The British Quiz Championship (BQC), also termed the British Quizzing Championship, is a
quiz
A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which players attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several specific topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief Educational assessment, assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth ...
competition in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. 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
The British Quiz Association (BQA) runs the British Quizzing Championships on the first Saturday in September every year.
Quiz Championships 1999/2000
In 1999 and 2000 Trevor Montague had run a ''British Quiz Championships'' as a sport of the ...
.
Before 2004 there had already been some sort of "British Championship" since 1999 run first only by
Trevor Montague
Trevor Howard Montague (born 20 May 1954) is a British author who compiles books of facts. Best known for ''A to Z of Almost Everything'', he has since compiled ''A to Z of Sport'', ''A to Z of Britain and Ireland'' and ''A to Z of British (and Ir ...
then by the
British Quiz Association
The British Quiz Association (BQA) runs the British Quizzing Championships on the first Saturday in September every year.
Quiz Championships 1999/2000
In 1999 and 2000 Trevor Montague had run a ''British Quiz Championships'' as a sport of the ...
(see that page for champions), but after internal strife and a fall in interest in 2003/2004 (see attendance in the BQA links) 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
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
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, the
Netherlands
)
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,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
quizzing in places such as
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
and
Kuala Lumpur
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.
Both the 2004 British and World events were won by England's
Kevin Ashman
Kevin Clifford Ashman (born 2 November 1959) is an English quiz player. He is often considered one of the greatest quizzers in the world, and since 2002 has been a professional quizzer; he has been an '' Egghead'' since 2003. He has won most o ...
.
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.
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 availabl
here
2007 - Venue Derby Conference Centre - Winner Pat Gibson
The absence of the previous winners and runners up for the last two years (Kevin Ashman and Mark Bytheway) 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.
A full report is availabl
here
2008 - Venue Staveley - Winner Sean Carey
A field of 61 competitors including Kevin Ashman (3 time British Champion, past World and European Champion), Mark Bytheway (2008 World Quiz Champion), Pat Gibson (2007 World and British Champion) 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
Ranked19th 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.
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 (both in Sport & Games) with Bytheway emerging victorious by a margin of one point (170 to 169 out of 240). 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!
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 (BQA/Montague era) champion, John Wilson (since 2006 they have been composed by Quizzing.co.uk's principal setter Chris Jones).
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
Kevin Clifford Ashman (born 2 November 1959) is an English quiz player. He is often considered one of the greatest quizzers in the world, and since 2002 has been a professional quizzer; he has been an '' Egghead'' since 2003. He has won most o ...
won with a score of 158 out of a maximum 210, a full 24 points ahead of defending champion
Pat Gibson
Patrick Gibson (born 19 July 1961) is an Irish quizzer. On 24 April 2004 he became the fourth contestant to win the £1m jackpot on the quiz show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. He is a multiple world champion in quizzing and one of the wo ...
.
{, class="wikitable" border="1"
, -
! Position
! Competitor
, -
, 1
,
Kevin Ashman
Kevin Clifford Ashman (born 2 November 1959) is an English quiz player. He is often considered one of the greatest quizzers in the world, and since 2002 has been a professional quizzer; he has been an '' Egghead'' since 2003. He has won most o ...
, -
, 2
,
Pat Gibson
Patrick Gibson (born 19 July 1961) is an Irish quizzer. On 24 April 2004 he became the fourth contestant to win the £1m jackpot on the quiz show ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''. He is a multiple world champion in quizzing and one of the wo ...
, -
, 3
,
Ian Bayley
__NOTOC__
Ian Bayley is a British quiz player who has won several medals in quizzing, both in singles and as a member of a team. He won the European Championships three times straight from 2007 to 2009 with " ...
, -
, 4
, Olav Bjortomt
, -
, 5
, Eric Wildsmith
, -
, 6
, Sean Carey
, -
, 7
, Phil Smith
, -
, 8
, David Hesp
, -
, 9
, Alan Gibbs
, -
, 10
, Peter Watson
In the Pairs event, Ian Bayley and Pat Gibson repeated their win of 2006.
External links
BQC 2010 and 2011 results in fullBQC 2009 reportWinners under "BQC", left side
Quiz games
Competitions in the United Kingdom
2004 establishments in the United Kingdom
Recurring events established in 2004
National championships in the United Kingdom