Can You Find The Hidden Connection?

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Here is a bonus video where we take on the latest cryptic crossword by UK comedian Dave Gorman! This appeared in The Independent today and, as it's Tuesday, there is often a hidden theme in the puzzle. You can try yourself here:
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A (long) video of Simon doing battle with this puzzle is out now on Patreon.
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Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@pardox28]

Watching this channel solve a cryptic - with decidedly British clues - that has a meta theme about a very British quiz show while I eat my breakfast in America is what I call a continental breakfast.

[@seachicky913]

“Harry doesn’t fit” had me cackling!

[@TimWalton0]

I don't know who's cleverer, Simon for spotting THMSSNGVWLSRND or Dave for including it!

[@charlottestang9462]

Simon: it's very tempting to read horse and trap as a phrase, it's so familiar to us Me, an American: whatever you say, bro

[@roboduck200]

You must experience the same thing with "Horse and Welles" then

[@thelobsterperson]

I'm English and I've never heard it either

[@starsigngd]

WOO! I always love the crossword episodes :)

[@pirukiddingme1908]

How on earth does he make these. Every layer of hidden logic just makes it more ridiculous. Genius

[@henrymarkson3758]

My regard for Dave Gorman has just gone through the roof.

[@andrewgrant6516]

Very good. Bluff is also a reference to Call My Bluff, which her dad was on.

[@thedivinemrm5832]

That Victoria is an accomplished poker player makes it doubly clever.

[@thijsyo]

9:43 😂thats dark

[@sebw89]

"Harry doesn't fit"... I wonder, if Simon intended this to have more than one meaning :D

[@Zvoosh25]

I've watched several of these crossword videos, and I still have no idea what he's doing... I don't understand what to focus on or how to extrapolate the clues.

[@5t757]

Read through the Wikipedia page on cryptic crosswords to become familiar with the clue types and after that try Christine Lovatt's walk through video on YT

[@kilimanjarocruz660]

An Only Connect-themed cryptic with a quick mention of University Challenge on Cracking the Cryptic; If you include Doctor Who somehow, it would have all of my favorite British things.

[@josephdlist]

This channel was started with cryptic crosswords that make no sense to me what so ever. So many British’isms and personalities I just don’t know. However, I love the sudoku and love the fact that you remember your roots. This is My absolute favorite KZbin channel.

[@AnglosArentHuman]

When English isn't your first language it's even worse. I passed a Cambridge C2 English proficiency test (highest level) in university and even then most of the words are either completely new to me, or being used with a meaning I didn't know about. At this point I just keep watching them out of sheer curiosity. "I wonder if this one's gonna feature an obscure word for a carpet that comes from Arabic"

[@josephdlist]

@@AnglosArentHuman me too! Then he starts pulling out French words!

[@avrahamishshalom1799]

"Eye of day" is just a poetic name for the sun.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

The Dutch spy lady Margaretha Zelle, executed by the French in WWI, performed under the stage name Mata Hari which is Indonesian for "eye of the day", meaning "sun". There is a knowledge bomb ;-)

[@eclectichoosier5474]

Shakespeare called it the "eye of heaven." Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

[@TrekBeatTK]

Or a daisy (day’s eye)

[@auldfouter8661]

@@TrekBeatTK which the French call Marguerite?

[@mattmclellan123]

Thanks for sharing this! Had me flummoxed

[@DanFre40]

After watching Only Connect I like to wind down a bit with "Mr Coren Mitchell" on Would I Lie to You - two polar opposite but equally entertaining tv shows!

[@lezzly8581]

Nothing like the WILTY ep the are both on. The bookmark story David says gets me everything.

[@michaelmappin8626]

Monday evening is my favourite: Only Connect at 8, then directly over to CtC. You can have as many crossword solves as you want. Thank-you.

[@thedizzyexplorer]

Couldn't solve this myself but seeing the Only Connect clues come together at the end was :O :O :O :D :D :D Amazing. You and Mark should join the show with a third--given all the lateral thinking you do for these cryptics and puzzle hunts, your team would do brilliantly.

[@joadbreslin5819]

Totally agree. I would thoroughly enjoy watching that.

[@leporid257]

With Kurt Hugo Schneider, but then he'd do everything alone lol

[@patsumner161]

How about a team with Simon, Mark and Dave Gorman?

[@mitnehmerrippe]

I LOVE watching you do cryptic crosswords, and I‘m not even British/not an English native speaker so I don‘t even stand a chance of solving them myself in that language.

[@JohnZeeable]

I cannot believe I didn't spot the Only Connect theme! It's one of my favourite game shows. The hidden missing vowels clue was brilliant too!

[@dolf370]

Even though I'm a translator considering myself fluent in English, I'll never be able to do one of these. Half of the time I do not even understand the explanation. Then, things like "en" för "nurse", or the initials of the queen (Elizabeth Something, if I'm correct) or knowledge of cricket or weird geographical places in the Kingdom (except Stonehenge) I'm totally unfamiliar with. And the clues most of the time seem very farfetched to me, I mean, Simon says " 'Beginning of the beverage...', it's obviously 't' which is a beverage". I wish to register it a protest: No, it's NOT obvious at all. And (taking 10 seconds to solve the clue) "I apologize for being slow", I could have stared at it for a week, being none the wiser. I've never even seen a cryptical crossword in my native language (swedish), if one would exist, I wonder how many hours I would spend on it before giving up.

[@Hazedot]

Some of the wordplay is so far-fetched that I doubt anyone would get the clue, even with perfect logic, unless they had previous experience with similar puzzles. It's annoying for someone who wants to get into them.

[@kevinthurlow8055]

Elizabeth Regina (Latin for queen) - it's the tradition that we still have regina for queen and rex for king in the UK, so George VI was Georgius Rex. We have "registered nurses" and "enrolled nurses" (from memory), so "nurse" suggests "en" or "rn". Nobody says it's easy, even for a native English speaker!

[@nendwr]

Remember it says ER (or GR, or VR) on post boxes. Vivat Regina Elizabetha!

[@nendwr]

I suspect there are very few enrolled nurses left these days - the whole EN/RN distinction was the pre-1991 system (when nurse training moved from CertHE to DipHE level). That one really is crosswordese.

[@dolf370]

@@nendwr Bit difficult to remember if one never has been living in the UK.

[@kevinmattsson5718]

12 Minutes in and I see the words two reeds along with connect, water and what is likely to be lion so the connection almost has to be the quiz show "only connect" in my mind, which also makes sense because the final of the current season is coming up this week

[@andreww4473]

An excellent crossword about an excellent quiz show. Are we now seeing a theme in Dave's themes? First 'The Chase' (ITV), now 'Only Connect' (BBC2) - I wonder if the next one will be a quiz show from BBC1? Pointless, perhaps? Just a thought! (But then, perhaps not if Dave watches this!!!)

[@onewingedangel30]

This puzzle is insanely genius. I never got into solving cryptics myself, but watching you and Mark solve them is fun. The only connect theme was absolutely wild.

[@wheelsongenius]

Brilliant!

[@SimCityOver9000]

Oh hey it's you! I actually watch Only Connect every week on your channel! Thanks for your uploads, kind sir.

[@dylansporrer1198]

14:10 - "It's very tempting to read 'Horse and Trap' as a phrase" Is this something I am too American to understand?

[@Bin216]

Also often a “pony and trap”. A trap is a type of light weight carriage with two wheels, drawn by a horse or pony, the front being supported by the horse or pony.

[@steviedmrbk5179]

It also was used as Cockney rhyming slang as a euphemism for 'crap'...not so much nowadays tho

[@joadbreslin5819]

@@Bin216 Ah, what we call a 'horse and buggy'. Thanks for the info.

[@glum_hippo]

What an incredibly clever puzzle! I enjoyed that, though I'm not even familiar with 'Only Connect'

[@fussyboy2000]

Please do one of the Private Eye crosswords.

[@charliegrant5061]

What's this? My favourite channel featuring a crossword by my second-favourite TV personality, about my favourite TV show, that is presented by my favourite TV personality, author, journalist and poker player? F A N T A S T I C ! (Oh, and I think "E.N." is Enrolled Nurse.)

[@phs125]

Now I'm thinking about Dave Gorman's bit about sudoku being very intimidating with words like fiendish sudoku, killer sudoku, harakiri sudoku( which is unfortunately not seppuku sudoku)

[@joadbreslin5819]

This one was a Disemvowelment Cryptic.

[@jovi_al]

Fantastic solve as always :)

[@timholt1556]

Thanks for this. Really useful. Couldn't do this on my own, but with a few hints and letters can make some headway. And I was just as pleased by the theme and its execution as you were.

[@23steveevets32]

wow okay many of these clues are absolutely monstrous, especially for non-native speakers.

[@missioncardiac7599]

Just an amazing grid! Took some time out to go to the site to do the crossword, took an hour. I got the Only Connect connection as I had just been watching the latest episode. But that missing vowels round was just out of this world!

[@mrcommonsense9145]

Love a crossword vid!! What a treat. 😄😎

[@leppyr64]

9:45 SAVAGE

[@savola3129]

Thanks, I love these videos.

[@hauntedmasc]

absolutely love _only connect_ , and very much enjoyed this puzzle

[@nigelm5777]

Two nations separated by their quiz shows?

[@butticorn]

I told my grandmother about the Potato one - She said she would rather stick to the New york times ;)

[@RoderickEtheria]

You forgot to highlight the TWO REEDS at the end there.

[@Pomodorosan]

I will never recover from this

[@nightwishlover8913]

Looking at 11 across and then "ground to a halt"...lol. As far as the theme goes, this presumes one possesses a television, and that if one did, one watched Only Connect.....

[@okubi0]

I love Only Connect. I will have to catch-up on Season 16 now, thanks Simon

[@leporid257]

Oh I only found up to season 4 and special editions on KZbin!

[@okubi0]

@@leporid257 Try @wheelsongenius . They have them all

[@littleschnitzel8226]

I have to say, Simon, though I love both Dave and Victoria, for me your face is still much more of a clickbait than theirs. ;)

[@smokeyassassin]

always nice to see

[@Moonwillow92]

wasn't expecting an episode so early on in the day :)

[@andyparkerson]

Excellent puzzle.

[@nixhixx]

Fun to watch. Almost 100% impossible as an American.

[@dolf370]

Believe me, for a swede, though fluent in English, it is 150% impossible.

[@nixhixx]

@@dolf370 It's more about culture than language.

[@dolf370]

@@nixhixx Yepp, I know. I'm a translator, so I have no problems with the language per se, but I am much more familiar with US (though football and baseball drive me nuts) culture than UK culture.

[@nickloader3184]

Only one I got first was 'nutmegging' probably because every time I played soccer with kids they were more interested in fulfilling this activity than scoring goals it seemed. Oh and I spotted the vowelless message even though I've never watched the gameshow in question.

[@JamieAtSLC]

i don't think it's a coincidence that VCM is also known for her poker skills, and the first clue is 'bluff' (and the second one sounds like 'reads')

[@joadbreslin5819]

'two reeds' refers to the show.

[@fleurpalmer-paquis8226]

Soigné is pronounced "swan-ye" (like Kanye but swan) (im massively anglicising but close enough) and it means well groomed in this context. The definition is probably clearer from the adverb version of the word - soigneusement , which means carefully done.

[@shifttheshaman]

Such a great puzzle and once again you were victoria's!

[@StorymasterQ]

"Celebrate a champion's attribute for school." Me: Gun accuracy! Wait, this is a UK crossword, not US.

[@bruceyanoshek626]

When "discover" is used as an indicator for a beheadment clue, I think that it is a tribute to Lewis Carrol, and his use of "un-dish-cover" in the White Queen's riddle in Through the Looking Glass: FIRST, the fish must be caught.” That is easy: a baby, I think, could have caught it. “Next, the fish must be bought.” That is easy: a penny, I think, would have bought it. “Now cook me the fish!” That is easy, and will not take more than a minute. “Let it lie in a dish!” That is easy, because it already is in it. “Bring it here! Let me sup!” It is easy to set such a dish on the table. “Take the dish-cover up!” Ah, that is so hard that I fear I’m unable! For it holds it like glue - Holds the lid to the dish, while it lies in the middle: Which is easiest to do, Un-dish-cover the fish, or dishcover the riddle?

[@SamAshworth91]

I got nutmegged instantly, just about the only one though.

[@sh4dowchas3r]

Aged Generation = Old Folk I suspect

[@tairrdelbach]

30 minutes of madman's mumblings. Actually im okay with that.

[@clarematthews4051]

I got 5d straight away. Probably that's the first time I've ever got an answer that Simon had to come back to. It may or may not happen again by the end of the year thanks to the crossword education CtC is helpfully providing in this videos. I might have overthought it though - treating horse as a drug to be given its shorter slang name rather than a horse. Happened to see a horse and trap this morning but still didn't think of horse as a horse. Now I'm wondering if any of the "Puzzle Hunters" team from this series Only Connect watch this channel and solve the Patreon puzzle hunts you provide.

[@rushy4321]

Fun fact: the old word 'ye' was never meant to be pronounced as we do today as 'ye'... the letter 'y' used to be pronounced in the same way we pronounce 'th' but has been evolved over the years. So when you see "ye olde pub" its still "the old pub".

[@auldfouter8661]

well Y looked like the old letter that represented the th sound , so they used Y in its place. as the real thing was unavailable.

[@zackleonard8559]

"ye" meaning "the" was because "y" was shorthand for "þ" or "th", it was still pronounced "the".

[@dannisjc]

Yup. ^^

[@thelobsterperson]

I was properly pleased with myself when I spotted "nutmegging" and Simon didn't!

[@NMKnuckleHead]

Eye of Day explanation for Simon: I heard equals Eye, aged persons is "Old Fogies" or OF for short, and finally the Sun is a biblical reference to two lights the greater to rule the day (Sun) and the lesser to rule the night (Moon). Hence the answer is Eye of Day.

[@JasperJanssen]

Is that thumbnail Gorman & Coren Mitchell? Well, you have my attention.

[@user-yl3pp8fy9w]

I enjoy Only Connect even though I can't get anything right on it apart from the missing vowel rounds

[@DanFre40]

I managed to answer 5 questions on the last episode of Only Connect. And when I say "episode" I mean "series". And I'm not saying how many of my answers were actually correct either!

[@bullusrexus8680]

I spent an hour trying to get one word before watching the video. Though the clues were definitions or something, didn't know they were riddles.

[@sportsjefe]

Yeah, Cryptic or British Crosswords are a completely different language that just happens to have English words.

[@bibliopolist]

Brilliant, but I would have loved to see at least a "horrible wall" ...

[@MatthewLenton]

The Sun is also known as the eye of the day

[@LednacekZ]

You watch Only Connect? Why am I not surprised? Maybe because every time I watch it I have no idea what they talk about.

[@Draedaja]

The "wa'er" had me giggling for a bit. Also, no matter how "straight forward" the clues are, I'm just... not getting anything. The only one I _guessed_ correctly and very quickly was "oily" xD

[@rosiefay7283]

Except that he definitely clearly says "water".

[@chrisclark4813]

How about making a 'celeb' team. You Mark & Sam.

[@GeekRedux]

Using a word like "recondite" on a crossword episode is about right. (TIL recondite = little known; abstruse

[@joadbreslin5819]

I prefer 'esoteric'.

[@map-reduce]

I totally don't get "shy affair", specifically "shy". Is this some British slang I'm not aware of? Fling makes sense for affair, but shy?

[@oak3001]

A game to play at a fair is a Coconut Shy, where you throw (shy) a ball at a Coconut balanced on a stick. If you knock the coconut off - you win it!

[@map-reduce]

@@oak3001 Wow thanks! Very obscure, at least in the US as far as I know.

[@joadbreslin5819]

@@map-reduce It's obscure to Americans, but has come up previously on this channel on another solve.

[@zmaj12321]

Wow, a British theme I can actually understand!

[@salmacis]

Even with the explanations, most of these don't make any sense, and the wordplay and abbreviations seem impossible to understand. Guess I'll never be able to solve these sort of clues :-(

[@b3z3jm3nny]

Maybe try American cryptics, they’ve done at least one such video before

[@joadbreslin5819]

It takes lots and lots of practice to be able to do one of these.

[@ascotmd7303]

"minute parts" are seconds "s"

[@AlRoderick]

University Challenge and Only Connect... I think KZbin explainsman Tom Scott has been on both of those.

[@peterdunlop7691]

I remember he was on OC back when he had long hair iirc.

[@phs125]

I thought Dave Gorman released a video on crosswords. Was expecting a found poem with some knowledge bombs...

[@andrewgrant6516]

Imagine a found poem made just out of comments on CTC. Lol.

[@TheMinijulie]

🤩

[@salfordnurse]

EN = Enrolled Nurse.

[@tsegen5571]

o hi

[@paul-juniorblack6151]

I'm not smart enough for these things but maybe OF is "old folk" for aged generation

[@escaperoomleander1948]

Literally impossible for non-Brits.

[@EmilyExplosion27]

Once it became Only Connect I was SCREAMING at the screen even more than I do during sudoku. If you like the wall, how do you not get water?

[@donnathelightningbug]

This is absurd nonsense. It's not a puzzle, it's a set of rules a couple of people decided on without telling anyone else presented as a puzzle. The explanation from "Massively beats cycling our trikes after vacation" to the answer "routs" seems entirely arbitrary. It must be incredibly easy for an outsider to make one solvable by no-one who regularly does these, simply because they would use a different set of non-disclosed arbitrary rules.

[@powt0wn]

it is a puzzle sorry

[@KlyeTan]

I assure you that it's not nonsense! The rules to cryptics aren't arbitrary; they're actually pretty strict, and only seem arbitrary to those who aren't used to seeing them. The more you look at cryptics, the more you'll see the same words keep cropping up as both indicators of anagrams, indicators to remove letters and words that represent certain letters (e.g. royalty or the Queen being ER, or what have you). One tip I can offer when learning how to do cryptics is to not be afraid to look up answers you don't know - once you know the answers, you can then train yourself in recognising which part of the clues are the definitions, and figure out how the wordplay will get you there. Once you've got a few figured out and know how they work, your ability to solve clues will snowball quite quickly!

[@bibliopolist]

I guess "a set of rules a couple of people decided on without telling anyone else" is what you would describe a foreign language then?

[@andrewgrant6516]

The rules aren't arbitrary at all - they're all clearly written on a large blue plaque outside Mornington Crescent for anyone to read.

[@joadbreslin5819]

If it were arbitrary, Simon would not have been able to solve it and find a cohesive underlying theme.

[@mattmclellan123]

Brilliant explanations once again. I love your channel. I’m a massive fan of Only Connect and got the connection after twisted and flax came up. I still don’t understand the “eye of days clue”. Dave is so smart with his grids. Thn ksf rshrng. Kppt hgdwk!!!