The DIFFICULT Cryptic Crossword Achievement

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** BONUS VIDEO **
We've been waiting for a suitable cryptic crossword to make a new cryptic video and yesterday's puzzle in The Times fitted the bill. It has the highest SNITCH rating of recent times (a measure of difficulty). If you're new to cryptics, watch Simon bend his brain against this one...
You can play all of The Times crosswords at their crossword club (which is behind a paywall) here:
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Опубликовано:

12 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 131

@wossaaaat Год назад

Hours of content every day, and still we get an hour long bonus video... These guys some of the most generous content creators out there. Thank you Simon and Mark.

@catnip420 Год назад

I'd really love to see Mark's 6 minutes solve for comparison. It's insanely fast.

@henrymarkson3758 Год назад

Mark is the AlphaZero of crosswords.

@Pivotcreator0 Год назад

I believe 19 down is a triple definition clue. "Perhaps one" ; "Judge" ; "to be included"

@th.nd.r Год назад

That’s incredible

@nickloader3184 Год назад

Why does figure mean "to be included"?

@Pivotcreator0 Год назад

@@nickloader3184 "the issue of nuclear policy figured prominently in the talks"

@mikechappell5849 11 месяцев назад

@@nickloader3184 "He doesn't figure in my plans"

@DaShikuXI Год назад

I got flagship, installation and au pair right away. Particularly proud of the installation one. It's only 3/50 something clues, but that's 3 more than I was getting a few videos ago. Slowly understanding how this works.

@_mnejing Год назад

I was excited I had au pair and flagships, and even understood why, before Mark. Ever. I'll take that as a win any day of the week.

@stenhaastrup9850 Год назад

Figure is a triple def: "One perhaps" "judge" "to be included"

@andrewzmorris Год назад

Does "figure" mean "to be included"? I can't make that work.

@stenhaastrup9850 Год назад

@@andrewzmorris Think of it as "make an appearance". Her name is included on my list. Her name figures on my list.

@damienknapman2308 Год назад

@@andrewzmorris First definition I can readily locate of the verb form of figure is "have a significant part or role in a situation or process."

@TheLonelytexan Год назад

A common figure of speech (no pun intended) would be something like "How does it figure into our plans?" or "How does this figure into the equation?" So I can see how that could relate to being included.

@mikechappell5849 Год назад

@@TheLonelytexan Yes, an example given by Collins is "human rights violations figured prominently in the report"

@Fahrenheit1407 Год назад

How on earth did Mark solve that in 6 minutes. That's insane

@selenasilverstep7981 Год назад

Really put it into perspective how good Mark is compared to Simon. I suspect Simon to be better at Sudoku as well, compared to Mark, but we've never been able to see the difference

@IAlreadyHaveAKey Год назад

@@selenasilverstep7981 I think Mark would be quicker than Simon with sudoku as well, mainly because he bifurcates a lot more. Although I imagine if Simon was speed solving he would bifurcate too if he needed to.

@caljcam Год назад

We always forget that our humble bifurcating Mark is one of the greatest cryptic solvers of all time.

@bobblebardsley Год назад

*24 Down:* Frequency and wavelength of electromagnetic waves are in an inverse relationship i.e. the longer the wavelength, the lower the frequency. A simplified way to think about it is to take a fixed length e.g. one metre, and imagine how many waves you can fit into it. The longer the waves, the fewer you can fit, i.e. the lower the 'frequency'. (It's a bit more complicated than that as you have to include the speed at which the wave is travelling, but you get the idea.) Usually if you multiply the wavelength by the frequency, you get the speed of light in a vacuum.

@pelahnar4 Год назад

Just to add a couple examples: radio waves are low frequency waves that can be very large, on the order of meters. Microwaves are higher frequency, so they are shorter, on the order of centimeters. Visible light is higher frequency still, and are even shorter (nanometers). The microwaves vs visible light difference is interesting to me, because it explains the front part of a microwave (the appliance). It has holes in it that are large enough to let visible light through, but not large enough to let the microwaves through.

@bobblebardsley Год назад

@@pelahnar4 It never occurred to me that the grille on a microwave oven is designed that way, that is very interesting. Also I think a lot of people imagine all EM radiation is nanometres or less so when you first find out how enormous radio waves are (especially longwave radio which is literally 'long waves') it can be pretty astounding.

@highpath4776 Год назад

@@bobblebardsley 1500m basically a mile

@zeno2712 Год назад

ELF is a common radio abbreviation for Extra Low Frequency.

@emilywilliams3237 Год назад

Great and inscrutable as always, very enjoyable. I must say I laughed at your comment about "stylish": "Goodliffian doesn't fit." Thanks for this very fun bonus on the channel!!!

@Morphior Год назад

31:48 I actually laughed out loud. *Your* brain is substandard. That's actually an insult to all of us. If *your* brain is substandard, what are ours? 😂

@davidblake6889 Год назад

That was very hard, Simon. I got a couple before you did, but that was it. An 'ELF' radio wave is big because it has a long wavelength. I am that 'Radio Operator' by the way.

@stuartgoesbirding8999 Год назад

I can recommend Dave Gormans current tour (PowerPoint to the People), it has a very funny cryptic crossword section (including a clue I remember Simon solving on the channel.

@marktrescowthick9027 Год назад

Here in the land Downunder, we are about a month behind in Times Cryptics (insert rude remarks here), so I normally try to avoid these wonderful bonusues, but I couldn't resist! Thrilled to have got at least a few clues before Simon... as always in awe of Magoo, Verlaine and co who seemingly treat these as a quick dalliance to be ticked off over tea and toast! mct

@longwaytotipperary Год назад

I really enjoy these! Language and communication are very important to me - I have always appreciated a “well turned phrase”. I researched to see if there’s a word for that - so maybe “logophile?” Anyway, enough about me - Simon is fabulous at communicating and I especially appreciated that he took the time to explain the answers. That someone can craft these obscure ideas and then someone else can translate them into something meaningful is on a par of Simon’s “the universe singing to us” ( which is one of the most beautiful phrases I’ve ever heard)! 😍

@clara931 Год назад

Uppsala is the University in Uppsala close to Stockholm in Sweden. It is a really lovely student city.

@MrNikolidas Год назад

I used to watch my grandfather solve cryptic crosswords; I could never figure out how he got the answer from the clue. I understand it better now, but I'll stick with regular crosswords I think.

@iwakeupsad Год назад

RU-vid comment section delivering the dope semi-colon (6)

@MrNikolidas Год назад

@@iwakeupsad Feels like a needle at my grammar.

@iwakeupsad Год назад

@@MrNikolidas No I love it!

@MrNikolidas Год назад

@@iwakeupsad I thought "needle" was the answer :P It delivers the dope.

@iwakeupsad Год назад

@@MrNikolidas it was! I just liked how you weaved it into the reply. (Not a great clue :p. I was going for section meaning to take letters from deliver and comment as in LE but I think it's very ambiguous.

@mwoody_ Год назад

Awesome Simon, thank you. Would love Mark to record his screen as he speed solves; just to see how fast he works through it

@Ruddigore Год назад

Fantabulous to get a 'Cryptic Crossword' thrown into the mix and even better that it is one in my pay grade. That 'ELF' was a stinger, we are all used to VHF (very high frequency) but ELF is new to me. All I could think of was EMF as in electro-magnetic force which did not fit the clue. On the whole a great solve by Simon and a magnificent solve by Mark.

@highpath4776 Год назад

Low Frequency is indeed a long wave but big implies peak to peak vertical rather than horizontal so takes some thinking

@neiljervis1 Год назад

Extremely low frequency waves penetrate water and are used to raise submarines to pick up messages at periscope depth .

@AdrianDerBitschubser Год назад

frequency [Hz = 1/s] = propagation speed [m/s] / wave length [m]. So frequency is inversely proportional to wave length, meaning lower frequencies bigger waves.

@johnglass6725 Год назад

So Mark now has not only an eponym for complete enumeration, but also one for performing with style. Next time I succumb to fully pencil marking a sudoku grid I hope my demeanour will be goodliffian as I indulge in goodliffing!

@howardwilde Год назад

I was fascinated by the Noel Coward one, because it illustrates a rare kind of 'bypass', where the brain jumps straight to the meaning while bypassing the word itself. When I played Scrabble tournaments I used to test myself with random anagrams of seven- and eight-letter words (no definitions as in a cryptic). On seeing ACGINSUV, I got stuck for half a minute, and then, somehow, I got a very vivid image of a llama in my head. (It's VICUGNAS, a type of llama.) What was so weird is that I saw the llama *well* before I found the word, and my brain had to backtrack from there. Apparently it doesn't happen often, but it's disconcerting when it does. There's a paper in this for any neurolinguists out there.

@XeniaStCharlesIrisLlyllyth Год назад

Brilliant solve!!! I'm fondly remembering the time you featured a video of Thomas Snyder speed-solving a tapa puzzle, with pauses for commentary/explanations by you. I'd love if you made a video like that of Mark speed-solving a cryptic crossword!!!

@Cloiss_ Год назад

this is a great idea

@nickburton5871 Год назад

I loved it, Simon! I was pretty stumped on a few, but beat you on a few too, and was most amused you struggled with 6 down! Thanks very much! Most entertaining!

@DonaldSjervenE Год назад

Brutal. 6 down brought back a memory of a trivia clue/answer being "pickled ox tongue was ... a menu item on the Titanic." At the time I remember Nelson being described as pickled in alcohol for the post humous voyage home. The word pickle felt nautical as in preservative.

@nemuchan Год назад

Prisoners words : "i dint do it" Come on Simon ! 🤣🤣🤣

@widgetb Год назад

Naughty youtube algorithm hiding cryptic content from me! Fascinating as always. Really love the crossword content.

@RandomBurfness Год назад

Uppsala is a university town in Sweden! It's located about 60 kilometres north of Stockholm.

@bruceyanoshek626 Год назад

I love watching you think. I haven't worked out "figure" yet, but it does seem that as a verb, it could, in some sense, mean "judge to be included", since as a verb it has a basic meaning of "to think".

@th.nd.r Год назад

Incredible puzzle! And Simon, I will never look down on you for taking a while to do a difficult puzzle that I would never be able to complete in the first place. Well done! And thanks for the bonus cryptic video :)

@RSDonovan Год назад

Excellent content. More cryptic crossword solving videos please, Mark & Simon!😊

Год назад

So proud of myself, managed to figure out 25 across on my own... as a non-native English speaker. Love these cryptic crossword videos.

@roxirossetti6250 Год назад

whew! that was hard one - i was shouting au pair, installation, and tum but of course my shouts could not go back in time and cross the Atlantic to get to you. Sorry about that. What a relief when you got them though!

@e7diablo Год назад

I LOVE the concept of these crosswords, but every time we get a "f. is a chambers-valid abbreviation of following" I just can't continue to dig deeper into these puzzles. There's just too many things like that.

@peterjongsma2779 Год назад

I'm doing Christine Lovatt. She's an Aussie. So I don't have to learn English Soccer Players and other Shibboleths. Simon is utterly brilliant, but I'm enjoying Christine. Christine is lot's of fun and still challenging for us Colonials. And this doesn't mean I'm dating her. I'd like to though. Aussie Chicks are very pretty. As is Christine Lovatt.

@Karboluk Год назад

Frequency TLDR: low frequency waves are longer and high frequency waves are shorter. Shorter wavelength waves repeat more often in a given timeframe, given a constant speed of travel thru the transmission medium (air or whatnot), and so are described as "high frequency" as we count more waves per second (or other time interval). Longer wavelengths have low frequency for the same reason.

@zackrobat Год назад

I'd like to hear Mark and Simon discuss the *nature* of cryptic crosswords. To me they seem utterly dependent on people being deep inside a particular culture. Whereas sudoku is more universally accessible.

@amysteele2488 Год назад

Amazing solve Simon! The only one I actually got myself was flagships, and then I was only a couple of minutes ahead of you. The rest was way beyond me

@gauravmitra150 Год назад

Regarding the clue with the big wave: The velocity of a wave equals the product of its frequency and it's wavelenght. Set the velocity of the wave, e.g. electromagnetic wave (light) constant... when you reduce the frequency you simultaneously have to increase the wavelenght to make the velocity constant. Therefore, an extreme low frequency needs an extreme high wavelenght.

@firesandflowers Год назад

I'm not very good at crosswords and doubt I could have gotten a SINGLE ONE of those words in that crossword puzzle on my own. I enjoyed listening to how you arrived at the answers though! I was rather impressed each time! 🤯

@johnsouza4391 Год назад

ELF, extremely low frequency. Used by submarines with miles long antennae to communicate when near surface.

@nendwr Год назад

17a was a real shouting at the video one. Especially when he asked "What was the Noel Coward play?" at about 24:40

@Biddlebum Год назад

1A OFF = dispatch. I don't think this is "send off", but "off" as US slang for "kill", which is one meaning of "dispatch".

@nickloader3184 Год назад

Some awesome wordplay and surfaces here. Thank you so much Simon. Very entertaining solve! Got bedlam seconds before Simon and got NEXT quite a while before him which I was pleased about. Totally steamrolled by him with everything else. Magoo and the one who beat him are not even human at this point.

@randomistmech Год назад

low frequency means the waves oscillate slowly, they therefore have a long wavelength, assuming constant speed of transmission.

@jordywalnut1336 Год назад

Went to university in Egham and did not know where it was until I moved in😂 would hate to have tried to solve this beforehand

@highpath4776 Год назад

Egg and Ham make Staines Upon the tablecloth

@tyrgannusgaming6657 Год назад

Whoa, that is long for a cryptic

@susanollington5257 Год назад

I thought, until you got that F in the bottom word, 24 down would be “sin” which could be considered mischievous, and is also an abbreviation for ‘sine’ - Extremely Low Frequency means there’s more time between the waves, they’re infrequent, and therefore wider as they are continuous and also evenly spaced

@flevin58 Год назад

fra is an italian abbreviation of fratello that means brother and is used the same way americans use bro

@gordonglenn2089 Год назад

Yes, that was a tough one! I got EYETEETH and FLAGSHIPS right away, but would never have gotten EGHAM. I also knew DRAMSHOP, but it is a very old term, for sure. I probably read it somewhere in an old novel. I also got ELF before Simon, and even surmised the correct words for that acronym (from my study of trigonometric/circular function graphs, where a lower frequency means that the period of the wave is longer -- not bigger, as the clue implies a larger amplitude or height).

@hellmag Год назад

Uppsala is indeed a University city just north of Stockholm in Sweden.

@randomistmech Год назад

Actually quite shocked with myself as a complete novice at cryptic crosswords getting 6 down on the first attempt, well before Simon. I got the ship reference from Victory and the HIPS, but LAGS was the bit of the clue that I didn't understand until Simon got it. I just knew Victory as a flagship. As an engineer, my vocab is broader than most... mostly because half the words engineers use are not in any dictionary 😅

@grenvillephillips6998 Год назад

I was just delighted to get a few and enjoyed my 45 minutes of trying to think like a solver. Anyone got a link for that TEA program Simon used at the end?

@limegreenelevator Год назад

Not sure if the link would be blocked, but I searched "tea crossword software" and it was the first link.

@grenvillephillips6998 Год назад

@@limegreenelevator Thanks, much appreciated!

@VeritasUnae Год назад

What an incredible puzzle. Very interesting to see all the different kinds of notation and symbols that come together to make answers. I think I got maybe 2 of these a bit quicker or at least as fast as Simon as he was going through it, but I’m looking forward to getting better at cryptics c:

@Raven-Creations Год назад

I can't believe you didn't instantly get flagships, considering some of the other clues you got quite quickly. For a crossword with not particularly obscure words, this was pretty tough.

@psymar Год назад

At the end, with the .ij... words: Rijeka is a city in I believe Croatia. Could the "ur" of figure relate to the "to be" in the clue?

@peterjongsma2779 Год назад

Cheers is often Toast cited as Brown Bread! So Brown Bread is a clue for Cheers. Talk about obscure.

@Aloumun1 Год назад

I was fascinated by this instantly. Thank you for these explanations!

@GordonjSmith1 Год назад

Very much enjoyed that ! Ironically I got Blithe Spirit, Au Pair, and Flag Ships but totally failed to get anything else!! But I will keep trying!

@wildly3 Год назад

HMS Victory was admiral Nelson's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar.

@XdivineExp Год назад

Aww yiss, more cryptic crossword content.

@zmaj12321 Год назад

I like how you think it's mean to use "ELF" since no one's ever heard of it, even though that's how I feel about half of the answers!

@makienxhemmiktar Год назад

I love this channel. Keep it up! (greetings from Malta)

@muhilan8540 Год назад

On the very first clue, I’ve never heard those meanings of both clout and cuff

@ConManAU Год назад

I’d love to see Simon or Mark tackle a cryptic from Australia, possibly one by David Astle (whose initials, when they appear as the setter, are sometimes said to stand for “Don’t Attempt”).

@ColdIceCreamMan Год назад

I'd really like to solve some of those some time but it's really REALLY difficult if you are not a native English speaker. I'm still looking for German variants but those sadly don't reach the same quality.

@bibliopolist Год назад

I like the Zeit Magazin Rätsel a lot. It's not as esoteric and needs more general knowlegde rather than just technical ability than British cryptic crosswords, but has a lot of wordplay and anagrams, too.

@Shif80 Год назад

Trust me, it’s really REALLY difficult even if you are a native English speaker!

@highpath4776 Год назад

@@Shif80 A lot of americanisms in this one.

@orosma868 Год назад

This is really hard even if you are a native English speaker, so our non-native speakers should be proud that they can even follow the video commentary! I applaud you!

@ColdIceCreamMan Год назад

@@bibliopolist thanks for the tip. I'll try that one, was a bit taken back that you need to subscribe to Zeit for that.

@richnewt Год назад

I think 14:18 was the first time I've ever got a times crossword clue straight away.

@B1GB1RDB4G3L Год назад

Thank you Simon. I love your crossword vids

@deniseiln Год назад

"My brain is substandard". Simon, I can't see what's swirling around in your mind, but from the outside... I'm not seeing anything even faintly substandard. Human, admittedly, but not substandard. Be kind to yourself, please.

@Mopetn Год назад

I consider myself understanding English reasonably well, but this is absolutely out of reach for me. Still stunning to watch! Is there something similar in German?

@bensen6328 Год назад

It's not exactly the same but "Um die Ecke gedacht" by "Die Zeit" is the closest thing I know of

@plum2584 Год назад

I got Bedlam before Simon, though I spelled it wrong in my head 😂

@markscottuk Год назад

What was the software you used at 49:30?

@zmaj12321 Год назад

8d is quite a nice &lit

@matthewjohnson6360 Год назад

The Rutherford one, I would have put in the clue US president

@harryishairy Год назад

Good stuff

@R.Daneel Год назад

@14:23 Nice.

@thomasadamcc Год назад

Nice solve, and an interesting crossword by The Times' standards. But it doesn't seem overly difficult compared to the cryptic crosswords published in the Gruaniad, in my (humble) opinion.

@richardclegg8027 Год назад

Not sure I agree there. I can do most of the guardian most days. Here I felt I did not have much chance.

@dimitrosskrippka2154 Год назад

Ive been learning English for 15 years and i have no idea what's going on here(

@minh9545 Год назад

YAY!

@AngrySanta Год назад

I love cryptic crosswords. I do wish they would make there way to the U.S. Many of the ones I do have abbreviations specific to the region I'm not familiar with.

@highpath4776 Год назад

Simon did a (NY Times ?) one the other week

@AngrySanta Год назад

@@highpath4776 That would be the UK Times. I understand the confusion.

@highpath4776 Год назад

@@AngrySanta I know one of them did a US one but I could not recall the paper name, Washington Post ?

@kilimanjarocruz660 Год назад

The New Yorker magazine occasionally publishes some Cryptics.

@AngrySanta Год назад

@@highpath4776 I'll look into that.

@Wildhorn666 Год назад

These words are out of my non-english brain league.

@dylanspiderman2517 Год назад

I love the concept of these puzzles, but find the reliance on archaic abbreviations and colonial British military history rather infuriating. It just sort of contributes to this feeling that cryptic crosswords are a fusty, outdated kind of puzzle. Would love to see some cryptics updated for the 21st century.