Kevin Ashman

Kevin Ashman is one of Britain's most successful quiz players. He has won nearly all the top-level quiz tournaments in which he has taken part, among them several World and European Championships.

Kevin Ashman

Medal record
Quizzing
Representing England
British Championships
	2004 Old Trafford	Singles
	2005 Altrincham	Singles
	2006 Shrewsbury	Singles
	2007 Staveley	Singles
	2008 Staveley	Singles
	2008 Staveley	Pairs
World Championships
	2004 Old Trafford	Singles
	2005 Silverstone	Singles
	2006 Newport	Singles
	2007 Irthlingborough	Singles
European Championships
	2004 Ghent	Singles
	2004 Ghent	Team
	2005 Tallinn	Singles
	2005 Tallinn	Team
	2006 Paris	Singles
	2006 Paris	Pairs
	2006 Paris	Team
	2006 Paris	Club
	2007 Blackpool	Team
	2008 Oslo	Singles
	2008 Oslo	Pairs
	2008 Oslo	Team

Early success

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. His specialist subject on that occasion was the life and work of Martin Luther King. Ashman continued to do television and radio quizzes, and went on to win Master Brain, a radio competition for winners and runners-up of Mastermind and Brain of Britain. The following year he actually won Brain of Britain, qualifying for Master Brain and winning again. He also went on to win Brain of Brains (contested between the previous three years' Brains of Britain) and Top Brain (contested every nine years between the previous three Brain of Brains).

Brain of Britain

Between 2002 and 2006 he was 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 on the death of Ian Gillies, who worked under the pen-name 'Mycroft'.

Eggheads

He currently competes on the British 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. He also takes part in the show Are You an Egghead? alongside his Egghead team mates in a competition to find a sixth member of the Egghead team. He is frequently the first choice to assist players, mainly because of his unbelievable yet vast knowledge of everything.

National and international titles

Currently ranked World/European number 1, Ashman has 13 gold, 8 silver and 1 bronze medals from the British, European and World Championships, he has been capped 8 times for the England team, with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses. In addition he has won the British Quiz Championship seven times, as well as many other tournaments. In 2004 he won the World Quizzing Championships individual competition, a tournament organised by the, newly formed, International Quizzing Association (IQA), as well as the European Championships (organised by the same group) both individually and for nations, 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 and followed this in December by again winning the European Quizzing Championships (held near Paris, France). He also won the team title with his team Milhous Warriors, but the English quiz team was once again beaten by the Belgians. In 2007 Ashman lost his World title to Pat Gibson who narrowly beat him into runner-up spot (a position Gibson himself had occupied for four years). He also lost his European title to Nico Pattyn of Belgium, but he took revenge by reconquering the title with the English national team, beating the Belgians in the final at Blackpool. In 2008, in Oslo, this situation was reversed with him being runner up in the team competition but regaining his singles title.

Domestic competition

Ashman is a committed quizzer and has three main teams (excluding the Eggheads team on TV). In the QLL he competes with the Allsorts (alongside former Mastermind winner Gavin Fuller) and has won the league on numerous occasions, in the Winchester Quiz League, organised by Peter Byford, he plays for the King Alfred and in national events he plays for the Milhous Warriors (alongside his international pairs partner and World Champion Mark Bytheway) . The Milhous Warriors, most of whom are based in Swindon, England, have often emerged victorious in the team elements of events run by Quizzing.co.uk, becoming National Champions at Old Trafford football stadium in 2004 and Silverstone 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. In 2008 they were winners in the final of the Clubs and Institutes (CIU) IDC Freeclaim sponsored national championships

Personal life

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 also studied a masters at Liverpool John Moores University.

Prior to working in radio and TV he worked as a civil servant in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

A keen traveller, he lives in Winchester in Hampshire.

Despite never been publicised Kevin also has a keen interest in electronic music predominantly from the era of early 90s industrial Frankfurt.

Trivia

He was Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness's phone a friend on the 12th of January, 2008 UK edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

External links

• Kevin Ashman at IMDb