So we had an issue come up yesterday that we were unsure of how to resolve in the end, we rolled randomly to determine who the excess wounds were dealt to but he was very irate about it and I wasn't sure the proper procedure. I shall explain the situation:

My DreadKnight was fighting his BA Warlord Captain in a challenge. Also in base to base contact were a librarian, a death company guy with PFist, a Sgt, and 2 tac marines. (Dreadknight charged round 1 into DC/Lib/Warlord tac squad charged in round 2). After 1 round of saves made, we went to round 2, still in the challenge. Again I made my saves vs the Captan and this time scored 2 wounds. Wound #1 killed the captain. It now came to allocating wound #2 outside the challenge. Here is what the Rulebook says:

If a character that is involved in a challenge slays his opponent, each excess Wound
inflicted by the victor is then allocated, one at a time, to the next nearest enemy model
that is locked in the combat.
Now you could read this 1 of 2 ways, the nearest enemy model locked in combat to the guy slain (makes sense, you beat the captain and next wound goes to guy to his right or left) OR it should go to the nearest model to the Dread Knight which also makes sense. Of course I was in base to base with all 6 (5 remaining) combatants, so none were "closer" than another.

I offered the following choices to my opponent.

If he agreed with the reading of the rule to be the first meaning, randomize between guy to left and right of captain. if he agreed with the second reading of the rule, randomize between 5 remaining guys. he insisted that he should pick which model is removed as the rule says nothing about it being randomized. In the end he rolled and lost a tac guy, the guy he was going to pick anyway but Id like to get the clarification as to how this should have been handled.

Thank you
Thom