a hard enough life' as little Annie used to sing, maybe the sun will come out 'Tomorrow'?

Craig's team for tonight was the other Civil War tie in as he rolled out "I'm With Cap" for the evenings shenanigans. Captain America, Logan, Beast and Madrox didn't fair any better than the rivals they are at war with despite a convincing forst round victory against Chris Larkamn's team. It's safe to say Cap's boys peaked a little too early as after this initial win the lost badly to Ste Date and then were whitewahed by Carl Sidgewick. The Civil War tie ins flopped tonight and in a few weeks I think we may see a similar story for their actual Marvel counterparts ... writing these events up a few weeks late does allow for some great predictions!

David Hansell had gone with a theme team this week as "Teen Titans Go" made an appearance. Using Starfire, Raven, Speedy and Robin David hoped to score victories with style and power. His first attempt wasn't exactly what he was hoping for though as Carl Sidgewick took a well deserved victory. Things didn't improve at all for round two as Paul Brown also inflicted a defeat on the Titans but they achieved a win at the third time of asking when they defeated Jonathan McNamara in their final game GO Titans!

The final match of the event saw Simon play his remaining BFC which was Disbanded so the Batman Team Ability of Dale could be cancelled, however Dale had also kept a BFC and his Ordinary Day saw his Team Ability stay for the game ... it's almost as if the both expected to be playing in the final, against each other! So with the BFCs cancelled out the match got underway and despconfirming Simon's worst fears, Dale's ability to hide got him off to a strong start and one which in the end proved the foundation for another tournament win. Simon was still trying to get that elusive winners prive and the kudos of an event champions award, but try as hard as he could it wasn't going to come tonight. He did manage to KO Robin and Spoiler, but the Bat hordes were too much for him to cope with and he had to once again settle for second place. On the plus side, he scored a lot more points than Dale, so he does get some bragging rights from that.

David Hansell recieved the Fellowship Award having taken a night off from his hardcore Golden Clix role and decided to 'play nice' with a jolly theme team. Well done all and see you next week, same bat time, same bat channel!

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