Gavin got the quiz bug quite young, appearing in his first one, organised by the Portsmouth Young Supporters Club, at the age of 10, and despite being the youngest player stealing the show on behalf of legendary goalkeeper Alan Knight's team. With his family he had some success on local radio quiz competitions in his teens, and was quite looking forward to trying to get on University Challenge when he went up to University, only for Granada to take the programme off that very year. An undistinguished appearance on the third season of 15 to 1 saw his television debut at the age of 20 and emboldened him to try and fulfil his ambition of appearing on Mastermind, which after 3 failed attempts he achieved in the 1993 series, with rather more success than he expected. Moving to London having got a job in the Telegraph Library the following year the Allsorts snapped him up as a squad member for their debut season in Division 1, and he eventually became a fixture in the side and the team's secretary and captain. After competing in various quiz shows ans competitions, in recent years Gavin's been just as happy to sit on the other side of the quizzing fence and set questions rather than answer them. Since 2007 he's set a quiz in the Saturday Daily Telegraph, and also one in the Sunday Telegraph since 2009; in the latter year he also saw his first quiz book hit the shops. Gavin's also done his bit for the League, serving as Secretary from 2007 to 2017, a position he's also held for the Mastermind Club between 1999 and 2018, which only goes to show that he's a glutton for punishment.