The history of the scavenger hunt is shrouded in myth and legend. Suffice to say that members of the Assassins\’ Guild are regularly exceptionally bored, else why would they run around shooting each other? Aside from the guild\’s main and smaller games, a special pre-mayweek event was devised, allegedly after Mr. David Birch \’watched some [awful nonsense] on TV\’. He then set about making a list of many items and a few tasks for teams to find and complete for his amusement.

So successful was the first hunt that it was repeated the year after under the guidance of Mr. Richard Gibson and Ms. Rosemary Warner and the year after that by Mr. Martin O\’Leary and Mr. Chris Field. Then it was decided that it was about time that those nice folks at Chicago, the home of perhaps the most famous hunt, were shown that there exist some equally fantastical tasks for our students to perform, and some equally obscure paraphenalia for them to obtain. Again under the flag of Mr. O\’Leary and Mr. Field, the hunt was prepared for a larger audience. More tasks, more creativity, more mystery and a wider appeal beyond those who might be considered just a little bit on the unusual side. Only a little bit beyond that, mind you.

Now the mantle has been taken up by successive teams of organisers predominantly consisting of members of that college known by some as New Hall. Can a team from another college wrestle the Scavenger Hunt from their grasp?

So here we present for your amusement the lists from the previous years\’ hunts. Perhaps they will provide an insight into what might be coming up this year.