Hamilton's own Pro Evolution Soccer champ

Mar 26 2008 By Richard Mooney

Pele scored a goal from the half way line, Diego Maradona showed England the hand of God and Geoff Hurst showed Germany that it’s all over.

But for Pro Evolution Soccer champion, Mark Gardiner, it’s only just begun.

The Hillhouse man won £50,000 last Saturday and is now the number one rated Pro Evolution Soccer player in the country.

Pro Evolution Soccer is the most realistic interpretation of football in terms of videogames. Made by Japanese software giant Konami, it is a far cry from the arcade style football games on today’s market.

Every movement, technique and shot requires thinking and planning from the player. In short, it is one of the most complex and popular videogames available today.

For Mark it started out as just fun with mates.

“I used to just play for fun with my mates, but I thought I was getting very good. So I entered a tournament a few years ago and I bet the guy who was ranked number one,” says Mark, after scoring his third goal against me.

“I though I would make it too Wembley. My mates and I would get a bus down for tournaments every year. It’s always a laugh.”

“I was at the European Championships, I’ve been there a couple of times. I’ve made a lot of friends through it. They’re a nice bunch of guys that I keep in touch with through the Internet and the likes,” explains Mark as he sidesteps one of my defenders and goes for goal number nine.

Playing him shouldn’t be too bad I thought, I’ve played it in the past and always considered myself a fairly decent player.

How wrong I was.

Mark says he gets that all the time online from casual gamers.

“I get loads of messages online from people wanting to play me online, but I can’t play them all.

“I try to get a game against them and most of the time I do gub them, but I take it easier when I’m playing friendlies now.”

You can watch the video highlights of my match against Mark match here….just remember he’s number one in Britain.