February 3rd saw a new addition to the CLIG calendar - a New Year Party at the British Academy, generously sponsored by Complinet. Our correspondent, A. Toper was there to report …

This party proved to be a very welcome novelty - an event to jolly the post-Christmas gloom. The key ingredients of a good party were all in place: a fine venue, excellent browsing and sluicing and an impressive line-up of raffle prizes, donated by legal publishers and bookshops.

The British Academy in Carlton House Terrace certainly scored highly as a venue. We had a spacious and elegant room for the party, and those who wanted could also explore more of the building.

I knew this was going to be a good occasion when a kind soul from their catering staff appeared with a large tray of smoked salmon canapés and said, "I'll just leave this here by you". That is a sign of a really superior venue...

As with CLIG Christmas parties, there was a quiz to stimulate the leetle grey cells. This year's quiz was devoted to London trivia - a subject in which John Curtis and his team are well versed. These people deserve respect - after all they know how many miles the minute hand of Big Ben travels in one year, (250, as you ask) and the site of London's first set of traffic lights. As the winning team, they received "Fizz for the Quiz", kindly donated by Sue Hill Recruitment.

More prizes were on offer in the raffle - a shopaholic's dream of Next, John Lewis, Blackwell’s and Borders vouchers from Butterworths, Sweet & Maxwell, Blackwell's and Books Etc. London Wall. All this plus wine from Complinet, chocolates from Hammicks and a magnum of champagne from Wildy's. Result: lots of highly satisfied punters - especially Barlow, Lyde & Gilbert's Mark Haines who won twice. Clearly worth asking him what lottery numbers he uses next time you see him.

All in all, a highly successful evening - our thanks to all our generous sponsors, the British Academy and to Emma Carew for her very hard work in organising this event.