Ian Bayley

Ian Bayley is a United Kingdom computer scientist and quiz player who, despite his youth when compared with other leading players (he is in his early thirties), won several medals in quizzing, both in singles and as a member of a team. He is largely known as a strong team player winning the European Championships three times straight from 2007 to 2009 with "Broken Hearts" (ft. Olav Bjortomt, David Stainer and Mark Grant) and the English national team in 2004. With his double partner Pat Gibson he also won the European pair championships in 2005 and the British Championships (IQA) in 2006 (there are no world championships for teams and pairs, just individuals, so this is the highest possible title). In individual competitions he has thus far won just one title, the British Championship in 2001. As such his name appears on the Mark Bytheway trophy, being the trophy awarded by the British Quiz Association to its champions.

In addition, he has represented the University of Oxford in the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament run by NAQT, one of the world's foremost buzzer competitions. His scores compared respectably alongside some of the leading American buzzer quiz players. He also made an appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire as a "phone a friend".

In 2010 he won the final of the BBC Radio 4 quiz Brain of Britain, scoring more points than the other three contestants put together. In April 2011 he was crowned BBC Mastermind after his win in the show's 2011 series final (actually recorded in October 2010).