We're delighted to report that El Reg earlier this week celebrated its tenth anniversary as a daily publication with a right royal piss-up in the very Central London hostelry where the world's favourite IT website was born.

We cannot, for state security reasons, name the location in question, but our official snapper was on hand to capture the kind of professional-level drinking which makes The Register the post-robust-lunch journalistic powerhouse it is.

So, without further ado, here's the chance for you, our beloved readers, to put some faces to those names who've entertained and delighted you over the years - kicking off with Chris "Tia Maria" Williams wondering whether he should stick to Diet Coke or switch to his sweet liqueur breakfast tipple of choice:

John Oates, meanwhile, kicked off the evening with a happy smile...

...while Caledonian bureau techie Murray "No, not that one..." Walker warmed up with a preliminary pint:

Although the initial rate of beer-quaffing was not considered particularly excessive by Vulture Central standards, office whippersnapper Robin Lettice was by 6pm already looking rather nervous:

Yes, that's right - Robin is the son of none other than Reg co-founder John "Fist of Fury" Lettice. Sadly, John successfully spent the evening dodging our lens, so you won't be able to confirm the family likeness.

Right, here's a shock for the hard core geeks among you - El Reg also employs women. Yes, women:

From left to right, we have supersub Tracey Cooper, hackette Kelly Fiveash and, be afraid, Sarah "Moderatrix" Bee, the latter being of course the scourge of comments f**ktards and other gobby riff-raff.

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Mercifully, the only sour note of the evening came when some bloke walked in off the street claiming he was editor of El Reg and demanding free beer:

He made the fatal error of sitting next to Sarah who, roughly ten seconds after the above snap was taken, delivered him a solid Chuck Norris-style roundhouse kick and sent him on his way.

Naturally, none of this fazed Caledonian bureau tech overlord Aaron Crane and Reg big cheese Drew Cullen, who continued to discuss the finer points of translating Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets into ancient Greek (don't ask - whenever these two get together they always end up on some obscure linguistic tack):

Right, you'll like this: here's Vulture Central Strategy Boutique member Jamie "Synergy" Bodkin demonstrating the kind of vision which drives our constituent-focused marketing strategy:

Yes indeed, look out for the inspirational poster of the above (Title: "Believe, evolve, succeed"), coming soon to an office supplies outlet near you.

Ok, time for more women. While Drew and Aaron take their clay tablet debate onto the street, they're joined by Merseyside-based finance operative Carly Hutcheon:

We don't know much about Carly, except that she allegedly has a penchant for luxury office furniture and, accordingly, The Register's northwestern outpost resembles Donald Trump's New York headquarters. Allegedly.

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Safely back inside, Chris and US editor Ashlee Vance look suspiciously like they've been slugging back the Tia Maria again. For shame:

No doubt about what's to blame here, though: our defence correspondent lays waste to a glass of wine while Tracey looks rather shocked and awed at the carnage:

Cue an appearence by our MD, Linus "Fish Fingers" Birtles, who appears to be holding it together rather better than young Robin. The pair are seen here forming what is known locally as a "Fiscal Sandwich" with finance operative Caroline Wilson:

By around 8pm, we'd managed to corral most of the female staff present for this fetching group shot, showing (l-r) Caroline, Tracey, Sarah, Kelly and the adsales department's Danielle Wykes:

Now here's an even more terrifying sight: finance meets adsales meets Strategy Boutique meets editorial. From l-r, chief beancounter Charlie Caton, sales powerhouse Courage Aihevba, a totally bewildered VP in Charge of Whalesong Phil "Phillipe" Mitchel and Andrew Orlowski.

The only explanation for Phil's expression is that he's just watched "2 Girls 1 Cup" - without drinking a bottle of Tia Maria first.

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Mind you, he soon recovered sufficiently to explain to Aaron the comparative merits of Thai and Indian joss-sticks in a Powerpoint-driven brainstorm scenario...

Sarah and John by this time were, mercifully, pretty well immune to reasoned argument of any sort:

Which made it about the right time for Linus to deliver his traditional rousing speech. Disappointingly, he failed to make any reference to Napoleon (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/07/napoleons_masterpiece/), but battled on gamely despite light heckling from the assembled vultures:

All of which was enough to drive the nicotine addicts onto the street for a final puff (l-r, ad operations bod Dave Keightley, Phil, Oatsie, Andrew and Ashlee):

And by the witching hour, only Phil was still firing on all cylinders, and by managing to continue to talk shop despite having consumed around thirteen pints and half a bottle of Tia Maria, became the worthy recipient of our "Last Man Standing" trophy:

So there you have it - ten years in the pub and still going at it to an Olympic standard. We wish all our long-standing readers and new converts all the best for the next ten, and advise Reg staff to prepare their fighting livers for 2018. ®

Bootnote

In case you're wondering, the photographer (me) fails to make an appearance above due to an extraordinary set of technical glitches which spoiled all the pics he appeared in - flash failure, battery failure, memory card failure and a timely electromagnetic pulse which destroyed a rather fetching snap of him downing a full bottle of Tia Maria in one hit. Shame, but there you go...