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Years in League: 1993-4 to date
Division 1: 1994-5 to date
Division 2: 1993-4
Titles: Division 1 Champions (8) 1997-8, 1998-9, 2002-3, 2003-4, 2004-5, 2005-6, 2011-12; 2012-13; Division 2 Champions 1993-4; All-London Cup (3) 1994, 2008, 2010; Charity Shield (7) 1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2011, 2012, 2017
The Allsorts were founded in 1993 when Donald Yule, after a Brain of Britain recording, persuaded Kevin Ashman, a man who liked the odd quiz and who had some form, being a 15 to 1 series champion amongst various other successes, that as he worked as a Civil Servant in London he really shouldn’t miss out on the challenge of the South London Quiz League. So Kevin called upon the services of various other quiz people he knew through the service, such as Bob Collier, Paul Henderson and former Mastermind finalist Paul Webbewood, and formed the Allsorts, soon roping in former Mastermind contestants Dr Ken Emond and Phillida Grantham to the squad, the former to add some academic gravitas. They cunningly joined just as the League split into two divisions, and swept all before them in Division 2 in their debut season, winning 15 out of 16 matches, and well as taking advantage of a Division 2 handicap to win the All-London Cup to boot. Suspecting that the team would find Division 1 a greater challenge, the squad was expanded for the 1994-5 season to include the previous year’s Mastermind champion, Gavin Fuller, who was rather startled to find himself the subject of a question in the second game he attended! That season was not unsuccessful in and out of the league, as the team won the Charity Shield for the first time and Kevin, Bob and Paul Webbewood won the Great British Quiz before Kevin then broke the record for highest score on Mastermind en route to winning the title. The season ended with the new tradition of the team being mysteriously drawn against the strongest guest team in the cup, and the defence of the charity shield the next year was stymied by another mysterious tradition of the handicapping rules being changed just when it so happened that it was the Allsorts who were affected.
The ensuing years would see the Allsorts becoming one of the League’s more successful teams, with 8 League Titles, and 4 runners-up positions (one of which was achieved in a season without Kevin, where the team lost the only match he played against eventual champions after a play-off Atletico Manor), some more Charity Shield wins and in 2010 becoming the first team to win the Cup three times (having been runners-up on another 3 occasions). Kevin meanwhile, as well as winning the Brain of London an amazing 10 times, won Brain of Britain, acquiring the high score record on that as well and became an Egghead before having the ultimate accolade of having a trophy in the League named after him and winning that in its debut season to boot!
Although the team’s name has stayed the same over the years, and is now the longest-running team name in the league, the squad has seen some changes. Paul Webbewood retired to play chess, Bob Collier retired to Wales whilst Paul Henderson trumped that by moving to New Zealand. Kevin still plays when he is not Eggheading or gallivanting about, whilst Gavin captains the team and Ken plays when he can’t get out of it. Recent years have seen more recruits from the Civil Service in Russ Gould and Drew Goldie, whilst the team can also take credit for introducing Paul Sinha to the League before he decamped to the Gray Monks. For 2011-2 the squad was enhanced by a semi-merger with the Old Itonians, Tom Dineen, Adrian Field and the Sage of Stevenage Fred Filby becoming welcome new additions to the team. With Ken being former editor of Team Times and Gavin a former League Secretary the Allsorts have also played their part in helping run the League over the years and enjoy being now one of the League’s stalwarts.
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