When you are doing sudoku: "Ah, that's clever. I probably wouldn't have spotted that." When you do whatever the hell this is: "Well of course it's 'terracotta', because Rebecca Black is a TERRible singer and also plays the guitar and 'play' rhymes with 'clay' and here's a reference to some british show I've never heard of and also a clue that you would have to be absolutely demented to even interpret as anagram! Why did I not catch that?" 9/10
I consider myself fluent in english. Then I watch thiis sort of videos, and I go back to my resume and write "I can speak ok" instead. Even in French i would be kinda lost after a word or two.
I get it. Sudokus/logic puzzles are so different it's odd to me that a channel like this covers both. I'm mainly a crossword person and dabbled a bit in sudokus before this channel has led me more into them with such amazing puzzles. Crosswords are very much NOT logic puzzles. All the logic techniques don't work and there's no guarantee that you have all the right knowledge/vocab to finish one (whereas with a logic puzzle - you absolutely SHOULD be able to finish it if you persevere enough). No matter how long you stare at a clue, you can't augment your vocabulary or knowledge without external reference (which would be cheating). I swear I'm using a completely different part of the brain when doing crosswords than when doing logic puzzles. Even as a crossword lover first (and sudoku/logic second) I don't really see the need for watching live crossword solves after attempting it. The beauty of this channel for me is the daily dose of stunningly good hand-picked logic puzzles which I can attempt and then compare what I did with the expert afterwards. With crosswords, I have no need of such daily supply (e.g. the Times and Guardian publish excellent puzzles daily - all online). Moreover, I have no need or wish to watch someone else solve. There's never anything instructive in doing so for me. If I can't finish a crossword, then dictionary/thesaurus/Google are always enough to find what I missed. I get that a newcomer to crosswords might find such a video a useful way to learn how to get into them. But such a person wouldn't be on this channel, because such content is so rare. Moreover again... this particular puzzle was OK I'd say. But not as good as the average daily standard of the Times or Guardian in my view. It seems to be the fact that the author is well-known for other reasons that brought this one to the top of the pile.
Moreover again again.... (sorry). The target audience for these is a tiny proportion of the world's population - even a small proportion of the English speaking population. Whereas for logic puzzles, it's anyone who's English is just good enough to understand the rules (or has someone translate for them). I don't see the point in CtC doing 99% logic and 1% crosswords. Also look at the comments here. They are predominantly along the lines of "I don't get it" or "Why is this here?". There are the occasional "I like this, more please" but for these people, they are well catered-for elsewhere.
@@paulcook2961 Let's not forget that the name of the channel is Cracking the Cryptic. A channel which began by showing solves of cryptic crosswords. Why shouldn't they go back to their roots once in a while? After all, as Simon said, it was a bonus video. You will get your logic puzzle later.
@@andreww4473 Sure it's how they started. But it's not where they're at now. "You'll get your logic later". True - still getting 2 of those per day. That's a tremendous amount of work by Mark and Simon to keep that up - I applaud them. It's become so dependable that many people will feel let down (including me - and without good reason) the first day there aren't two logic videos!
Originally this channel was all about cryptic crosswords - Mark and Simon are primarily cryptic crosswords people. They did the occasional sudoku as well and found that they were more popular, so wisely decided to concentrate on those. There is a clue in the name of the channel ;)
Along with "Young", Ones", "Laxative", and "Satiric" being thematic, "Demolition", "Oil", "Boring", "Bambi", "Cash", "Nasty", "Time", "Sick", and "Summer Holiday" are the titles of almost every Young Ones episode!
I love watching these solves. Especially Simon's solves, because he breaks the clues down entirely. Being from North America, crossword puzzles are about knowledge, and then working the clues to give the answers you don't know. British Cryptic crosswords have far less words and very different rules. But they are logical, if you know the rules. Could I do this? No. Could I watch these kinds of solves all day for a week? Probably quite happily.
This man is brilliant..... He must have a weakness.... perhaps he struggles with something very simple like opening cans...... Yes, I'm going with that so that I don't feel quite so base.
English is my first language, and I tutor English professionally at a college... I got the word cash... trust me, being a native speaker does not help.
Simon’s zest and joy in Cracking these Cryptic crosswords makes the videos so much fun to watch! And occasionally I learn a little bit about Brit culture and humour as well. So please continue to, once in a while, post these for us!
To those non English speakers, this gets lost in translation even crossing the Atlantic. I read on Wikipedia that the referenced comedy was shown on MTV in the US but it passed me by (by miles). Somehow still fascinating to watch.
This is like those games where no one tells you the rules, and they change along the way. It's maddening. Like, to have this level of free-association, I'd need some LSD.
@@guitoo1918 I feel like the clues that do have to do with the language I get (at least when explained), but not being steeped[tea pun] in British culture is a massive disadvantage.
whenever i watch your videos i feel like i'm spending time with my cool smart uncle and that energy is the only thing that's getting me through 2020. i love you guys.
Simon: if that is mini, then it is an evil clue! Me: if that is mini, then I actually guessed correctly for once, but I don’t know how to justify it. Excellent work.
So many Young Ones references... >Young Ones (obviously) >Summer Holiday (they went on holiday on a bus to the song Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard) >Oil (they dug for oil in the basement) >Boring (Rick was always saying this) >Demolition (The student house was due to be demolished) >Bambi (Bamber Gasgoine in University Challenge episode) >Laxative (Rick tries to OD on laxatives) >Duo (could refer to Rick and Ade?) >Sick/Nasty/Satiric (all of these!) Any others?
Cash & Time were both episode titles too. And the opposition in Bambi were footlights. Fry & Laurie, Emma Thompson, and a non-footlights impostor named Ben Elton.
Wow well spotted everyone who saw these. I only spotted "Young" "Ones" and the Cliff Richard link with "Summer Holiday" and was quite pleased with myself for that! Didn't spot ANY of those others!
Great video, I had a crack before watching the video and got about half of it done before getting impatient and watching yours! The Independent’s cryptic from Tuesday 3rd November was a lot of fun, and a nice distraction from the election
I subscribed to GAMES magazine for years before I even attempted a cryptic crossword. Now I love them and only occasionally do a standard definition-only crossword. I really appreciate seeing the odd cryptic crossword solution here on the channel. To say that these guys should stick to sudoku is like saying that Clapton should have stopped playing the blues after he had some success on pop/rock radio! And Simon breaks these clues down nicely, making a good lesson for advanced beginners to learn how cryptic clues work. [As an American, I do still miss a lot of the British references in their newspaper crosswords.]
Summer Holiday was a Cliff Richard musical film, where he went on holiday on a double decker bus... the young ones died by going off a cliff in their double decker bus
When you said it’s given i literally thought the info is so straightforward, it is like a given 😂 I am new to crosswords and every clue was beyond my knowledge. But you made it so simple! Thank you for this video!
I’m such a huge fan of Young Ones. Was once sitting about a meter from Adrian Edmondson for about 30 minutes and was far too star struck to talk to him, not even to praise him for the brilliant monologue performance I’d just seen him perform.
Loved this vid! I had a blast pausing before each answer and seeing if I could work it out on my own. I’m curious to know if the designer is British as well, since I’m American and Brit cryptics give me a rough time due to the differences in slang, colloquialisms, and cultural references. Would love to buy a cryptic app endorsed by your channel, too.
To all the people out there who comment that they find these impossible, I would just like to point out that most British people who are native English speakers wouldn't be able to solve a *single* clue of a crossword like this! (I only can because I have a similar background and education to Mark and Simon and when I was young I used to try to solve crosswords like these (in the Guardian newspaper) with my mother.) So no one needs to feel bad about not being able to do these at all!
I was NOT thinking on the right level to get some of these >.< Also I'm from LA, so the regional clues stump me hard. Entertaining to watch you blaze through the solve, though!
The New York Times publishes a cryptic every couple months, and they use American spelling and cultural references instead of British ones. You can access their archives online if you have an NYT puzzles subscription.
I don’t understand how this crossword game works at all. But am fascinated by how quickly you can come up with the words, almost as if you had a word bank to choose from
We all have a word bank to choose from - in our mind/ brain/ head/ memory/ consciousness/ subconscious/ between our ears/ somewhere in the recesses etc.etc.
I was 90% of the way through this puzzle when I saw the video was out, but my 90% took 3 days to achieve! Love Dave's crosswords, but they're not trivial to me. Wonderful moment when Simon cottoned on to what the theme of the puzzle was.
21:18 My favourite quote ever from any comedy "Is this a piece of your brain?" from Fawlty Towers. With Young Ones it was Scumbag College vs Footlights College. I'd forgotten Scumbag got attacked by a giant eclair at the end.
I got one word: cash. Not because of the obscene logic, but because there was already two of the four letters and the clue involved money... Even the hardest Sudoku I have ever seen you do on this channel, I could do given enough time. Like, if I was on a desert island, and I couldn't leave until I figured it out, I would. Maybe it would take years (It's very rare, but there have been a few where I couldn't understand the logic even with Simon explaining it), but I could do it eventually. I literally, never could have done this puzzle on my own. Every Crossword I have seen you do is the same, it is baffling the logic that is required. Having said that, I love every single one. -edit- Hey! I got Mini as well. Not because of logic, but because it said small. Also, you missed the fact that Laxative alludes to the definition of the Los Angeles Airport: crap.
I've started trying the guardian cryptic crosswords over the last two months. They vary in difficulty, often having easier ones at the start of the week. They have a check answer feature which I use if I'm stuck to make sure I haven't made any mistakes. I also go to fifteensquared.net afterwards and read their breakdown of the clues. I think this is good for understanding how clues work and what to look for. So far I haven't completed an entire crossword without help but managed to fill in about 80% of the grid yesterday. Today I'm finding it harder but have completed around half of it.
They have some old videos teaching techniques, like ruclips.net/video/-zMchSc_McE/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/fvJurkdNIU8/видео.html. Maybe more, those are just a couple I quickly found in the catalogue.
Definitely check out fifteensquared.net as per the comment from Cat. I'd also strongly recommend Big Dave's crossword blog - bigdave44.com/ - where they cover the telegraph puzzles and have lots of resources to help out beginners. Unfortunately you do need a subscription to access the telegraph puzzles online, but because they do both a 'normal' and a 'toughie' the 'normal' ones are generally more or less tractable. Took me about 6 months to go from being able to get maybe 1 or 2 clues on my own to doing my first whole one unaided.
Pedantry alert! Oil is not 'grease'. Grease is made by adding a soap base to oil, thereby making a viscous compound that will lubricate without dripping off. Most common grease is probably a lithium soap-base grease. When grease dries out it's because the oil has been wrung out of it and all you have left is the soap. Totally unimportant to the solve, but knowledge is power. :)
Yup. They occur wherever conditions are good for a large colony. The mycillium gets so dense it blocks water, so the mushrooms move outwards to wetter ground... and then start benefitting from the run-off they cause by their own inner ring. I've never seen one around a tree, but there's not much to stop it if the tree doesn't have ground defenses of its own (i.e. most conifers).
Thanks for that. I (wrongly) thought they were always somehow associated with trees, but maybe that has to do with living (I think like Mark and Simon) in Surrey, which has more trees than any other county of England. This is what Wikipedia says: "There are two generally recognised types of fairy ring fungus. Those found in the woods are called tethered, because they are formed by mycorrhizal fungi living in symbiosis with trees. Meadow fairy rings are called free, because they are not connected with other organisms."
I've watched a few of these crossword videos now but today I had a first...I figured out a clue! I got "epileptic" at the same time as (slightly before) Simon did! That brings our scores to me:1 Simon:like 600
I can do the crosswords in the paper, so I figured that this one couldn't be much harder. If this were me trying to solve it, the entire grid would be blank.
@@spilk84 I'm not a native speaker and I can follow along, but this cryptic in particular definitely has a lot of references to UK culture. The cryptic crossword medium as a whole can be learned even as a non-native, even if specific references in puzzles like these will always go over your head
On the young ones theme They love cliff Richard Cliff Richard did the song 'summer holiday' And their last episode when bus crashes was called 'summer holiday' ;)
As already stated, lots of references to the early 80s BBC TV series "The Young Ones". All the episodes are in there except "Bomb", "Interesting" and "Flood".
funnily enough when I read the clue to 30 across I thought "sounds like a description of the Young Ones" then was confused to find a clue mentioning all the characters a minute or two later.
Summer holiday is a musical about some bus mechanics who go on holiday and meet a singer who ran away from her overbearing manager/mother. It's a stage play and a movie. :)
Oddly as a dyslexic i find cryptic crosswords easier. Two different clues and many clues literally spell out the word for you ... still maybe thats just me 😛
Ah. Christmas came early. So much fun. Simon is getting too fast though haha. Did manage to get EPILEPTIC (from definition), MINI (got lucky) and ONES (from theme) before him but the rest left me in the dust. To those asking: "Accountant's on top of hush money" could be either CA'S H(ush) or CA SH but I prefer the second because in the first you could put any word starting with H in the clue. Also, just letting people know I am starting a Twitch channel to teach/solve crosswords together with those available/keen. Look up shimjunick or message me for details =)
I put OLI into 17a assuming/hoping it is the name of a "work" (e.g. a book or play or musical - maybe another version of Oliver Twist?) and then couldn't do 18d. Very clever to hide the def in "Grease".
You may already have got this by now, but the removal of 'DED' from 'small minded' in 6D is a reference to the qualification D. Ed. (Doctor of Education)
I have trouble following most of the Cryptics on this channel because the clues are too small to see. Here they were reasonably large and I could follow along just fine. I don't get most of the British references, both language and culture, so that makes it impossible for me to solve, but interesting to watch. And fun when the cultural shoe is on the other foot: of course LAX is Los Angeles airport, "everybody" knows that.
I wonder if your inclination to pronounce the G in "gnu" came from the GNU Project, though I don't know how considering you've said you weren't very tech-savvy.
I think I understood the movie A Clockwork Orange better than this and that speaks volumes...that said, I did get two of them seconds before Simon did, but I'd never be able to solve one of these fully...
You have to remember this is a British slangy version of the puzzle. A puzzle from your own dialect may be easier for you to understand. I say 'for you to understand' because I can't get into the mindset. I still guess actual crossword answers to the clues and not cryptic ones.
I've tried a few of these in the past, however most are from the UK, and many of the clues require knowledge more generally known in the UK than elsewhere or words particular to UK English. Alas, I'm not up on Cockney rhyming slang, BBC shows or parliment.
"essentially" for "middle letter" and "term" for "last letter"? Indirect anag fodder (which has been deprecated for decades)? "Curtains" for first and last letters? "sitcom out of order" for "'OM' out of 'sitcom"? Already, I dislike this setter's style. -- Mind you, after seeing just how many of the answers were thematic, I acknowledge that Gorman must've had a hard job finding answers, and might have had to settle for words that are hard to clue. 23:42 Alternatively, hush = SH.
When you are doing sudoku: "Ah, that's clever. I probably wouldn't have spotted that."
When you do whatever the hell this is: "Well of course it's 'terracotta', because Rebecca Black is a TERRible singer and also plays the guitar and 'play' rhymes with 'clay' and here's a reference to some british show I've never heard of and also a clue that you would have to be absolutely demented to even interpret as anagram! Why did I not catch that?"
9/10
I consider myself fluent in english. Then I watch thiis sort of videos, and I go back to my resume and write "I can speak ok" instead. Even in French i would be kinda lost after a word or two.
I get it. Sudokus/logic puzzles are so different it's odd to me that a channel like this covers both. I'm mainly a crossword person and dabbled a bit in sudokus before this channel has led me more into them with such amazing puzzles. Crosswords are very much NOT logic puzzles. All the logic techniques don't work and there's no guarantee that you have all the right knowledge/vocab to finish one (whereas with a logic puzzle - you absolutely SHOULD be able to finish it if you persevere enough). No matter how long you stare at a clue, you can't augment your vocabulary or knowledge without external reference (which would be cheating). I swear I'm using a completely different part of the brain when doing crosswords than when doing logic puzzles.
Even as a crossword lover first (and sudoku/logic second) I don't really see the need for watching live crossword solves after attempting it. The beauty of this channel for me is the daily dose of stunningly good hand-picked logic puzzles which I can attempt and then compare what I did with the expert afterwards. With crosswords, I have no need of such daily supply (e.g. the Times and Guardian publish excellent puzzles daily - all online). Moreover, I have no need or wish to watch someone else solve. There's never anything instructive in doing so for me. If I can't finish a crossword, then dictionary/thesaurus/Google are always enough to find what I missed.
I get that a newcomer to crosswords might find such a video a useful way to learn how to get into them. But such a person wouldn't be on this channel, because such content is so rare.
Moreover again... this particular puzzle was OK I'd say. But not as good as the average daily standard of the Times or Guardian in my view. It seems to be the fact that the author is well-known for other reasons that brought this one to the top of the pile.
Moreover again again.... (sorry). The target audience for these is a tiny proportion of the world's population - even a small proportion of the English speaking population. Whereas for logic puzzles, it's anyone who's English is just good enough to understand the rules (or has someone translate for them). I don't see the point in CtC doing 99% logic and 1% crosswords. Also look at the comments here. They are predominantly along the lines of "I don't get it" or "Why is this here?". There are the occasional "I like this, more please" but for these people, they are well catered-for elsewhere.
@@paulcook2961 Let's not forget that the name of the channel is Cracking the Cryptic. A channel which began by showing solves of cryptic crosswords. Why shouldn't they go back to their roots once in a while? After all, as Simon said, it was a bonus video. You will get your logic puzzle later.
@@andreww4473 Sure it's how they started. But it's not where they're at now. "You'll get your logic later". True - still getting 2 of those per day. That's a tremendous amount of work by Mark and Simon to keep that up - I applaud them. It's become so dependable that many people will feel let down (including me - and without good reason) the first day there aren't two logic videos!
After watching this video, here’s a thought I never imagined I’d ever have... “You know, that sudoku stuff seems simple!”.
More cryptics, please!
Doesn't make sense for them to do that considering how much more accessible logic puzzles are, these are practically only for native English speakers.
Originally this channel was all about cryptic crosswords - Mark and Simon are primarily cryptic crosswords people. They did the occasional sudoku as well and found that they were more popular, so wisely decided to concentrate on those. There is a clue in the name of the channel ;)
Along with "Young", Ones", "Laxative", and "Satiric" being thematic, "Demolition", "Oil", "Boring", "Bambi", "Cash", "Nasty", "Time", "Sick", and "Summer Holiday" are the titles of almost every Young Ones episode!
Cliff Richard also wrote the theme to the young ones, which appears in the musical summer holiday, based on the music of Cliff Richard
The young ones and cliff Richard had a hit record with summer holiday
@@snbgames9972 Livin' Doll
Also love that "Eat a given laxative" is all connected :)
I love watching these solves. Especially Simon's solves, because he breaks the clues down entirely. Being from North America, crossword puzzles are about knowledge, and then working the clues to give the answers you don't know. British Cryptic crosswords have far less words and very different rules. But they are logical, if you know the rules. Could I do this? No. Could I watch these kinds of solves all day for a week? Probably quite happily.
I remember the very first cryptic clue I managed to solve. Maintain part of a castle = Keep. I was so proud.
Someone tell me I'm not the only one having an out of body exprerience.
This man is brilliant..... He must have a weakness.... perhaps he struggles with something very simple like opening cans...... Yes, I'm going with that so that I don't feel quite so base.
English isn't my first language, but I can't remember the last time it felt this foreign to me.
You are not alone
English is my first and only language and I have no idea what's going on
English is my first language, and I tutor English professionally at a college... I got the word cash... trust me, being a native speaker does not help.
Simon’s zest and joy in Cracking these Cryptic crosswords makes the videos so much fun to watch! And occasionally I learn a little bit about Brit culture and humour as well. So please continue to, once in a while, post these for us!
To those non English speakers, this gets lost in translation even crossing the Atlantic. I read on Wikipedia that the referenced comedy was shown on MTV in the US but it passed me by (by miles). Somehow still fascinating to watch.
This is like those games where no one tells you the rules, and they change along the way. It's maddening. Like, to have this level of free-association, I'd need some LSD.
Huge Dave Gorman fan. Thanks for the bonus vid!
I feel like I'm having a stroke.
I feel like having a stroke.
FTFY
@@davidgustavsson4000 Not being a native English speaker plays a huge role there.
@@guitoo1918 I feel like the clues that do have to do with the language I get (at least when explained), but not being steeped[tea pun] in British culture is a massive disadvantage.
Watching every episode of Modern Life is Goodish is not enough to probe the twisted mind behind those clues.
What you do to relax after a hard crossword is nobody's business but your own. Fnar!
simon went full brit for like 2 minutes there and left this poor kiwi in the dust haha
Finding out Simon is a Young Ones fan reveals a whole new aspect of his personality 😂
Simply amazing!! 👏 thanks for sharing this. I've never understood cryptic crosswords, however I love watching people who are amazing at what they do!!
whenever i watch your videos i feel like i'm spending time with my cool smart uncle and that energy is the only thing that's getting me through 2020. i love you guys.
I'm sorry. The only words and reactions that comes to my mind is: What the f*ck?
This is beyond amazing.
I don't even like crosswords, but I can't scroll past a CTC video without clicking and always enjoying.
These puzzles always fascinate me!
Always very exciting when a cryptic is covered, and even more when it's a surprise bonus video in the afternoon!
Just amazing! More cryptic crosswords please!
Simon: if that is mini, then it is an evil clue!
Me: if that is mini, then I actually guessed correctly for once, but I don’t know how to justify it.
Excellent work.
Wish you would do more cryptic crossword videos!!
More of these, please! This is wild
just revisiting some cryptic videos - love this also!
So many Young Ones references...
>Young Ones (obviously)
>Summer Holiday (they went on holiday on a bus to the song Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard)
>Oil (they dug for oil in the basement)
>Boring (Rick was always saying this)
>Demolition (The student house was due to be demolished)
>Bambi (Bamber Gasgoine in University Challenge episode)
>Laxative (Rick tries to OD on laxatives)
>Duo (could refer to Rick and Ade?)
>Sick/Nasty/Satiric (all of these!)
Any others?
Cash & Time were both episode titles too. And the opposition in Bambi were footlights. Fry & Laurie, Emma Thompson, and a non-footlights impostor named Ben Elton.
Wow well spotted everyone who saw these. I only spotted "Young" "Ones" and the Cliff Richard link with "Summer Holiday" and was quite pleased with myself for that! Didn't spot ANY of those others!
Excellent! I shall have a go at this later!
Great video, I had a crack before watching the video and got about half of it done before getting impatient and watching yours!
The Independent’s cryptic from Tuesday 3rd November was a lot of fun, and a nice distraction from the election
I subscribed to GAMES magazine for years before I even attempted a cryptic crossword. Now I love them and only occasionally do a standard definition-only crossword. I really appreciate seeing the odd cryptic crossword solution here on the channel. To say that these guys should stick to sudoku is like saying that Clapton should have stopped playing the blues after he had some success on pop/rock radio! And Simon breaks these clues down nicely, making a good lesson for advanced beginners to learn how cryptic clues work. [As an American, I do still miss a lot of the British references in their newspaper crosswords.]
Summer Holiday was a Cliff Richard musical film, where he went on holiday on a double decker bus... the young ones died by going off a cliff in their double decker bus
He also had a song called Young Ones
it's been such a long time, but didn't they destroy a cliff richard advertising board in the process?
@@5Grave5Robber5 yes, and Rick shouted Cliff
When you said it’s given i literally thought the info is so straightforward, it is like a given 😂
I am new to crosswords and every clue was beyond my knowledge. But you made it so simple!
Thank you for this video!
I’m such a huge fan of Young Ones. Was once sitting about a meter from Adrian Edmondson for about 30 minutes and was far too star struck to talk to him, not even to praise him for the brilliant monologue performance I’d just seen him perform.
No reference to Living Doll in there. That satisfies my soul (fies my soul)
Can you do these, cryptic crosswords, more often? Like once a week? Or biweekly?
Loved this vid! I had a blast pausing before each answer and seeing if I could work it out on my own. I’m curious to know if the designer is British as well, since I’m American and Brit cryptics give me a rough time due to the differences in slang, colloquialisms, and cultural references. Would love to buy a cryptic app endorsed by your channel, too.
I enjoyed that, some amazing word play
To all the people out there who comment that they find these impossible, I would just like to point out that most British people who are native English speakers wouldn't be able to solve a *single* clue of a crossword like this! (I only can because I have a similar background and education to Mark and Simon and when I was young I used to try to solve crosswords like these (in the Guardian newspaper) with my mother.) So no one needs to feel bad about not being able to do these at all!
In fact, could I do this crossword? No! No way! But at least I "get" the solve - which is more than I can say for some sudokus!
I was NOT thinking on the right level to get some of these >.<
Also I'm from LA, so the regional clues stump me hard. Entertaining to watch you blaze through the solve, though!
and I'm fucking incredible at anagrams, I just didn't think they were gonna play such a huge role in some parts of these clues.
The New York Times publishes a cryptic every couple months, and they use American spelling and cultural references instead of British ones. You can access their archives online if you have an NYT puzzles subscription.
I think the correct wordplay for 29D is CA on SH (hush).
I am german and I literally didn't understand a thing of this video. Now that's a cryptic.
I don’t understand how this crossword game works at all. But am fascinated by how quickly you can come up with the words, almost as if you had a word bank to choose from
We all have a word bank to choose from - in our mind/ brain/ head/ memory/ consciousness/ subconscious/ between our ears/ somewhere in the recesses etc.etc.
Why did I even bother to watch this, English isn't my first language so this was way too difficult haha
My first language IS English and it actually doesn't help as much as you think.
@@WheatGrinding I can confirm. Speaking English does not help.
@@WheatGrinding American English doesn't do much good for it either since idk any of these british references besides EPL
my ONLY language is English and I still don't understand this, that you persevered through it is commendable imo.
I was 90% of the way through this puzzle when I saw the video was out, but my 90% took 3 days to achieve! Love Dave's crosswords, but they're not trivial to me. Wonderful moment when Simon cottoned on to what the theme of the puzzle was.
21:18 My favourite quote ever from any comedy "Is this a piece of your brain?" from Fawlty Towers.
With Young Ones it was Scumbag College vs Footlights College. I'd forgotten Scumbag got attacked by a giant eclair at the end.
I can’t believe I got “epileptic” before him only because so many letters were already there, and I ignored the cryptic part of the clue.
I got one word: cash. Not because of the obscene logic, but because there was already two of the four letters and the clue involved money... Even the hardest Sudoku I have ever seen you do on this channel, I could do given enough time. Like, if I was on a desert island, and I couldn't leave until I figured it out, I would. Maybe it would take years (It's very rare, but there have been a few where I couldn't understand the logic even with Simon explaining it), but I could do it eventually. I literally, never could have done this puzzle on my own. Every Crossword I have seen you do is the same, it is baffling the logic that is required. Having said that, I love every single one.
-edit- Hey! I got Mini as well. Not because of logic, but because it said small.
Also, you missed the fact that Laxative alludes to the definition of the Los Angeles Airport: crap.
Any suggestion on how to learn to solve cryptic crosswords. Any online source with easy puzzles that I could try on?
I've started trying the guardian cryptic crosswords over the last two months. They vary in difficulty, often having easier ones at the start of the week. They have a check answer feature which I use if I'm stuck to make sure I haven't made any mistakes. I also go to fifteensquared.net afterwards and read their breakdown of the clues. I think this is good for understanding how clues work and what to look for. So far I haven't completed an entire crossword without help but managed to fill in about 80% of the grid yesterday. Today I'm finding it harder but have completed around half of it.
Try Puzzletome. It had some modules specifically designed to teach cryptic crosswords.
They have some old videos teaching techniques, like ruclips.net/video/-zMchSc_McE/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/fvJurkdNIU8/видео.html. Maybe more, those are just a couple I quickly found in the catalogue.
Definitely check out fifteensquared.net as per the comment from Cat. I'd also strongly recommend Big Dave's crossword blog - bigdave44.com/ - where they cover the telegraph puzzles and have lots of resources to help out beginners. Unfortunately you do need a subscription to access the telegraph puzzles online, but because they do both a 'normal' and a 'toughie' the 'normal' ones are generally more or less tractable. Took me about 6 months to go from being able to get maybe 1 or 2 clues on my own to doing my first whole one unaided.
Pedantry alert! Oil is not 'grease'. Grease is made by adding a soap base to oil, thereby making a viscous compound that will lubricate without dripping off. Most common grease is probably a lithium soap-base grease. When grease dries out it's because the oil has been wrung out of it and all you have left is the soap.
Totally unimportant to the solve, but knowledge is power. :)
Summer holiday= Cliff Richard !
Speaking of coin and Marconi, Marconi was commemorated in 2001 on a £2 coin!
15 across: a fairy ring is a ring of fungi (mushrooms) (I think usually round a tree or where one used to be) - hence "low life".
Yup. They occur wherever conditions are good for a large colony. The mycillium gets so dense it blocks water, so the mushrooms move outwards to wetter ground... and then start benefitting from the run-off they cause by their own inner ring. I've never seen one around a tree, but there's not much to stop it if the tree doesn't have ground defenses of its own (i.e. most conifers).
Thanks for that. I (wrongly) thought they were always somehow associated with trees, but maybe that has to do with living (I think like Mark and Simon) in Surrey, which has more trees than any other county of England.
This is what Wikipedia says:
"There are two generally recognised types of fairy ring fungus. Those found in the woods are called tethered, because they are formed by mycorrhizal fungi living in symbiosis with trees. Meadow fairy rings are called free, because they are not connected with other organisms."
@@paulmdt1 Cool. And thanks for that. TIL there are two types!
TIL "TIL" !
I've watched a few of these crossword videos now but today I had a first...I figured out a clue! I got "epileptic" at the same time as (slightly before) Simon did! That brings our scores to
me:1
Simon:like 600
It was Footlights. "Ra ra ra, we're going to smash the oiks!"
Footlights College, Oxbridge
How the actual heck?! Simon is brilliant lol
Rik Mayall is missed and forever a Young One, loved this show
6 Down - a qualified teacher might have a D.Ed (Diploma in Education).
I can do the crosswords in the paper, so I figured that this one couldn't be much harder. If this were me trying to solve it, the entire grid would be blank.
Honestly, i don't understand anything at all. It's very hard to understand the rules of these crosswords as well as logic behind
I think it’s more or less impossible for non-native english speakers.
@@spilk84 I'm not a native speaker and I can follow along, but this cryptic in particular definitely has a lot of references to UK culture. The cryptic crossword medium as a whole can be learned even as a non-native, even if specific references in puzzles like these will always go over your head
The rules are simple: There's words you need to fill in and there are hints. However those hints make absolutely no sense to me.
me too
Yeah, I personally prefer to just play a crossword without having to also construct the bloody thing first.
On the young ones theme
They love cliff Richard
Cliff Richard did the song 'summer holiday'
And their last episode when bus crashes was called 'summer holiday' ;)
As already stated, lots of references to the early 80s BBC TV series "The Young Ones". All the episodes are in there except "Bomb", "Interesting" and "Flood".
funnily enough when I read the clue to 30 across I thought "sounds like a description of the Young Ones" then was confused to find a clue mentioning all the characters a minute or two later.
OOOoooo! Early bonus video!!!
Summer holiday is a musical about some bus mechanics who go on holiday and meet a singer who ran away from her overbearing manager/mother. It's a stage play and a movie. :)
Just to add - DEd is the letters you put behind your name for Doctor of Education, if you hang in long enough to get your doctorate. :)
Being dyslexic crosswords are hard enough without having to guess what the hidden meanings in the clues are
Oddly as a dyslexic i find cryptic crosswords easier. Two different clues and many clues literally spell out the word for you ... still maybe thats just me 😛
@@aravendad860 A friend of mine told me the same thing!
Ah. Christmas came early. So much fun. Simon is getting too fast though haha. Did manage to get EPILEPTIC (from definition), MINI (got lucky) and ONES (from theme) before him but the rest left me in the dust. To those asking: "Accountant's on top of hush money" could be either CA'S H(ush) or CA SH but I prefer the second because in the first you could put any word starting with H in the clue. Also, just letting people know I am starting a Twitch channel to teach/solve crosswords together with those available/keen. Look up shimjunick or message me for details =)
I put OLI into 17a assuming/hoping it is the name of a "work" (e.g. a book or play or musical - maybe another version of Oliver Twist?) and then couldn't do 18d. Very clever to hide the def in "Grease".
GNU with the silent G ... did you learn that from comedian John Finnemore ?
I'm spectacularly bad at these but sometimes I get one right away that Simon doesn't and I feel better. (In this case, 26 down)
Lol, same but for me it was “mini”
23 is given, think think think. Is it that easy? Think! Come-on, oooooooooh. Its given hahaha
You may already have got this by now, but the removal of 'DED' from 'small minded' in 6D is a reference to the qualification D. Ed. (Doctor of Education)
Oh well spotted. I didn't spot that. I guessed MINI from "Small" but was confused why.
16:30 I wonder if Simon is also a fan of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme? #StartSpreadingTheGnus.
I might, just might, be able to do this in under an hour if you gave me a list of the answers out of order.
Summer Holiday, was an episode. I think the last one?
This thing is pure moonlogic to me, im suddenly very appreciative of how universal numbers are
That's the first time I've ever seen somebody solve a crossword and I still have no clue what the fuck is going on.
It's CA accountant + SH hush = CASH money.
A slight mistake on "CASH". It isn't CA's + H. It's CA + SH (hush)
I have trouble following most of the Cryptics on this channel because the clues are too small to see. Here they were reasonably large and I could follow along just fine. I don't get most of the British references, both language and culture, so that makes it impossible for me to solve, but interesting to watch. And fun when the cultural shoe is on the other foot: of course LAX is Los Angeles airport, "everybody" knows that.
I wonder if your inclination to pronounce the G in "gnu" came from the GNU Project, though I don't know how considering you've said you weren't very tech-savvy.
More likely to be from Flanders and Swann I would guess
You really ought to k-now w-ho’s w-ho.
A gnother gnu?
It always makes me think of Russell Harty as that dreadful Harty beast.
My inclination comes from the old children's show with Gary Gnu where he would pronounce the g.
Are there any rules to this madness? asking for a friend
Well this is a peculiar time to upload a video ;)
I think I understood the movie A Clockwork Orange better than this and that speaks volumes...that said, I did get two of them seconds before Simon did, but I'd never be able to solve one of these fully...
You have to remember this is a British slangy version of the puzzle. A puzzle from your own dialect may be easier for you to understand. I say 'for you to understand' because I can't get into the mindset. I still guess actual crossword answers to the clues and not cryptic ones.
I've tried a few of these in the past, however most are from the UK, and many of the clues require knowledge more generally known in the UK than elsewhere or words particular to UK English. Alas, I'm not up on Cockney rhyming slang, BBC shows or parliment.
Every clue Simon solves gives me a stroke.
Thanks for explaining them! Otherwise '🙄
"essentially" for "middle letter" and "term" for "last letter"? Indirect anag fodder (which has been deprecated for decades)? "Curtains" for first and last letters? "sitcom out of order" for "'OM' out of 'sitcom"? Already, I dislike this setter's style. -- Mind you, after seeing just how many of the answers were thematic, I acknowledge that Gorman must've had a hard job finding answers, and might have had to settle for words that are hard to clue.
23:42 Alternatively, hush = SH.
rifts (anagram)
Edit - darnit, I was second by a few seconds
sconed then?
:)
H'wæt
Nope. All things you have to live in UK to understand. I have no clue about anything you were talking about.
Hard pass.
Ah, yes, that MINI clue makes reference to a D.Ed. degree (Doctor of Education); that is indeed a qualified teacher.