British Quizzing Championships


The British Quiz Championship, also termed the British Quizzing Championship, is a quiz competition in the United Kingdom. The current competition has been organised since 2004 by Chris Jones' and IQA-CEO Jane Allen's company Quizzing Ltd. Early in 2011 the re-launch of the quizzing.co.uk website saw it rebranded as the home of the British Quiz Association.
Before 2004 there had already been some sort of "British Championship" since 1999 run first only by Trevor Montague then by the British Quiz Association, but after internal strife and a fall in interest in 2003/2004 the old BQA-management gave up and the only British Quiz Championship now is this one run by Quizzing Ltd.

British Quizzing Championship Roll of Honour since 2004

YearVenueWinner - SinglesWinner - Pairs
2004Old Trafford ManchesterKevin AshmanNot held
2005AltrinchamKevin AshmanNot held
2006ShrewsburyKevin AshmanIan Bayley & Pat Gibson
2007DerbyPat GibsonGareth Aubrey & Olav Bjortomt
2008StaveleySean CareyDavid Edwards & Nic Paul
2009DerbyMark BythewayDavid Lea & Kathryn Johnson
2010DerbyPat GibsonDavid Edwards & Nic Paul
2011LichfieldKevin AshmanPat Gibson & Ian Bayley
2012LichfieldJesse HoneyDavid Stainer & Olav Bjortomt
2013Hilton, Edinburgh, DublinKevin AshmanKevin Ashman & Pat Gibson
2014Rothwell, Edinburgh, DublinPat GibsonDavid Stainer & Olav Bjortomt
2015Newark, Edinburgh, DublinPat GibsonAnne Hegerty & John Wilson
2016Coventry, EdinburghNic PaulBrian Chesney & Jeff Evans
2017Coventry, EdinburghKevin AshmanKevin Ashman & Pat Gibson
2018Coventry, Edinburgh, LondonPat GibsonNot held
2019Northampton, EdinburghPaul SinhaKevin Ashman & Pat Gibson

2004 - Venue Old Trafford Manchester - Winner Kevin Ashman

The 2004 British Quiz Championship was run in 2004 as part of the World Quizzing Championship - as staged at various worldwide locations, such as Old Trafford Stadium on 3 July 2004),
The 2004 event saw 67 entrants at Old Trafford who were joined, in the international event, by several hundred other Quizzers from countries such as Belgium, Estonia, the Netherlands, India and Malaysia quizzing in places such as Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur.
Both the 2004 British and World events were won by England's Kevin Ashman.

2005 - Venue Altrincham - Winner Kevin Ashman

Having won the 2005 MSN Search sponsored World Quizzing Championships on 2 July Kevin Ashman went on to retain his British title later that year.
PositionCompetitor
1Kevin Ashman
2Mark Bytheway
3John Wilson
4Barry Simmons
5Geoff Thomas
6Pat Gibson
=7Dag Griffiths
=7Eric Kilby
=7Sean Carey
=7Darren Martin

2006 - Venue Boreatton Park, Shrewsbury - Winner Kevin Ashman

Kevin Ashman made it a hat-trick of British Championships in 2005. In a field of 41 competitors Ashman won by 21 points from Mark Bytheway and Pat Gibson in joint second position. A full report on the event is available
PositionCompetitor
1Kevin Ashman
=2Mark Bytheway
=2Pat Gibson
=4John Wilson
=4Olav Bjortomt
6Mark Labbett
7Mark Kerr
8Barbara Thompson
9Eric Kilby
10Ian Bayley

2007 - Venue Derby Conference Centre - Winner Pat Gibson

The absence of the previous winners and runners up for the last two years left the field wide open. Pat Gibson emerged victorious, adding the British title to the World title he had also taken from Ashman earlier in the year. Gibson's margin of victory over Bjortomt was 12 points.
PositionCompetitor
1Pat Gibson
2Olav Bjortomt
=3Mark Labbett
=3William De'Ath
5Eric Kilby
6Nic Paul
=7Chris Quinn
=7Ian Bayley
=7Mark Kerr
=7John Wilson

A full report is available

2008 - Venue Staveley - Winner Sean Carey

A field of 61 competitors including Kevin Ashman, Mark Bytheway, Pat Gibson met at Staveley in Derbyshire. With such a strong field of competitors it was perhaps a surprise that it was Sean Carey who took the title, beating second placed Kevin Ashman by 8 points. 19th before the start of the event, Carey is the lowest ranked competitor to win the British title, and the first person from outside the top 3. That said, he was likely ranked lower than he ought to have been on account of his not being able to attend as many ranking events as his peers. When he has competed in Grands Prix he has typically been placed in the top 10 of finishers.
PositionCompetitor
1Sean Carey
2Kevin Ashman
3Mark Bytheway
4Pat Gibson
5Nic Paul
=6Alan Gibbs
=6John Wilson
=6Olav Bjortomt
=9Chris Quinn
=9Dave Edwards
=9Mark Labbett

2009 - Venue Derby Conference Centre - Winner Mark Bytheway

All the big players were in attendance for this one, including every former winner of the title. For the first time ever the event had to be settled on a tie-break, Kevin Ashman and Mark Bytheway being neck-and-neck, 8 points ahead of Pat Gibson in third place. Reference was had to the players' discarded scores with Bytheway emerging victorious by a margin of one point. Byethway's achievement was well received by the field of 62, not least because he is still recovering from surgery undertaken after he was struck with a life-threatening illness. Kevin Ashman was typically magnanimous in defeat. He now holds 'just' the World and European individual titles!
PositionCompetitor
1Mark Bytheway
2Kevin Ashman
3Pat Gibson
4Chris Quinn
5Jesse Honey
6Sean Carey
7Mark Kerr
8John Wilson
9Nic Paul
10Ian Bayley

There was a first in the Pairs event, Kathryn Johnson partnering David Lea to a win. In so doing she becomes the first woman to hold a Championship title on the UK quiz circuit. Like the Individual event, the Pairs saw a tie, which had to be decided on 'countback'. The unlucky Pair who finished as runners-up were Chris Quinn and Mark Kerr.

2010 - Venue Derby Conference Centre - Winner Pat Gibson

Pat Gibson regained the title he first won in 2007 and was the first to get his hands on the new Mark Bytheway Trophy, named in memory of last year's winner who died in July 2010. The trophy is to be inscribed with the names of former winners. This year's questions were written by former champion, John Wilson.
PositionCompetitor
1Pat Gibson
2Kevin Ashman
3Jesse Honey
4Olav Bjortomt
5Barry Simmons
6Nic Paul
7Dag Griffiths
8Ian Bayley
9David Stainer
10Sean Carey

In the Pairs event, 2008 winners David Edwards and Nic Paul became the first duo to regain the title. Second place went to Jesse Honey & Sean Carey and third to Kevin Ashman & Pat Gibson.

2011 - Venue Cathedral Lodge Hotel, Lichfield - Winner Kevin Ashman

John Wilson again wrote the questions for the individual championship, which for the first time was held in 2 venues, the main one in Lichfield but with some players taking part in a venue in Normandy.
Kevin Ashman won with a score of 158 out of a maximum 210, a full 24 points ahead of defending champion Pat Gibson.
PositionCompetitor
1Kevin Ashman
2Pat Gibson
3Ian Bayley
4Olav Bjortomt
5Eric Wildsmith
6Sean Carey
7Phil Smith
8David Hesp
9Alan Gibbs
10Peter Watson

In the Pairs event, Ian Bayley and Pat Gibson repeated their win of 2006.