A Practical Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness
Ben Pridmore Recalls a Pack of Cards in Under 30 Seconds!
31Aug2007 Filed under: Memory Author: grahamBen Pridmore, former World Memory Champion, broke the the ‘four-minute mile of competitive memory‘ back in July. And I’m only just getting round to writing about it!
I’ve competed in Memory competitions and 30 seconds had always been the target, getting closer each year. (The year that I competed in the WMC, the record stood at 34.03.) Due to its quick performance time and the friendly rivalry generated by competitors, the task of memorising the order of a shuffled pack of cards, or Speed Cards, is a firm favourite with both spectators and competitors. It’s the 100 metre dash of Memory competitions - and it doesn’t take all that much longer to complete. (In fact, Ben can remember a pack far quicker than I can run 100 metres.)
How quickly did he do it? 26.28 seconds! Ben was already a firm favourite to win WMC 2007 (held this weekend), but that has got to be a great psychological boost!
“It was a privilege to watch such a virtuoso performance” says Phil Chambers, Chief Arbiter of the World Memory Championships… “Ben’s new record of 26.28 seconds has now considerably raised the bar. He has claimed similar times in practice but it is totally different to do it after nine gruelling rounds of memorisation, with only two attempts and huge peer and spectator pressure focusing on you. The new ultimate goal is now 25 seconds, something that Pridmore confidently predicts can be broken.”
Phil is so right about private personal bests being completely different to one’s competition performance. (My WMC result for Speed Cards was more than twice my personal best!) So, I’m willing to bet that Ben’s already beaten 25 seconds in private practice.
Congratulations, mate!
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Sorry for your
Ben
September 5th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Thanks, Graham! Actually, my best time in practice so far is only 25.88, so 25 seconds might be some way off yet. And yes, I don’t think I can run 100 metres as fast as I can memorise cards, either…
Ben
September 5th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
(Oh, and actually it was 26 seconds and 28 hundredths)
graham
September 5th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Ha, 26 minutes! Well, spotted.
Only 25.88? Man, I thought you were supposed to be good!
graham
September 5th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I meant to add, congrats on finally breaking the 4,000 barrier in Binary digits. That’s a most impressive new record, especially given how boring the event is!
Ben
September 6th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I think I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t find binary boring. It’s actually one of my favourite disciplines!
First time I tried to memorise a pack of cards (with no system, just learning it by rote), it took me 48 minutes. I would have been delighted with 26!
Pete
December 9th, 2007 at 5:31 am
To be clear - are you saying that Ben not only memorized the cards but also recited the order in 26 seconds???
graham
December 13th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Hi Pete,
No, that’s not what Ben did. Basically, if you shuffle the pack and give him thirty seconds to look through it, he can (theoretically) hand you the pack back and recall the order of the cards.
To give you a comparison, I’m fairly good at this, but the best I’ve ever done (by far) is 66 seconds.
This really was a great achievement.