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Don't fret if you're visiting for the first time and the blog seems out-of-date. We still meet, regular as clockwork; we just don't blog about it every time!

Thursday 27 October 2011

Set down, throw down - A second successful meet!

Tuesday the 25th October brought us new faces, new games and, most importantly, the novelty of hot chocolate mixed with rum, speedily imbibed by some gents who clearly knew where they were going in life.

The night started meekly at 7.20 with 5 of us and quickly grew to a sprawling two-tables-worth.  There was a mass, warm-up play of Jenga, where I discovered that the majority of BBGG like to live on the edge and remove both sides of the bottom layers first - far too close to the edge for my liking, I prefer a more cautious game with longevity in mind, but there you go, different horses for different courses, innit loves?

My memory gets a bit hazy at this point (I was barely through one pint, there's no excuse) but we were definitely joined by several more folk and a game of Articulate sprung up.  I definitely saw a bit of Carcassonne (Two people brought this along). I think another round of Fluxx (the Zombie variety, this time) on the right-hand side too. Around this point, a rogue table of 4 presented itself to me from across the other side of the pub.  After a beckon or two, they came to join us, bringing with them Blokus and Ticket To Ride and the rum/hot chocolate combo.  I sat down to a very engaging game of Blokus that was then replayed by folks at the other end - certainly recommend it.

I think at this point, we'd just about reached our height of 19, bolstered by some of Bath Anti-Cuts Alliance whose meeting had finished.  There was a settling down into Ticket To Ride at the far-end (we were 5-table's-worth by this point), a game of Scrabble in the middle and a couple more rounds of Articulating if my memory serves me correctly.

As before, we were there til last orders and some of the last to leave.  The Bell was accommodating as always with turning up lights and shifting patrons (so sorry, not my idea).

Next meet is Tuesday the 8th November at 7.30pm at the Bell, Walcot Street, Bath.  There are rumours circulating of a special guest - details to follow.......

Monday 17 October 2011

First meet!

BBG's first meet was a delightful success, made possible by the enthusiasm of each and every lovely person that attended. We started off with about 8 people and at our height, had about 18.

We started with a round split into two groups.  One group learning the joys of Bananagrams and another of Fluxx.   From a personal POV, Bananagrams was excellently fast-paced and enjoyable.  Fluxx seemed very complicated from what I could hear and my trusty sidekick pronounced it to be so as well (he used a different word but that's lost to the mists of ale)

The second round was a mass pairing off for a travel-sized Trivial Pursuit competition.  Things were fairly evenly matched but, in the end, the pair most vocal about their expected failings won (bastards).

Things petered off for a while and we relaxed for a bit.  I went out to drag the smokers back in to find them chain-smoking and discussing what art is with particular reference to the Tate's sunflower seeds installation (tsk, I ask you! You arrange a perfectly sensible night out...).

Gamemistress here cracked the whip and we settled into our third and final round with a spontaneous side-game joining of Shithead.  There was a small group of Munchkin and a 4 person competition of Scrabble, eagerly spectatored by the others.

Things came to a head when the bar manager asked us to leave as the bar was closed.  Despite this tardiness to respect drinking laws, he was pretty chuffed to see us there and even turned the lights up for us so we 'didn't have to squint'.

People came from all over - Facebook, Citysocialising, Gumtree, Couchsurfing and the posters I put up and about.  It couldn't have happened without y'all <3

Onwards, to the 25th October!