Absolute Madness! - the Times's Monthly cryptic test

[@ajaxmajor]

this is the most impressive solve I've seen anywhere I literally cannot express how absurd this is

[@bluefloyd1]

I find myself laughing, genuinely out loud, at your solves on this. " it looks like a possible word, I'm not gonna go as far as to say it looks like a word". genius

[@richardbach7285]

I thoroughly approved of "objective I" as a clue for "me". Brilliant solve, of course, and great fun to watch.

[@jdpjamesp]

Love these lunatic crossword videos. I can never do them but always fun seeing you try!

[@rickrice8660]

I found it interesting how much guess work and "I think that looks like a word" there is here, as opposed to the Sudoku solves where even though they "are sure it is the right number", they won't place it until they prove it

[@laurencesharp9613]

Another brilliant solve of an extremely difficult puzzle, but please can we have more standard cryptic crosswords, ones that mere mortals might have a chance of (mostly) solving? Also the occasional Listener crossword if they still exist.

[@ChrisSPCs]

The channel used to be more crosswords but Sudoku people kept saying less crosswords, more Sudoku.

[@richardbach7285]

@@ChrisSPCs And there's money in selling su doku apps! I'm not sure how they could monetise crosswords.

[@ThomasJohnsen2]

@@ChrisSPCs The thing is, that these types of crossword puzzles really only are solvable by people with English as their native language and some education. A sudoku can be solved by any person of any nationality and no prior knowledge. Thus your audience is several times larger with sudokus, and I can certainly see why the channel would focus mainly on those. Don't get me wrong - even being a non-English speaker, I really enjoy watching solves of cryptic crosswords, but I would never attempt a solve myself.

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

We will try to do more crossword videos and the occasional Listener (yes, they still exist). When we publish crossword videos though we'll always have a sudoku/puzzle video that day too.

[@bryanroland8649]

@@CrackingTheCryptic Great! A bit of both please. This crossword was ridiculously difficult. Amazing solving abilities.

[@AmaranthRBY]

Got all of it without checking the dictionary once, jeez. Incredible work

[@MisterM2402]

I'm a native English speaker with a reasonable level of education and I've seen only *one* of these words before - elegy (which has some relation to my profile pic, in fact!). This video makes me feel like I'm learning English as a second language.

[@ahope1]

Gobsmacking display of skill and knowledge. I'm now confident that the only person who could possibly be better than Mark at cryptics is God.

[@squadxzo]

I managed a perfect grid as well except mine was empty.

[@jessharvey9787]

"No idea if that's a word..." x100. Still solves in 33 minutes. How.

[@jay1men]

Could almost hear the gears turning in marks head when he was cracking the north east corner! Great leaps and recalls from half forgotten trysts with root words! Great stuff!

[@msscoventry]

Well I knew six of words once they'd been filled in!

[@ridefast0]

Astounding from start to finish! Champion in action!

[@nonagrey3422]

ASS ARTS being an answer makes this the most brilliant puzzle on the show ever.

[@powt0wn]

holy christ i got 15 down. feeling like a brain genius

[@PatchworkPS]

This is insane. I don't know what to say, I'm just in awe.

[@bazcuda]

Superb! I love the misdirection of "...objective I..." in the middle of the clue.

[@gabrieltchekemian1980]

In French we often double the last consonnant if we add "el/elle" to form an adjective from a noun So in this case passion-->passionel/passionnelle And bravo for this great solve

[@plusjeremy]

I just love watching these solves. Gonna try March’s now. See you in a month.

[@sheilas1283]

Amazing! I love hearing your thought processes. I wouldn’t be able to attempt this but I did know SADZA!

[@ftatman]

Amazing solving!

[@arturslunga3415]

Taraxacum! Of course....! *slaps forehead*

[@ktuluflux]

This is insane. Like watching an alien play quarterback for the Cowboys.

[@d4r4butler74]

Wonderful, as always, to watch you go through the puzzle.

[@kieranbain810]

*typical amazed cackling ensues for 36 straight minutes*

[@ahope1]

Same.

[@andrewgrant6516]

20,000 months? That's over 1000 years!

[@powt0wn]

you mention scrabble - ever considered playing a game on the channel?

[@SporeMystify]

Im just left in awe.

[@sagov9]

actually got the Stones song reference before he did :), also I knew the word langspiel which helped

[@gengar678]

not being a native english speaker I did not know any of anything you said whaha. And still I watched the whole thing and was mighty impressed.

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Polysyllabic hilariousness. I only got taraxacum - the dandelion. Great entertainment!

[@Speireata4]

Loess is (in German) a type of very fertile soil on which vegetables grow very well. I only know this, because I grew up in an area where this kind of soil is and therefore learned about it in school when talking about our area and what is special about it. I didn't know that this term was used in English, too.

[@darklordrowan6152]

What in the world...Today I learned I never knew how to solve a crossword puzzle...

[@duzzzz94]

I can't do/understand these in English (I do like to solve these in my native language) but I can't stop watching you solving these either

[@kchorn1]

Taraxacum is the genus of dandelion, Taraxacum officinale. There are also several other weeds in the genus.

[@farmersix4434]

It’s amazing watching you work out the answers but I don’t think I learned anything besides the fact that I’ll never ever finish one of these ever 🤣 I’ll stick to the logic puzzles 😆

[@Ruftenkind]

Absolute animal 👏👏👏👏👏

[@owie34]

Wow!! What is that Chambers program?

[@MitsuoRLCoach]

Taraxacum??????????? Never ceases to amaze me how weird these root words are

[@joelleet554]

jaw dropping

[@richardfarrer5616]

I managed to guess exexmpla though I hadn't worked out why. I'm feeling chuffed for half getting one of the answers, and I like to think I have a good vocubulary.

[@oNtuobAwoH]

"Large single is EP, male is E." Can someone explain this to me before I go mad? I am not at all familiar with this type of puzzle, so I understand there's a logic here that goes without saying.

[@xupej04m3]

Large single -> EP en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play Male -> HE

[@AmaranthRBY]

There are many common abbreviations used in these cryptics, Wikipedia compiled a (partial) list here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword_abbreviations

[@oNtuobAwoH]

@@xupej04m3 thanks! of course, now I feel stupid for not realizing :D

[@oNtuobAwoH]

@@AmaranthRBY thank you!

[@ahope1]

Try this: chambers.co.uk/book/chambers-crossword-manual/

[@msgrtuning]

I didn't know that polyphloisboian could be written polyphlœsbœan !

[@nigelm5777]

Are figures published for how many people solve these things? No telling how much dictionary use, I guess.

[@catnip420]

As a foreigner with not so great vocabulary I find these impossible, I even struggle to understand what's going on while watching the video. I guess this is why I prefer Sudoku, maths and digits are universal. I'd love to see some videos with easier puzzles so even people like me can try to crack them.

[@no-feetmcgee5577]

Well, I figured out "langspiel" and the correct wordplay for it a few seconds before Mark, so I guess I'm not *too* much of a pig-sconce. :P BTW I find it amusing that my browser underlines "langspiel" as not being a word.

[@Cryolemon]

I'm always pleased when i get even one of these clues. Although in this case the one was ELEGY, which was by far the easiest.

[@dannylfcmeatloaf]

My grid was full of completely random letters, however some of mine looked like word as opposed to these 'answers' which 0,0000000001% of the world would know. Actually, that puts you in the upper echelons in supreme intelligence, so kudos anyhow

[@mickeyjupp1]

Impressive word knowledge - not as engaging as Simon but still very impressive.

[@protheu5]

We can get into sudoku, you help us with that, explain how to do it and everyone can get into it with no issue. These crossword puzzles are just a chasm away from regular people. Please, do help us, HOW THE GLORY CAN WE THINK THAT WAY!? How can a regular person get into it!?

[@AractusPuphlicus]

You have to start with easier crosswords and work your way up

[@andreww4473]

Firstly, understand that the crossword in this video is EXTREMELY difficult, even for experienced solvers. I would not even begin to attempt this crossword. I didn't understand cryptic crosswords until a few years ago. I was chatting with a friend who understood cryptic crosswords, and she began to explain how the logic of each clue got her to the answer. We now sit down together once a week and solve a couple of cryptic crosswords together. There are some clues which I can answer easily which she cannot, and vice versa. This explanation and practise has helped me to understand how to solve cryptic clues. A number of the early videos on this channel explain how to understand cryptic crossword clues. Watch those and then try some easy cryptic puzzles. Once you begin to recognise the 'trigger' words and abbreviations which are used regularly, you will begin to find them easier to solve.

[@ahope1]

Try this: chambers.co.uk/book/chambers-crossword-manual/

[@powt0wn]

watch their recent video “Cryptic Clues: How They Work”, and their beginner cryptic videos. i usually don’t get anywhere near finishing a cryptic but i really enjoy them!