Mark Bytheway (22 July 1963 – 9 July 2010) was an England International Quiz player best known for becoming Quizzing World Champion in 2008 and winning the ''Top Brain'' competition of

Brain of Britain ''Brain of Britain'' is a BBC radio general knowledge quiz, broadcast on BBC Radio 4. History It began as a slot in ''What Do You Know?'' in 1953. The main part of the show was the "Brain of Britain" quiz itself, originally called "Ask Me An ...

Brain of Britain

In 2007 he won

and in 2008 won the 3-year competition ''Brain of Brains'' beating TV's

Egghead In the U.S. English slang, egghead is an epithet used to refer to intellectuals or people considered out-of-touch with ordinary people and lacking in realism, common sense, sexual interests, etc. on account of their intellectual interests. It wa ...

Chris Hughes Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...

and rival

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 ...

and 9-year competition ''Top Brain'' titles, succeeding

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 ...

as holder.

National and International Titles

In 2008 he won the prestigious title of Quizzing World Champion. He has been capped six times for the National team (with five wins) and has a current European/World ranking of number 3, behind Kevin Ashman (his pairs partner) and Pat Gibson. In 2009 he was third in the World Quizzing Championships and won the British title for the first time. He was unable to attend the 2010 World Quizzing Championships due to serious illness. Bytheway was one of the original British Quizzing Grandmasters (as created under the Order of Merit maintained by Quizzing.co.uk) and has the third largest haul of international medals, with 16, (5 gold, 6 silver and 5 Bronze) after Ashman (27) and Gibson (24).

Domestic Competition

In domestic competitions he played with the ''Milhous Warriors'', the first British team to win the Club competition at the

European Quizzing Championships The European Quizzing Championships (EQC) are an annual multi-disciplinary quiz event, in which representatives from various countries compete as individuals, in pairs, and/or in teams (club or national). History As most of the top players in the ...

, which comprises Ashman, captain and England international Tim Westcott, Welsh international Sean O'Neill, Eric Kilby, Keith Andrew and Brian Wilkins. He several times appeared as an aspiring contestant on ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

'' but never qualified for the hot seat. Bytheway died on 9 July 2010 after having

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...

. As he was the reigning British Quiz Champion at the time of his death, the British Quizzing Championship trophy has been named in his honour, and will now be called the Mark Bytheway Trophy - aka the 'M*BY'.

2008 Interview

A 2008 interview, after winning the World title, is available on the Norwegian Quiz Association website.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bytheway, Mark 1963 births 2010 deaths Contestants on British game shows IQA team event gold medalists Deaths from esophageal cancer