Just imagine it’s you: a letter on your tummy and a letter on your back. At one meter fifty from the others in your group, all of them similarly sandwiched between letters. And then you are asked questions and you have to think of the answer and form it using your back or front. The time pressure is huge, because close by another group is also doing this assignment, which has been dreamed up by the study association Protagoras. And they might be faster than you.

The questions range from cryptic to simple. Sometimes a letter is taken out of the game. The group members call out answers, right and, alas, some wrong.

‘Beer brand and reason why we aren’t having any parties’ is the instruction to move around and stand in order from left to right: A,N,O,R,O,C. An easier task is ‘Brand of sauces’ (REMIA) and a final four-letter combination is OGEN (EYES) (‘something you use to see’).  

Sam van Wel, not in the photo, is fanatical. Afterwards I ask if his group has won. “That’s a rhetorical question, right? Of course we won!” This game perhaps but if there’s a competition for the best gadget it won’t be won by the Rood Konijntje Amber group. Because they don’t have a gadget. “Don’t need one,” says Sam, “we’ve got ourselves.”