THE WORLD Memory Championship has been won for the sixth time by a Barley memory master. Writer, memory coacher and scourge of the casinos Dominic O'Brien, 42, beat 27 contestants from nine countries at the Mind Sports Olympiad in London, to regain the title he lost last year.

His memory skills are so well-known that he has been barred from most casinos in England and many in Las Vegas.

The world championship consists of nine events over two days, such as an hour to memorise a number up to 3,000 digits long in which Dominic came third with 1,348 and was beaten by last year's champion, Andi Bell, who scored 1,600. In another he recalled 200 numbers after hearing a digit every two seconds, and with just 15 minutes to look at a list of words, he recalled 163.

Dominic, who has been in training for more than 10 years, won the first championship in 1991.

Unofficially, he has recalled every card in order in a shuffled deck of cards after looking at them in only 27.5 seconds. The official 34-second world record is held by Andi Bell.

Dominic plans to beat the 30-second barrier next year, maybe on Record Breakers, where he achieved the previous world record.

"It gets addictive," he said. "Each year I must train longer and harder.

'We train like athletes so we want it to become an official sport like chess."

While training, he drank no alcohol and went running regularly. He also takes Gingko Biloba, derived from the leaf of that tree, which helps dilate the blood vessels, so improving circulation of oxygen to the brain. He says the tricks of the trade are imagination, association, and location and, mostly, using your memory.

"The older you get, the better it gets.

Older people who lose their memories are those who stop using them and vegetate in front of the television. Use it or lose it," he said.

Geniuses, he says, are those who can use both sides of their brain, citing Einstein and Leonardo de Vinci as examples.

Every year he teaches a course in Black Jack at the Montecarlo in Las Vegas, the only casino which will let him in! "I think they believe the people I teach cannot learn to win, but they are wrong. They don't, however, let me play," he said. For three or four months he started to make his living from the casinos, but was barred after winning the first championship in 1991.

Dr Sue Whiting, women's world champion for four years, was beaten this year by a 12-year-old.

Dominic is working on his new book 'Learn to Remember', out in November. His earlier books include 'How to Develop a Perfect Memory' and 'How to Pass Exams'.

He also runs a memory correspondence course available from Fleet Street Publications on 0171 447 4046.