Yes and they already have - every time this one does the rounds.

Frodraff is off to China any minute...he must be getting nervous

I only asked!

I'll have a ponder of Mad Johns solution and see if a gardener from Hartlepool can twig it.

And I thought it was reading my mind.

Do you remember this then. I know how it works. It's not really reading your mind, it's a trick!

Because you're working in numbers to base 10, when you subtract the sum of the two digits from the original two digit figure you always arrive at a figure which is a multiple of 9. i.e 81, 72, 63, 54, 45, 36, 27, 18, 9

Examples

99-18=81
98-17=81
97-16=81
..and so on

89-17=72
88-16=72
87-15=72
..and so on

79-16=63
78-15=63
..and so on

69-15=54
..and so on

59-14=45
..and so on

They know you're going to arrive at one of these numbers so the same symbol is put against each multiple of 9. To give the illusion that they're reading your mind the symbol against the multiple of 9 numbers changes every time you have a go. As they already know which symbol is against these numbers it's just a matter of producing it as a solution..... much to the astonishment of the participant.

Now I know it's taken me 7 weeks to work it out but I'm sure there's other sad gits out there who are wondering how it works and haven't twigged it yet who may appreciate the above.

I've gotta say that it was MadJohn's pointer to the multiples of 9 that put me in the right direction but it still took some steam out of the ears before I tumbled.

The nine times table is one of the easiest to learn

9 x 1 = 9
9 x 2 = 18 (1+8=9)
9 x 3 = 27 (2+7=9)
9 x 4 = 36 (3+6=9)
9 x 5 = 45 (4+5=9)
9 x 6 = 54 (5+4=9)
9 x 7 = 63 (6+3=9) ad infinitum

Oh no! What've I started?

9 x 11 = 99 (9+9=18)

9 x 11 = 99 (9+9=18) & 1+8 = 9

Is Danny Wilson using this method too, as all his computations end with his favourite Number 9....