As well as becoming the first person ever to hold both titles at the same time it was the seventh year in a row that Mark Goodliffe, the CFO at REA Holdings, has been crowned crossword champion and marked his eighth victory overall in the competition.

Goodliffe took the sudoku top slot back in August, while he won the crossword championship this month when he completed three cryptic crosswords in 22 minutes, six minutes faster than his closest rival, who was also an accountant. However, this was not his personal best in the discipline, which stands at 17 minutes.

After taking a degree in Linguistics, Goodliffe trained with Stoy Hayward and has held roles as group financial controller at the London Stock Exchange Group, director of Finance at LIFFE, and finance director at IG Index, before taking up his current role with REA Holdings, where he is responsible for all accounting and controls for a plantation group (oil palms in Indonesia).

After his double triumph, Goodliffe told Accountancy Live: ‘I think it would be very wrong of anyone to assume that being a good accountant these days is all about arithmetic!

‘Indeed even classic sudoku doesn't require any maths, just the elimination of possibilities based on logical rules.

'I shall leave it to other members of the profession to decide whether such skills, or the struggle with interpretations so typical of crosswords, remind them of their daily work with, say, preparing logical consolidations or interpreting accounting standards.’

‘Seriously, I do think it is a trait of accountants to enjoy completing things fully and accurately. And perhaps puzzle solving is a reflection of this.’

Goodliffe now needs two more crossword wins to rival John Sykes, a dictionary compiler who won the trophy ten times in the 1970s and 80s, and has said he will be back for next year’s competition.