Kevin Ashman
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Kevin Ashman is considered by many to be Britain's finest quiz player, and has emerged victorious in most of the top-level tournaments in which he has taken part.
He is the question-setter and arbiter on the Radio 4 quiz show Brain of Britain, working under the pen-name of 'Jorkins' (a name taken from David Copperfield). He was appointed to the position in 2002 on the death of Ian Gillies, who worked under the pen-name 'Mycroft'. Prior to this position he worked as a civil servant in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Ashman's first major success was on Fifteen to One, winning series three in 1989, and returned to win the special 'Millennium Edition' between past champions on New Year's Eve 1999. In 1995 he won Mastermind, scoring 41 with 0 passes in his heat, which remains a record to this day. He had already appeared on Mastermind in 1987 but lost in the semi-final.
In addition he has been champion of Brain of Britain itself, and has won the British Quiz Championship, as well as many other tournaments. In 2004 he won the World Quizzing Championships individual competition, a tournament organised by the International Quizzing Assoc. (IQA) - an international not-for-profit organisation with headquarters in England, as well as the European Championships (organised by the same group) both individually and for teams, in Gent, Belgium. He followed this up by winning the World Quizzing Championships again in July 2005. He is the first person to retain this title and, for a second year running, he finished ahead of Pat Gibson of Ireland and Nico Pattyn of Belgium. In November 2005 he retained his individual title at the European Quizzing Championships in Tallinn (Estonia). At this event he again captained the England quiz team, this time losing to Belgium in the final. In July 2006 he won the World Quizzing Championships for the third year in succession. In December he again won the 2006 European Quizzing Championships in France.
Ashman often competes in domestic team quiz events as a member of the Milhous Warriors, most of whom are based in Swindon, England. In 2005 they were runners-up in the final of the Clubs and Institutes (CIU) IDC Freeclaim sponsored national championships losing out narrowly to a team which featured Mark Labbett. Milhous Warriors have often emerged victorious in the team elements of events run by Quizzing.co.uk, for example winning the team competitions which were held at Old Trafford football stadium in 2004 and Silverstone race track in 2005 as part of those years' UK leg of the World Quizzing Championship event. In 2006 they became the first British team to win the European Team Championship, doing so in Paris.
Ashman became interested in quizzes in his mid-twenties when, having graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in History, he resolved to improve his knowledge of the sciences.
He lives in Winchester in Hampshire.
He currently competes on the UK quiz show Eggheads, alongside other quiz champions, in which members of the public pit their wits against them in order to win a cash prize, and has for many years played in the Winchester Quiz League, organised by Peter Byford, winning the league many times.
