The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: Episode 36

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  • Опубликовано: 9 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 114

  • @arekfu1980
    @arekfu1980 Год назад +48

    "You can't abbreviate any word to its initial" is the new "it's a secret I only tell to my favourite people".

    • @Math.Bandit
      @Math.Bandit Год назад

      😂

    • @Anne_Mahoney
      @Anne_Mahoney Год назад

      Oddly, I don't think we've ever seen a word you *can't* abbreviate to its first letter.

  • @sebastienlecoq3956
    @sebastienlecoq3956 Год назад +38

    Simon doing crossword : get the word, explain it, knows the answer, still reluctant to write it
    Mark doing crossword : get the cryptic, 'I don't know if it is a word, but it might be', write it and goes on.
    34:12 : I really want to talk with you at parties.

  • @Jeeroj
    @Jeeroj Год назад +2

    I love watching these videos each week, thank you for making them!

  • @beanielowery6017
    @beanielowery6017 9 месяцев назад +1

    i love that simon always says his bit about initials and shows them in the dictionary, but that man could tell me that QZ was an initialism for the feeling you get when it's Sunday night and you have to go to work in the morning and I would believe every word of it.

  • @amysteele2488
    @amysteele2488 Год назад +5

    Another example of flower meaning best - "O flower of Scotland..."

  • @chris_wicksteed
    @chris_wicksteed Год назад +20

    I'm familiar with the 'crack'/'check' synonym from ceramics, where a 'cracked' glaze could be described as being 'checked'.

    • @mace9770
      @mace9770 Год назад

      Simon will know it from guitar finishes too.

  • @bryanroland9402
    @bryanroland9402 Год назад +19

    Did a search and quickly found this phrase: "The flower of our generation bloomed and perished during the four months of the First Battle of the Somme." "Flower" isn't so unusual in the sense of "best". Always enjoy the Friday crossword solve.

    • @GeorgeFrideric71
      @GeorgeFrideric71 Год назад +1

      Very confused by the amount of people here who use 'solve' as a noun. Can anyone explain it?

    • @hyprlynk374
      @hyprlynk374 Год назад +2

      @@GeorgeFrideric71 I guess it's a pretty colloquial example of a "deverbal noun," Wikipedia lists "a fisherman's catch" and "to go for a walk" as examples.

    • @bryanroland9402
      @bryanroland9402 Год назад

      @@GeorgeFrideric71 As @hyprlynk374 pointed out, the function of nouns and verbs are often interchangeable in English. "Solution" makes us think of the finished puzzle while "solve" is used to denote the process of solving it.

  • @maxlexam
    @maxlexam Год назад +15

    My wife and I usually watch your sudoku videos and just discovered this hellish thing you call crosswords. I'm hooked, it was a fantastic watch and English isn't even my main language. Seeing how playful you are is incredibly charming. Thanks a lot for sharing your passion!

  • @keithlewis7205
    @keithlewis7205 Год назад +6

    Love my weekly fix of cryptic crosswords!

  • @sh4dowchas3r
    @sh4dowchas3r Год назад +17

    Did you check sestet? seems to be a variant of sextet or the last 6 lines of a sonnet. anyway it's (6 + 20) * 3 = 78

  • @martinyyt
    @martinyyt Год назад +9

    I rarely get any of the answers but boy was I "shouting" kirkyard at Simon. Helps to be Scottish. Nice to be called a complete genius! 😄

  • @marksmith1721
    @marksmith1721 Год назад +7

    I liked the video and added a comment. You did not ask for a comment but you deserve it. I like the crosswords better than the sudoku’s these days. But I rarely get an answer. It’s amazing how you can solve these.

  • @KeplersDream
    @KeplersDream Год назад +5

    One of the Discworld books (sorry, can't remember which) has a reference to a guy working at an Ankh-Morpork chip shop, whom the characters swore was Elvish.

    • @richardlawrence6619
      @richardlawrence6619 Год назад

      Soul Music; music with rocks in (supplied by the trolls) 😂

  • @DianaDeacon-z5g
    @DianaDeacon-z5g Год назад +1

    I look forward to these videos every week, and today’s did not disappoint! Just the right balance between awe at Simon’s skill and a little chance or two to yell at the screen…very nicely, of course.

  • @Jacobi111
    @Jacobi111 Год назад

    Good to have the reminder to like the video. Always like them but rarely press the button

  • @janet-dn2ot
    @janet-dn2ot Год назад +2

    Wonderful as always! I love all the little asides, this week's star being the bouncing that your father's colleagues performed when someone shouted "Bob around" to herald his arrival into the office! I just wish I could remember the new long words as well!

  • @stevewood8
    @stevewood8 Год назад +3

    That moment when the penny drops is always entertaining to watch - we then get let in on the secret of how it works. Great fun.

  • @christhecyclist5998
    @christhecyclist5998 Год назад +1

    Thanks for the crossword content, as always.

  • @frewid
    @frewid Год назад +1

    Thank you for another fantastic crossword video. I do enjoy these very much. I have learned a lot from these videos over the past year. I no longer feel not being from UK is holding me back. I now I always try to do the Times friday crossword before I watch these friday videos :). Even if I do get the solution it is nice to watch videos if one does not fully understand the reference in the clues. Keep up the good work!

  • @notthatkindofdoctor5911
    @notthatkindofdoctor5911 Год назад

    Hearing the most British like-request ever is why I subscribed to this channel.

  • @deaneshort4111
    @deaneshort4111 Год назад +4

    Love the crossword content. I'm making my debut tomorrow and hoping not to embarrass myself - will come and say hello. Good luck

    • @Alex_Meadows
      @Alex_Meadows Год назад +1

      Good luck to you too, let us know next week how you got on!

  • @richfield4405
    @richfield4405 Год назад +1

    Brilliant video as always, day by day we are improving with your help.
    I did abbreviate Simon & Mark and googled it, wasn't what I expected!

  • @davidrattner9
    @davidrattner9 Год назад +1

    So wish able to come tomorrow and introduce myself to you Simon, along with other fellow puzzlers.
    Best of luck during the championship.
    More wonderful enjoyment to get this Friday started with you working your magic in sokving these for us!

  • @Emmibean77
    @Emmibean77 Год назад

    I love these videos! Look forward to them all week. Best of luck in the competition to any who is participating!

  • @Anne_Mahoney
    @Anne_Mahoney Год назад

    I love the Friday master class!
    I hope the crossword championship has gone well and that you both had fun.😺💖

  • @jimmycanfly9764
    @jimmycanfly9764 Год назад +1

    Good solve again, Simon! 🎉

  • @kevinmartin957
    @kevinmartin957 Год назад +1

    For 10 across I thought "lge" was also short for "large", "duck"="o" (as in duck-egg or goose-egg meaning zero), "day" = "d", so "duck wanting day"="od", "lge" (with) "od" in gives "lodge".
    But "duck wanting day"=("dodge" missing "d") seems much better.

  • @tajmahalfred
    @tajmahalfred Год назад +7

    The one semi common use of "flower" as "best" I've encountered is the phrase "flower of chivalry" to refer to superlative knights in armor

  • @glum_hippo
    @glum_hippo Год назад +3

    Hi! Ghlight of my week

  • @thanderhop1489
    @thanderhop1489 Год назад

    Ooh, I got conservatories and elvish immediately when Simon read the clues :)

  • @ashleyjordan8869
    @ashleyjordan8869 Год назад +2

    Checking happens in paintwork on nitro covered electric guitars. It’s a crack int the finish that creates a checked pattern.

  • @spanielwoman
    @spanielwoman Год назад

    Thanks

  • @jimmahT
    @jimmahT Год назад +1

    Best of luck Simon!!

  • @Єнот-т4й
    @Єнот-т4й Год назад

    If it helps with the algo (and your decision to continue with the Friday cryptics!), this is the main reason I joined this channel!

  • @d4r4butler74
    @d4r4butler74 Год назад

    Always love the crosswords!

  • @peterdunlop7691
    @peterdunlop7691 Год назад

    Great video! Love the crossword solves.

  • @longwaytotipperary
    @longwaytotipperary Год назад +2

    Actually got one of answers - Sinai - as soon as Simon reminded us an answer could be hidden within the clue. I guessed tablets were the ones in the Bible. Simon’s enthusiastic and humorous solving brings sunshine to this dreary day! Good luck on the championship puzzling tomorrow. Jealous of those of you in a position to possibly run into Simon while he’s out and about! Oh yeah, the Elvis clue was my favorite!

    • @davidrattner9
      @davidrattner9 Год назад +1

      That is awesome my friend that you got the answer!! Proud of you as you should be of yourself!! ❤💜🫠

    • @longwaytotipperary
      @longwaytotipperary Год назад +1

      @@davidrattner9 Thank you, David! That’s one of the very few times I got the answer before Simon told us what it was (mere seconds before…) 😁 💕💕

  • @MarcMcMillin
    @MarcMcMillin Год назад

    thank you and good luck! 🙂

  • @andrewshelley410
    @andrewshelley410 Год назад

    Checks, shakes and splits. All common parlance in timber defects.

  • @riotblob
    @riotblob Год назад

    Wow, according to Simon I’m a genius. Thanks, Simon!
    Very much enjoyed the video, as usual, and this crossword had some really fun clues in it. One in particular seemed to be cleverly quoting a song from Beyoncé’s early years …
    🎶 I don’t want no tat, a tat is a product that is banned completely by me 🎶

  • @martinwilson5210
    @martinwilson5210 Год назад

    Thank you, nice solve and well explained

  • @bibliopolist
    @bibliopolist Год назад +7

    sestet doesn't mean eighteen, but six... (6 + 20) * 3 = 78...

  • @heatherallan9767
    @heatherallan9767 Год назад

    ✨thank you

  • @10prozenthimmel
    @10prozenthimmel Год назад

    Love your videos and find they help with my mental health.
    As a math teacher: 32:40 - try parentheses (6+20)x3 =78

  • @trisha2584
    @trisha2584 Год назад

    Good luck to Mark and Simon for tomorrows times crossword competition

  • @arthurcharest9061
    @arthurcharest9061 Год назад

    Thanks Simon, I was finally able to get one!

  • @KestrelQ
    @KestrelQ Год назад +1

    Yay, time to expand my mind! Good luck tomorrow :)

  • @tajmahalfred
    @tajmahalfred Год назад +5

    Nice alignment of "viral clickbait" too

  • @jonathanallan5007
    @jonathanallan5007 Год назад

    I am terrible at the "quick" part of cryptics, but I love these videos.

  • @peterw4974
    @peterw4974 Год назад

    Thank you for another excellent Friday Crossword masterclass.
    Whenever I see VERMILION, I think of a Brazilian short film "BMW Vermelha"*, ("Red BMW", 2000), which Channel 4 showed about 20 years ago. The sound of one character (a smarmy TV host), rolling the "r" in "vermelha", as he presents said car as a prize to a poverty stricken favela family (who by the terms of the competition cannot sell it for 2 years) always plays in my mind. I see this short film is now on RUclips, but alas with no subtitles.
    Best of luck to Simon and Mark at tomorrow's Times Crossword Championship!
    [*Edit: Thank you Jason D for correction. Correct title is "BMW Vermelho" (dir. Reinaldo Pinheiro, 2000). Broadcast on TV in the UK by Channel 4, early hours of Sunday 14th April 2002.]

  • @Cthulhus_Mum
    @Cthulhus_Mum Месяц назад

    Sestet is a group of six; sestet with score is 26, so sestet with score in triplicate is 26x3=78 😊

  • @emilywilliams3237
    @emilywilliams3237 Год назад

    Best of luck tomorrow, Simon, to both you and Mark, at the Times Crossword Championship - I will be watching Twitter (or whatever I am supposed to call it now) for reports!!

  • @nickloader3184
    @nickloader3184 Год назад +2

    Brilliant grid! Who's the setter? Excellent solve too. Only managed to get CONSERVATORIES and work out why it was LODGE faster than Simon. The rest he was leagues ahead with haha.

    • @archivist17
      @archivist17 Год назад

      I was battling with Conservatoires for ages!

    • @Alex_Meadows
      @Alex_Meadows Год назад +2

      I know the feeling! Briefly smug to get "kirkyard" before Simon, offset by Simon getting every single other clue way before me.

    • @TheMajorr86
      @TheMajorr86 Год назад +1

      I'm halfway through the video and still yelling "CONS....TORIES...RAVE MIXED UP IS ERVA" any time he dances around that clue. I don't even know British politics that well to say the Tories are the right.

  • @TheFrogfather1
    @TheFrogfather1 Год назад

    12 ac reminds me of a splendid pun in Pratchett's Soul Music :)

  • @oldmoves
    @oldmoves Год назад

    Nice solve Captain “Kirk” (captain church) James T. Kirk (The Church of James in England. Very nice.

  • @Raven-Creations
    @Raven-Creations Год назад

    Despite what the dictionary said, bass is not a kind of perch. Some are in the order Perciformes, meaning "perch-like", but all perch are in the family Percidae, and none of the bass species is in that family.
    11A large=L duck=dodge, remove d for day, leaving odge.
    Sestet is six [lines of a poem], 3 * (6 + 20) = 78.
    Cracks in lumber are called checks. Fans of Matt Cremona, or Out of the Woods RUclips channels will be familiar with the term.
    There were a few nice clues in this one. I quite liked kirkyard, lodge, and elvish. Gimlet was quite cute too.

  • @richardfarrer5616
    @richardfarrer5616 Год назад

    William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke was a knight templar known as the Flower of Chivalry because he was considered the best example of it.

  • @Frankacy40k
    @Frankacy40k Год назад +1

    Good morning super friends!

  • @markcroxteth2108
    @markcroxteth2108 Год назад

    I watch every week. Should add comment. so....super. I'll just type 'super' from now on.

  • @jarvisa12345
    @jarvisa12345 Год назад +1

    39:33 I got ‘kirkyard’ immediately so that means I am a complete genius.🙂

    • @hermitoldguy6312
      @hermitoldguy6312 Год назад +1

      ... or Scottish.

    • @jarvisa12345
      @jarvisa12345 Год назад +2

      @@hermitoldguy6312 I am English… so a complete genius then.
      I used to work in Aberdeen from time to time though.

    • @hermitoldguy6312
      @hermitoldguy6312 Год назад +1

      @@jarvisa12345 I lived in Cumbria for 14 years, and still couldn't speak the language.

  • @thejeqff
    @thejeqff Год назад

    A highlight of my week, as always.
    Question for both Simon and Mark: I've noticed that you're reluctant to put in a partial answer even if you're confident that part of the answer is right (particularly for hyphenated or multi-word answers). Is that a tactic that expert solvers use to ensure they're not inadvertently making mistakes or more of a personal preference when solving? It seems like it could be helpful for certain hard clues where part of it seems clear but the rest may require more thinking, but I'm a pretty novice cryptic solver so I may be missing something.

  • @stuartgoesbirding8999
    @stuartgoesbirding8999 Год назад

    Seventy Eight is also the right hand down answer in today’s Guardian quick crossword (more my level!)

  • @maribelfarnsworth4565
    @maribelfarnsworth4565 Год назад

    "Kirkyard" was almost immediately obvious to me - and I'm not Scottish... Likewise "flower" as a synonym for "best".

  • @blakebarnett9319
    @blakebarnett9319 Год назад +2

    Quite niche, but the RUclips series "Epic Rap Battles of History" had an episode with Albert Einstein who had the line
    I'm as dope as two rappers, you'd better be scared
    'cause that means Albert E equals emcee squared

  • @jonnevitu4979
    @jonnevitu4979 Год назад +3

    Good morning people \o/

  • @grenvillephillips6998
    @grenvillephillips6998 Год назад

    Entertained while being educated - what could be better?

  • @JalebJay
    @JalebJay Год назад +1

    17:49 who knew? I could imagine a lot of millenials would know it because it's the name of a city in the original Pokemon games. Granted you realized the name of all of the cities were a variation of colors throughout the rainbow. :)

  • @philipbrooks402
    @philipbrooks402 Год назад

    Kirkyard, who remembers Greyfriars Bobby?

  • @sanabas1
    @sanabas1 Год назад +1

    sestet isn't 18, sestet is a 6 line poem. So sestet with score is 26, and 26 x 3 = 78.

  • @DontMockMySmock
    @DontMockMySmock Год назад

    "I'm as dope as two rappers, you'd best be scared / Because that means Albert E equals EMCEE SQUARED!"
    -Fictional Albert Einstein from ERB

  • @DuncanBooth
    @DuncanBooth Год назад

    I looked up bass and apparently the name comes from middle English 'bars' meaning 'perch' but the fish isn't actually related to the perch.

  • @chantalb7643
    @chantalb7643 Год назад

    Support comment ☺

  • @othmanelahlou5158
    @othmanelahlou5158 Год назад

    Does anyone know please the name of the song in the outro?

  • @archivist17
    @archivist17 Год назад +2

    How dare you say Tolkein invented Elvish! 😮 He merely recorded it 😉

  • @stephanieb.g.912
    @stephanieb.g.912 Год назад

    This why I'm not good at these. My brain went O (for the same reason as Simon) per (kind of, the word perch) and A ("a singer") OPERA. No. I guess im going to stick to the lovatts cryptics. Very simple.😅

    • @craftsmanwoodturner
      @craftsmanwoodturner Год назад +1

      Don't be hard on yourself - that was good thinking, it just happened not to be right in this instance.

  • @KL005
    @KL005 Год назад

    BOOM
    LUENN PAHH THE LUEN LUEN LUEN LUEN

  • @twobitera
    @twobitera 8 месяцев назад

    Honestly, I kind of dislike clues like 26 across. Just the definition and "it's a palindrome" with no real word play, imo. Sure, the checking letters can go twice as far, but if you don't know the word, there isn't much you can do to work it out.

  • @gertebert
    @gertebert Год назад +1

    I did not know CTC was monetized. Those annoying commercials which were away for years are back again. Horrible.

    • @WayneField
      @WayneField Год назад +1

      Sounds like you previously had RUclips Premium and now you don't?

    • @bibliopolist
      @bibliopolist Год назад +1

      Sounds like you previously had an adblocker and now you don't?

    • @Math.Bandit
      @Math.Bandit Год назад +2

      How dare these people who record 60+ minutes of content for us literally every single day be compensated for their labour.

    • @jacksonvance7219
      @jacksonvance7219 Год назад +1

      So you want them to make hours of content for your enjoyment, but receive no money or compensation in return. Quite literally the least you can do is watch a 15 second add in return for all CTC does.

    • @BryanLu0
      @BryanLu0 Год назад

      Welcome to RUclips, where advertisements are run to make a living.

  • @rockhopper_penguin
    @rockhopper_penguin Год назад

    Excellent solve, as always Simon. I really appreciate these videos so I'm leaving my weekly comment to help St Algorithmus