Challenge Notts unearthed a team of incredible ambassadors for the University of Nottingham, mobilised the student population and put Nottingham back on our screens – all in its very first year!

We are a student-led project, started in summer 2014, whose goal is to promote all things University Challenge here at Nottingham. This not only meant taking charge of how the Students’ Union handled recruitment for the television show itself, but also figuring out how to broaden the impact of our work to as many people as possible. Our vision for a better university was not only able to sprout but to flourish, thanks to the generous donors behind Cascade.

University Challenge: buzzing for success!
Broadcast since the 1960s, University Challenge is a staple of British television. Its split-screen format, fiendish questions and vitriolic host are instantly recognisable to any quizzers’ eyes. Over the past decades, universities have boasted their sharpest minds on the show, yet Nottingham has never really felt true success there. With 30 000 world-class students to choose from, this surely had to be a mistake. We formed Challenge Notts to put it right.

We have coordinated the University Challenge tryouts with the Students’ Union this year and last.. Our Cascade funding enabled us to buy top-of-the-range buzzers, meaning we could truly put applicants through their paces. This equipment, which would have been unaffordable through usual channels, made the difference when it came to selecting the University of Nottingham team. We were able to replicate the conditions of the television quiz, which helped us to evaluate applicants’ skills. Its benefits carried through to the training process, where our lucky five honed their reflexes and became acclimatised to a seat behind the buzzer.

Our grant meant we could greater publicise the tryout process by establishing an online presence and printing promotional material. Last year, we had a record-breaking number of applicants for the show and an incredible response from the student body. Our final round pitted teams of hopefuls against each other, just like on the real University Challenge, with staff and students alike in the audience.

After all of the training, there came the interview and then the recordings. We were able to cover the travel expenses of the team and their supporters, thanks to the money provided through Cascade. Watching them live was nerve-wracking, but cheering them on was exhilarating – and we even managed to meet Jeremy Paxman!

The generous alumni donation truly bore fruit this August when, after several tight-lipped months, Nottingham graced BBC primetime for the first time in four years. Our team defeated Swansea in a decisive victory. Challenge Notts hosted a live screening of the event on campus. Members of the team, Students’ Union executive officers, members of staff, heads of schools and even a former registrar of the university attended the evening. It was a fantastic chance to celebrate the transformation of these individuals into a quizzing team recognised on national television.

Scoring big back at home
Off-screen, Challenge Notts has brought the glamour and prestige of University Challenge to Nottingham’s very front door. The Cascade grant enabled us to hold quiz nights with prizes and refreshments – nothing buys student interest like a grab-bag of chocolates! We were also able to purchase official University Challenge quizbooks, so we could provide the real experience to those who wanted to have a go on the buzzer.

Challenge Notts hit upon a winning formula for quizzes, taking the format of the show and combining a little bit of ingenuity and creativity to give Nottingham’s own version of the University Challenge experience. This saw us through our regular, informal quizzes, to Christmas special and even a match where students took on the actual team.

Students weren’t the only ones to be swept up in the quizzing phenomenon. SU staff and officers took to the buzzers too over the course of the year. During May Fest – the University of Nottingham’s open day – Challenge Notts manned a stall, offering the public of Nottingham a chance to try their hand at quizzing like on the show. The buzzers were a fantastic hit, and members of the community enjoyed playing as both contestant and host – the Paxman masks definitely helped getting into character.

Coming up next…
Challenge Notts has kicked off this new academic year with an exhibition match and a film/pizza night. The try-out process for this year has just begun, starting with an online round to make application as accessible as possible. The coming weeks will see us select the team and begin another year of training, where once again we will put the incredible support from Cascade to use by shaping another generation of fantastic brains into quizzing legends.

Thank you from us
In only one year we have achieved so much and come so far. In April, Challenge Notts was a nominee for Project of the Year at the Student Union’s Student Volunteer Awards and our president won the Outstanding Volunteer prize – both of which vindicate the trust placed in us by our alumni donors.

We could not have delivered this positive action without the funding allotted to us by Cascade, whether it went towards the buzzer equipment central to our image, the travel expenses that meant we could support the team throughout or even the refreshments at our events – the student body, like an army, marches on its stomach after all!

This year is gearing up to be even more exciting than the last. Our 2015-16 team is yet to return to our screens for their second round match. Their progress sets the bar high for our 2016-17 team but we are determined to find a fresh batch of competitors keen to take on the challenge.

Joe Allen, Hannah Murray, Joseph Meethan
Challenge Notts Committee
@challengenotts