Кевин Эшман: Один из величайших викторинщиков мира

English professional quizzer

Kevin Clifford Ashman (born 2 November 1959) is an English quiz player. He is considered one of the greatest quizzers in the world and has been a professional quizzer since 2002; he has been an Egghead since 2003. He has won most of the top level quiz tournaments in which he has taken part, among them several World and European Championships.

Ashman is from Winchester, Hampshire, He attended St Bede's Primary School and Peter Symonds Grammar School/College. He then graduated from the University of Southampton with a BA degree in Modern History.

Ashman had his first major television quiz success on Fifteen to One, winning Series 3 in 1989, and returned to win the special 'Millennium Edition' between past champions in 1999. In 1995, he won Mastermind, scoring a record 41 points with no passes in his heat. His specialist subject on that occasion was the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. He later became the champion after winning the final with the subject Zulu War and, in 2006, appeared on the final of the Junior version encouraging a young contestant who also chose Zulu Wars as his final subject. In 1996, the year following his Mastermind victory, he won Brain of Britain, scoring 38 in his semi final, which remains the highest individual score ever made on the show. He then 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). Ashman also twice won Master Brain, a radio competition for winners and runners up of Mastermind and Brain of Britain. He also won Sale of the Century, Screen Test, Quiz Night, Trivial Pursuit and The Great British Quiz.

Between 2002 and 2006, Ashman 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'. He left when production moved to Manchester.

Since 2003, he has competed on the British quiz show Eggheads, teamed up with other quiz champions, in which members of the public pit their wits against them in order to win a cash prize. Alongside his Egghead teammates, he also took part in the spin off show Are You an Egghead?, a competition to find further members of the Egghead team, resulting in the addition of Barry Simmons in 2008 and Pat Gibson in the second series in 2009. For ten years, Ashman had never incorrectly answered a history category question. This happened for the first time on 6 January 2014.

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. 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.

A keen traveller, he lives in Winnall, Winchester in Hampshire. It was revealed on Eggheads on 5 October 2009 that Ashman supports Tottenham Hotspur. He also has an interest in folk music and is a keen theatregoer. He was Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness' Phone A Friend for their appearance on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on 12 January 2008. In April 2024, it was revealed that Ashman is an avid watcher of the BBC Two programme University Challenge.