On Thursday 21 January Alumni gathered in large numbers for our online ‘Beat the January Blues Quiz’. Around 50 teams competed for the honour of calling themselves ‘Hull Alumni Quiz Champions 2021’, facing questions that tested their general knowledge, their memories of the buildings on campus, the bars and pubs in town, and their knowledge of their alma mater. With 58 points up for grabs, the top team was ‘Hull 98’ who scored an impressive 48 points to take the title. A special mention should also go to ‘Didn’t They Do Well’, who didn’t do quite so well, propping up the final table with an honourable and hard fought 12 points.

Presenters David and Jeni guided the quizzers through twelve testing rounds, David providing a workmanlike, no frills methodical approach, with Jeni injecting a little more panache. Six of the rounds had been provided by academics, serving up teasers from their own areas of expertise. James Zborowski, Screen, Josephine Metcalf, American Studies, Sabine Vanacker, English Literature, Mark Lorch, Chemistry and Claire Hookam, Business, all provided questions that were challenging, but accessible to a general audience.

In between, there were picture rounds with alumni asked to identify famous Hull people, building on campus or pubs they may have frequented as students. There were also questions on the history of Hull, the history of the university, and our alumni.

In the end it was a fun night, though whether the January Blues had been truly vanquished is not for us to say, though I think we can confidently state that at the end of the evening nobody felt worse than they had at the beginning. A huge thank you to the academics who contributed to the evening and to all who came and took part in the quiz. Hopefully next time we will be able to see each other in person.

The top five teams:

Hull 98 – 48
Loten Town – 44
Ferens Athletic – 43
Hull One (plus two) – 43
Team Ellis – 42