Memory champion beats hot favourite to the title I really didn't expect to win. It's only my second time here. I'm really pleased with my score. I'm told it's the highest ever. I've been training for four to five hours a day and now I just want to do some sightseeing and to find a vegan cupcake shop. It's been a tense three days at the championships and last night a fug of sweat hung around the abandoned desks, still littered with chewed pencils and dog-eared playing cards. Organisers had ushered out bleary eyed entrants so they could set up a temporary nightclub in the Croydon Conference Centre- The Blue Elephant - complete with live jazz band. A magician, somewhat optimistically, performed card tricks. More than 30 countries have been represented this year, including China, whose competitors train for 10 hours a day. Entrants competed in 10 rounds, memorising historic dates and the order of hundreds of binary numbers. The British contingent was noticeably more laid back than many of the Far Eastern contestants who sported matching patriotic tracksuits. Hugh Shields, Head of Finance at Credit Suisse, had trained for just ten weeks. To remember the order of a pack of playing cards he used his jogging route from Waterloo to his Canary Wharf office to create a mental map. He assigned people or objects to each playing card. The three of clubs is Charlie Chaplin while the two of diamonds is former Telegraph editor Bill Deedes. "If those two cards come together I think of Chaplin reading a copy of The Daily Telegraph," he said. I create a journey, the brain likes an image. I run through my jogging route in my head and impose a picture. Marlo Knight works as a croupier and helps spot fraud at his casino. "I just wanted to give it a go, I've only been training for a few months" He came 63rd. Former World champion Ben Pridmore was forced to return home before the results were officially announced but he'd done a quick calculation and worked out he had come seventh. I've only wanted to come in the top 10, he said, and I've done that. Mr Pridmore was the first man to remember a randomly shuffled pack of cards in under 30 seconds. Yesterday he repeated the feat remembering an entire pack in 28 seconds. His technique, he claimed was old fashioned storytelling. Yesterday it involved a black sack in a dustbin and Alf from Australian soap Home and Away (who represents a combination of the Jack of Spades and Seven of Clubs) An accountant by day when asked if his astonishing memory skills help with his job he said: "If I want to remember a number I write it down. It does improve your mind, but I've learned to forget wonderfully. Dressed in a black fedora, and sporting Blue Peter badge he explained: "It's not even really about the numbers, it's about the story really. It's fairly artistic actually. Last night Von Essen promised to return to defend his title next year. I am going to take some time off but I will be back next year for sure. It's not about winning. The people are fantastic. It's like one big family.