More fun than any other sport that's almost 'raccoons' spelt backwards

I'm watching the final of the Masters snooker as we speak. Well, as I write and significantly before you read, but you know what I mean. Someone asked me just recently whether there is anybody in the world of memory competitions who is the Ronnie O'Sullivan natural genius type, and I wasn't sure what would be a good answer. Andi springs to mind, but that's more of a temperament thing than a natural-brilliance thing, although there's no doubt Andi's got plenty of that too. And my second thought was that memory things aren't so much a case of natural talent, because it's more a case of work and preparation - which is a silly thing to think, because of course snooker players probably do ten times as much training and practice as us part-time memorisers.

So are some memory people more naturally gifted than others? I've never been quite sure. I tend to say that it's really something anyone could do, and that the only difference between the people who compete in championships and the people who don't is that the former are weird enough to want to. But who knows? I'm a competitor, not a pundit. When memory competitions are huge and televised, Dominic can be Steve Davis and talk about natural ability and motivation, I'll be Stephen Hendry and get to the semi-finals while everyone talks about how good I used to be.

The US Championship in a couple of months, incidentally, is going to be the same format as last year (except that there will be seven finalists instead of six, presumably to make the last round go on a bit longer). I would really, really love to see a British championship in that exact same format, just to see if we could get anyone to watch it. Maybe I'll make a serious effort to sell it to some TV people - I'm sure we could rustle up half a dozen good competitors without even opening it to foreigners.

Anyway, Ronnie's won, and brilliantly. And what do we get to fill the hour-and-a-quarter extra time in the schedule? A programme about the Norfolk coast. I ask you. If I was the director-general of the BBC (or whoever's in charge of choosing filler, I don't imagine he does it personally), I'd break out the cartoons at moments like this. I know what Hunstanton looks like, and anyone who doesn't isn't missing much.