Simon continues to amaze me with these solves! The sheer number of puzzles he must have done combined with vocabulary and extensive knowledge of culture and literature….take a bow Simon, as you often say of constructors. ❤
I greatly enjoyed this solve. And I am thankful for the Comments Section filling in for those sections that Simon did not quite get while solving. People are the greatest resource.
@@thescrewfly sure, believe what you want. interesting, how so many words in the world have different spellings but the British and French have the same. And it is always the french.
@@LednacekZHey Simon, you've made it! You've got your very first troll. An oddly articulate and passive-aggressive troll, but here they are, check it out!
First definition when you clicked on “of” (after you’d searched for “of all”) in the dictionary was “from”, thought you were going to realise it then! S + OF + TB + ALL
Been looking forward to this video since I checked the snitch rating this morning. I solved three clues in about half an hour before giving up and deciding it would be more entertaining to watch someone else solve it!
"Pains in rear" -> "s" "from" -> "of" (e.g. "Jesus of Nazareth" means "Jesus from Nazareth") "nasty infection" -> "TB" "for the duration of the" -> "all" (e.g. "I've been waiting all day" means "I've been waiting for the duration of the day") "game" -> "softball" As for the wordplay for "superego", I'm not quite sure. "One for the road" might be something like "sup ere go"? Like "I'll eat this right before I go"? I think I'm missing something. No idea about "litre" apart from what Simon said in the video.
I might have given up on today's crossword if I hadn't seen the title of this video. That was enough to resolve me to finish, and I did indeed finish with all correct and parsed (with no use of aids). Feeling rather pleased with myself, and will now enjoy watching Simon struggle!
If there's ever another difficult one like this, please do your normal version then please also do a video where Mark just rips through it with no explanation! It would be neat to see how he tackles a puzzle like this naturally
Yorkshire's been long split into four smaller bits of Yorkshire: North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire are all counties in their own right
Doesn't reading the short definition as 'historic county' mean the E after shirk cycled is unjustified in the clue? If we instead read the short def as 'county' alone, then 'about historic' could give 'era' abbreviated to justify the E?
Fair, I had it as 'YOR' in my brain, mostly due to the cursor movement when Simon was explaining, and I just assumed it was some uncommon spelling I was ignorant of😅
These videos have become my Saturday morning treat. Simon, you are just an inspiration. I love hearing your thought processes and commentaries. Thank you for making these every week.
I always look through the clues before I watch this and only got 1 on a quick pass, so I looked up the stats. Immediately realised it was an * incredibly* difficult puzzle.. This is written before I see your solve - so good luck.
Been waiting for this weeks video to be able to say that I completed my first Guardian cryptic this week. But it pales into insignificance after watching this solve 😂. Absolutely amazing. Thank you for making these videos
This is the first time I've watched someone decipher a cryptic crossword. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. Thank you. One tiny change I'd loved to see would be if you could zoom in more on the clues. Even a little bit more would be be a help.
There are multiple counties that make up the area that was the historical version of Yorkshire. Technically there is no county just called Yorkshire now. The rivers that run through Aberdeen are the Don and the Dee.
Love you guys never managed to solve a cryptic crossword but ive bought the how to crack the cryptic and am getting through clues, sadly my vocabulary is still insufficient for several clues each puzzle but by bobbins I’ll get there eventually! Thank you for the inspiration
This was a doozy, a real humdinger. I don't know why you struggled to justify litre. You knew it was flipped, so you have ertil plus FE giving fertile. Similarly with superego, sup-ere-go = drink before going, or one for the road, and the superego is the part of the subconscious which deals with conscience and restraint. You finally got Marsala = Mars (warring figure) + a la (after). This was simple once the clue was parsed correctly. (The spice mix is masala.) There are too many great clues in this to name, but I really enjoyed mankini, and I always like clues with Spoonerisms. Keep 'em coming. This is the highlight of my week. I don't know what you do differently when posting these videos, but I frequently am not notified about them, whereas I'm (nearly) always notified about the sudokus. Over the past two months, I've only been notified once, perhaps twice.
I couldn’t believe how difficult this one was. For ages I was staring at a grid with only one or two answers in. Gradually I got it done though. 44 minutes is my worst time ever!
Using 'what's before me' to clue 're', 'after' to clue 'ala' and 'in business' to clue 'on'... Lots of fiendish wordplay in this crossword - no wonder it kept everyone guessing. Congrats to setter and Simon. Sup ere go! Genius...
Simon : let's look rabbit.. on screen : small mammal from the leporidea family Scanning Simon : "nope, don't see the lepor root here. " Don't take it bad that we notice your small issues Simon, They are drown by you genius anyway. ❤
Random (easy) cryptic crossword clue I've just thought of: (DOWN CLUE) High flying bird's first feather left falling over Austria (6) (hit "Read more" for the answer) Definition: High-flying bird. Wordplay: "First" clues the first letter of the alphabet, A. "Feather" is QUILL, "left falling" means we lose a letter L to be left with QUIL, and "over Austria" refers to the IVR abbreviation for Austria, A. The word "over" requires this to be a down clue. A+QUIL+A = AQUILA, which is the eagle constellation.
Given this difficult of a puzzle, the fact I got 4A before Simon right away is enough for me to feel a genius. I may close down the video and say I have had 100% success on the hardest crossword ever.
And the superego is what Freud described as the part of the psyche that contains the moral compass and the conscience, hence the “stop indulging” bit. Very clever Edit: commented before he looked up the definition 🙃
I thought just: one for the road = something to avoid that is tempting. Superego = what keeps you from it, stops you indulging. But I haven't really go a clue
"One for the road" is an expression that means one more bite/sip of food/drink before you head out, which is why it becomes "sup 'ere go", as joseph broke down in the original comment.
Hi, Simon. You've often mentioned your love of Tolkien in these videos. May I ask which works you've read? I assume LotR and The Hobbit, but have you read the more obscure titles such as The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales? Perhaps you may even have found your way to The History of Middle-Earth?
I love these crosswords, and I adore Simon and his way of explaining, but when a couple weeks ago I saw Mark doing a crossword I felt like he should do them more often, it’s nice to have some variation! What do you think?
14A is fertile, with f_e removed and the rest reversed. 18A is sup ere go - i.e. one for the road. 28A I'd also point out that a bullring is "lower ground" - where there is an animal that lows. No idea about 1D.
If you want to parse litre, try turning the whole answer around - ERTIL. If Further Education can be abbreviated FE, what comes to mind? That's one of the few I could parse.
I'm certain that if Simon adopted his own advice about revolutionised being a reversal indicator, and then read ERTIL out loud, it would've been obvious. Not a criticism, solving something this brutal 'live' is a masterful feat.
I had to go to bed with four clues unsolved. Fortunately, when I woke up in the morning, I was able to finish. My time was about two hours, but I did solve it! Let's see how Simon does.
Absolutely lovely video yet again! I've been wondering, can someone tell me if it's possible/legal to anagram a w into two V's or U's? And does the same go for M and N?
I wonder if they accidentally put the MCS one up today. It would explain the Snitch. (edit - As I actually recognise the words in the finished grid, that's obviously not the case).
Chambers is the standard dictionary used by setters (according to Wikipedia because it contains more dialect, archaic and unconventional words than the alternatives). It makes sense that solvers (esp CTC, who are trying to show what the setter was thinking) would do the same.
would there be any mileage in doing a live stream community solve of a crossword? we are all sat watching shouting random words at the screen. Maybe on Patreon?
@@bobblebardsley Googling a little, the more you look the more complex it gets. One thing common in all that I looked at is that Yorkshire is a historic county name.
@@steveunderwood3683 Yeah I got very confused too! I don't think we have a single definition of 'county', there's anywhere from about 27 of them to 80ish depending on which you include.
@@bobblebardsley In 1974 the county of Yorkshire, which had been so large as to be split into three subunits known as ridings (East, West and North) was radically changed and three new counties were formed (which had only a loose similarity to the previous county). The new counties were called North, West and South Yorkshire. Most of the old East Riding was added to a part of Lincolnshire to form a new county called "Humberside". Some years later, after protests Humberside was abolished and the part north of the Humber was renamed the East Riding of Yorkshire. Not quite the same as the old (pre 1974) East Riding, but close.
Re: the quick crossword. If "the fall of Kamala Harris" has nothing to do with Kamala Harris, then why is Kamala Harris mentioned in the clue? I don't understand why she is mentioned at all or how her name relates to the wordplay, or why it is such a brilliant clue.
Kamala Harris is, for the purposes of the clue, a random American. I believe she was chosen because "the fall of" is misdirection by the setter and "the fall" is the American equivalent for "autumn"
Simon continues to amaze me with these solves! The sheer number of puzzles he must have done combined with vocabulary and extensive knowledge of culture and literature….take a bow Simon, as you often say of constructors. ❤
I greatly enjoyed this solve. And I am thankful for the Comments Section filling in for those sections that Simon did not quite get while solving. People are the greatest resource.
Just letting the algorithm know that although this was an impossible puzzle, it was fun to watch Simon tame it
Especially because this is hard, the videos are worth the watch
Rich [Fertile], released from Further Education (FE) [Ertil], revolutionized [Litre] Capacity
I was so proud that I managed to work that one out before looking at the comments.
i really hate the french spelling of litre and metre.
@@LednacekZ They 're also the British spellings.
@@thescrewfly sure, believe what you want. interesting, how so many words in the world have different spellings but the British and French have the same. And it is always the french.
@@LednacekZHey Simon, you've made it! You've got your very first troll. An oddly articulate and passive-aggressive troll, but here they are, check it out!
First definition when you clicked on “of” (after you’d searched for “of all”) in the dictionary was “from”, thought you were going to realise it then!
S + OF + TB + ALL
Saw that too.... couldn't believe simon missed it .... also couldnt see rich= fertile reversed with no f or e
to be fair F is also a valid abbreviation of from...
but I am so bad at these, love watching the thought patterns though
Been looking forward to this video since I checked the snitch rating this morning. I solved three clues in about half an hour before giving up and deciding it would be more entertaining to watch someone else solve it!
one for the road = a drink before you go = sup ere go
Ouch!
What I kept thinking, but Simon didn't twig.
Came looking for this comment - it was the only clue I got myself 😆
"Pains in rear" -> "s"
"from" -> "of" (e.g. "Jesus of Nazareth" means "Jesus from Nazareth")
"nasty infection" -> "TB"
"for the duration of the" -> "all" (e.g. "I've been waiting all day" means "I've been waiting for the duration of the day")
"game" -> "softball"
As for the wordplay for "superego", I'm not quite sure. "One for the road" might be something like "sup ere go"? Like "I'll eat this right before I go"? I think I'm missing something.
No idea about "litre" apart from what Simon said in the video.
"Rich": FERTILE
"Released from Further Education": remove the F and E
Leaves ERTIL
"Revolutionized": turn the word around -> LITRE
I might have given up on today's crossword if I hadn't seen the title of this video. That was enough to resolve me to finish, and I did indeed finish with all correct and parsed (with no use of aids). Feeling rather pleased with myself, and will now enjoy watching Simon struggle!
@38:50 The Dee and the Don are two rivers that both flow through the Scottish city of Aberdeen (I only know that because it's where I grew up. Lol.)
If there's ever another difficult one like this, please do your normal version then please also do a video where Mark just rips through it with no explanation! It would be neat to see how he tackles a puzzle like this naturally
Was watching with the Closed Caption on and “because I love Tolkien” came up as “because I love talking”. Well, it amused me.
Talking out loud to yourself all the time becomes a hobbit.
Yorkshire's been long split into four smaller bits of Yorkshire: North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire are all counties in their own right
Doesn't reading the short definition as 'historic county' mean the E after shirk cycled is unjustified in the clue? If we instead read the short def as 'county' alone, then 'about historic' could give 'era' abbreviated to justify the E?
@@StuartECrisp no, the the E is coming from "YORE" meaning "the old days". "RSHIRK" is then put _in_ that.
Fair, I had it as 'YOR' in my brain, mostly due to the cursor movement when Simon was explaining, and I just assumed it was some uncommon spelling I was ignorant of😅
I thought of shire being an old word for county but I don’t know if it’s considered historic
i think this must be right, presumably it's historic as in it was once all one country but no longer is
Liking this for an entirely different reason this time: for the ability to will away the urge to sneeze. Remarkable.
Reminds me of that John Green video "Sneezing is not normal."
I find rubbing my nose vigorously works much better when I absolutely shouldn't sneeze
Talking about Superego ... 😎
Excellent learning for us, Simon. Please keep going!!
These videos have become my Saturday morning treat. Simon, you are just an inspiration. I love hearing your thought processes and commentaries. Thank you for making these every week.
Just wow, completely amazed by your genius solving.
I always look through the clues before I watch this and only got 1 on a quick pass, so I looked up the stats. Immediately realised it was an * incredibly* difficult puzzle.. This is written before I see your solve - so good luck.
Been waiting for this weeks video to be able to say that I completed my first Guardian cryptic this week. But it pales into insignificance after watching this solve 😂. Absolutely amazing. Thank you for making these videos
Adil Rashid is an English international leg-spin bowler, mostly in T20 and One Day cricket
Yep🙂 You could also have Afghanistan leggie Rashid Khan too I guess 🙃
I'm always so excited to come back from the gym to watch this Masterclass!
Masala is the Indian spice mix. Marsala is the Italian fortified wine.
And Chicken Marsala is an Italian dish of chicken with mushrooms and Marsala wine.
The English and their intrusive "R" doesn't help with this.
Simon, you are the most brutally pleasant person I’ve ever seen or heard.
Been looking forward to this since I saw the Snitch rating this morning
A brilliant puzzle, so many great clues!
This is the first time I've watched someone decipher a cryptic crossword. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot.
Thank you.
One tiny change I'd loved to see would be if you could zoom in more on the clues. Even a little bit more would be be a help.
There are multiple counties that make up the area that was the historical version of Yorkshire. Technically there is no county just called Yorkshire now. The rivers that run through Aberdeen are the Don and the Dee.
I didn't know about the Don in Aberdeen, I was thinking about the one in Russia and was very confused!
Thank you, Simon.
Enjoyed this, thank you!
Love you guys never managed to solve a cryptic crossword but ive bought the how to crack the cryptic and am getting through clues, sadly my vocabulary is still insufficient for several clues each puzzle but by bobbins I’ll get there eventually! Thank you for the inspiration
The genus name for a Hare is Lepus.
This was a doozy, a real humdinger.
I don't know why you struggled to justify litre. You knew it was flipped, so you have ertil plus FE giving fertile.
Similarly with superego, sup-ere-go = drink before going, or one for the road, and the superego is the part of the subconscious which deals with conscience and restraint.
You finally got Marsala = Mars (warring figure) + a la (after). This was simple once the clue was parsed correctly. (The spice mix is masala.)
There are too many great clues in this to name, but I really enjoyed mankini, and I always like clues with Spoonerisms.
Keep 'em coming. This is the highlight of my week. I don't know what you do differently when posting these videos, but I frequently am not notified about them, whereas I'm (nearly) always notified about the sudokus. Over the past two months, I've only been notified once, perhaps twice.
I couldn’t believe how difficult this one was. For ages I was staring at a grid with only one or two answers in. Gradually I got it done though. 44 minutes is my worst time ever!
Using 'what's before me' to clue 're', 'after' to clue 'ala' and 'in business' to clue 'on'... Lots of fiendish wordplay in this crossword - no wonder it kept everyone guessing. Congrats to setter and Simon.
Sup ere go! Genius...
Simon : let's look rabbit..
on screen : small mammal from the leporidea family
Scanning Simon : "nope, don't see the lepor root here. "
Don't take it bad that we notice your small issues Simon, They are drown by you genius anyway. ❤
I saw the snitch rating this morning and was mindblown. Definitely not attempting it myself!
Random (easy) cryptic crossword clue I've just thought of:
(DOWN CLUE) High flying bird's first feather left falling over Austria (6)
(hit "Read more" for the answer)
Definition: High-flying bird.
Wordplay: "First" clues the first letter of the alphabet, A. "Feather" is QUILL, "left falling" means we lose a letter L to be left with QUIL, and "over Austria" refers to the IVR abbreviation for Austria, A. The word "over" requires this to be a down clue.
A+QUIL+A = AQUILA, which is the eagle constellation.
Superego is defined by "this may stop me indulging" and one for the road? means sup ere go
I can't believe you came up with superego so fast but then didn't know what it meant!! 😂
We love to see it!
Given this difficult of a puzzle, the fact I got 4A before Simon right away is enough for me to feel a genius. I may close down the video and say I have had 100% success on the hardest crossword ever.
(spoiler)
Eat (sup) before (ere) leaving (go). One for the road. :)
The way I SCREAMED when I finally figured this out!!! What a genius clue, what a genius puzzle
And the superego is what Freud described as the part of the psyche that contains the moral compass and the conscience, hence the “stop indulging” bit. Very clever
Edit: commented before he looked up the definition 🙃
I still don't understand
I thought just: one for the road = something to avoid that is tempting. Superego = what keeps you from it, stops you indulging. But I haven't really go a clue
"One for the road" is an expression that means one more bite/sip of food/drink before you head out, which is why it becomes "sup 'ere go", as joseph broke down in the original comment.
There was a part of a tree in the corner 😇
Hi, Simon. You've often mentioned your love of Tolkien in these videos. May I ask which works you've read? I assume LotR and The Hobbit, but have you read the more obscure titles such as The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales? Perhaps you may even have found your way to The History of Middle-Earth?
LITRE is backwards and surrounded by FE to get FERTILE. You were very nearly there!
🌱 thank you ✨
21:30 maybe historic county refers to ‘shire’ which I think is an old term for county
I love these crosswords, and I adore Simon and his way of explaining, but when a couple weeks ago I saw Mark doing a crossword I felt like he should do them more often, it’s nice to have some variation! What do you think?
I got excited when I solved 1 across straight away. It all went downhill after that.
14A is fertile, with f_e removed and the rest reversed.
18A is sup ere go - i.e. one for the road.
28A I'd also point out that a bullring is "lower ground" - where there is an animal that lows.
No idea about 1D.
im not sure about that whole softball clue but the nasty infection could be tuberculosis, which i belive is often abbreviated to tb
If you want to parse litre, try turning the whole answer around - ERTIL. If Further Education can be abbreviated FE, what comes to mind?
That's one of the few I could parse.
YES
I'm certain that if Simon adopted his own advice about revolutionised being a reversal indicator, and then read ERTIL out loud, it would've been obvious. Not a criticism, solving something this brutal 'live' is a masterful feat.
I had to go to bed with four clues unsolved. Fortunately, when I woke up in the morning, I was able to finish. My time was about two hours, but I did solve it!
Let's see how Simon does.
Marvellous solve Simon - Cheers 👍 My favourite video of the week !
Absolutely lovely video yet again! I've been wondering, can someone tell me if it's possible/legal to anagram a w into two V's or U's? And does the same go for M and N?
The Dee and the Don are neighbouring rivers in Aberdeen
I like when the clues are simply words in the English language, not names of famous people in areas you might not follow or care about.
There's a horror film called "Night of the Lepus", which is about killer rabbits.
I wonder if they accidentally put the MCS one up today. It would explain the Snitch. (edit - As I actually recognise the words in the finished grid, that's obviously not the case).
Well done
7 seconds ago?! Feierabend was timed amazingly well today...
Masala has no ‘r’ in it, and it just means a mix of spices
One for the road is a last drink before you leave. A sup ere you go.
I myself like the tarka masala, it's like a chicken masala but it's a little 'otter 🤣
a mortice and tenon is a joint
i never understand these puzzles, but would it not make sense for #14 to refer to lithium for revolutionising capacity through batteries?
You're not supposed to understand them! The clues involve wordplay.
question: why do you use Chambers and not the OED?
Chambers is the standard dictionary used by setters (according to Wikipedia because it contains more dialect, archaic and unconventional words than the alternatives). It makes sense that solvers (esp CTC, who are trying to show what the setter was thinking) would do the same.
never thought I'd hear Simon say "thot"
Gah! It frustrates me when Simon beats himself up about his time score on the quick cryptics. Remember, you're voicing the answers out loud to us.
The only clue I actually got in this was «superego», both the word and the explanation. Made for a very frustrating last few minutes.
Even the normal ones are impossible for me. Most of the time it's words that I've never heard
thanks
I got the spoonerism way faster than Simon (but only because he had solved the crossing letters - and I didn't get any of those. At all 😂)
"Does anyone remember Kamala?" 😄
Simon, Aberdeen twixt the Dee and the Don.
mule is specifically male donkey and female horse hybrid
would there be any mileage in doing a live stream community solve of a crossword? we are all sat watching shouting random words at the screen. Maybe on Patreon?
Fertile for the litre clue
if you are about to sneeze, there is a trick to stop it. Try pinching your nose closed.
I wonder if knowing the snitch rating affected your reasoning ability?
Hi Simon. One for the road? sup ere go?
From means of.
15 across OINTMENT not sure how but thats a medication program
An ointment is a form of medication. A cream you apply to the skin. The clue is "a medication" not "a medication program".
sup ere go - and superego stops you indulging
There is no county of Yorkshire now. There is North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire
And West Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire, I think.
@@bobblebardsley Googling a little, the more you look the more complex it gets. One thing common in all that I looked at is that Yorkshire is a historic county name.
@@steveunderwood3683 Yeah I got very confused too! I don't think we have a single definition of 'county', there's anywhere from about 27 of them to 80ish depending on which you include.
@@bobblebardsley In 1974 the county of Yorkshire, which had been so large as to be split into three subunits known as ridings (East, West and North) was radically changed and three new counties were formed (which had only a loose similarity to the previous county). The new counties were called North, West and South Yorkshire. Most of the old East Riding was added to a part of Lincolnshire to form a new county called "Humberside". Some years later, after protests Humberside was abolished and the part north of the Humber was renamed the East Riding of Yorkshire. Not quite the same as the old (pre 1974) East Riding, but close.
@@bobblebardsleyI got shire as a ‘historic’ synonym to county
Re: the quick crossword. If "the fall of Kamala Harris" has nothing to do with Kamala Harris, then why is Kamala Harris mentioned in the clue? I don't understand why she is mentioned at all or how her name relates to the wordplay, or why it is such a brilliant clue.
Kamala Harris is, for the purposes of the clue, a random American. I believe she was chosen because "the fall of" is misdirection by the setter and "the fall" is the American equivalent for "autumn"
I think it could have been any american, but I suppose she notably just had a 'fall', adding to the misdirection.
Sup ere go
I still don't get why the fall of Kamala Harris is "Autumn"? Is it a double definition? I just know Fall = Autumn.
I think it is simply that Americans say Fall instead of Autumn and Kamala Harris is American.
Ah ic lol, I use Autumn as an American XD.
Sup = drink ere=before go=go
sup 'ere (you) go