The Ultimate Crossword Challenge

The Time's monthly exercise in vicious cruelty for its crossword club members - will Mark get through it?
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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. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the eleven-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@Chipplez]

I'm kinda just... dumbfounded at this. Like I'd imagine if I had literal years to solve this I'd not even get the first word.

[@zeeker0315]

I had no idea what was going on the whole time, but Mark’s logic is interesting to listen to. Even if I don’t understand, I still think it’s an incredible solve!

[@philipisbest]

This was amazing to watch, I don’t think there’s a single clue here that I could even approach.

[@PhilnoTV]

You are a wizard

[@Ruddigore]

Number of clues I may have managed to solve = 0. Number of these words I have actually uttered in my 66 years of life = 0. I would like to see many more Cryptic Crosswords featured on this channel, not as brutal as this one though. Well done on this by the way, have a huge thumbs up 👍

[@richardfarrer5616]

I'm delighted to say that I got psychopomp as soon as you suggested a guide through hell, and I knew choisya (neither of which the spell checker likes, I see). A shame I wouldn't have got to either without you suggesting the direction and was nowhere near the rest of them. Well done!

[@ChrisSPCs]

Nice one mark. This one something else entirely. I do enjoy you comparing yourself to the others on the times leader board, just brings other names of great solvers to the light a bit more and shows the variance in how top solvers find some puzzles easier than others over time. Are you planning on covering the times crossword championship puzzles soon? After seeing the Sudoku you completed today in 5 minutes, I'd like to see your thinking behind the crossword you did in almost the same time to win. For this one I felt like it sort of had an old/rural language Scottish theme but, the No Irish threw me off a bit.

[@adamcummins9940]

If anyone’s curious the Irish speaking regions have a name pretty similar to the Scottish equivalent, we call it the Gaeltacht. (Bit of a shorter spelling but pronounced pretty much the same, can definitely understand how you’d confuse the two)

[@macchubbin]

Crazy puzzle! These crossword solves are definitely my favourite type of video you guys do, although I do also really enjoy the various sudoku variants. One thought: I often wonder what the setter of a puzzle as hard as this would think, watching you solve it. Maybe an idea for a future video...?

[@AM4692]

Unbelievable solve. Well done. Please do more If posible.

[@vwisse]

Great solve. Though as a Dutchman I am a bit annoyed the puzzle spelled rijsttafel wrong, should have a double t. Rijst is the dutch word for rice and tafel means table.

[@powt0wn]

rijstafel is listed in chambers dictionary, so people must be spelling it that way (technically 'wrong' or not!)

[@vwisse]

@@powt0wn It appears to be the only dictionary that spells it with one t. Every other dictionary spells it correctly with two t's. My personal opinion of course but I think puzzles should use the correct spelling of words and not go with whatever spelling some people are using.

[@powt0wn]

@@vwisse fair enough!

[@mikechappell5849]

@@vwisse the puzzle uses Chambers dictionary as its source, so it has to use whatever spelling Chambers has.

[@legatrix]

@@vwisse it's as specified in the video: Indonesian. I can confirm that it's frequently seen in Indonesia with that spelling.

[@_MisterG]

I watched this with the dictionary to hand and was amazed t how many "guesses" were spot on! Hats off to you!

[@InviDoll]

Yeees! Love these!

[@cycklist]

Wonderful, like watching a master craftsman at work. Thank you.

[@nigelm5777]

So if this is hard for Mark, how many people could do this puzzle? Most of it might as well been in another tongue. Curiously entertaining.

[@bachgammon1]

Indeed. Who is the target market for this crossword if the world's top cryptic solver, by a long distance, finds this so entertainingly painful?

[@dajoey2198]

I'm from Indonesia, and I never heard heard of rijsttafel ahahah anyways, great video!

[@2beinteresting]

In The Netherlands it's called a rijsttafel (double t, it's spelled wrong in the puzzle). It's based on Indonesian cuisine. But they are not authentic recipes, they are knockoffs. So it's an amazing find by Mark.

[@erickehr4475]

Amazing! The only one I solved quicker than you was “brog”. BTW, I don’t think you actually parsed 4 correctly. A paranym is a euphemism. So “it” is a paranym for “sex”.

[@bachgammon1]

I enjoyed the rare smugness of working out zero coupon bond immediately!

[@bluefloyd1]

extraordinary. i tried to solve along with you, but using the internet to help, and i still couldn't complete it until you did. The gambles you took were interesting, I wonder, when you're in competition, do you fill in uncertain letters, like you would in a sudoku?

[@jay1men]

The 2 fares from India m Indonesia : superb! But your Scottish,Irish words in the crossword are a bit too many for my taste. Not too appealing to the overseas solver. Thanks very much, mark, for thinking out loud as you solve this doozy!

[@joedavies1524]

Incredible, and fascinating. Only one I got was Rijstafel, purely as I have eaten it several times. Not sure I have even heard of any of the other answers before.

[@Isee-vn4go]

INCREDIBLE!

[@G.Aaron.Fisher]

This amazing solve makes me want to know more about Mark's life.

[@d4r4butler74]

Very enjoyable to watch you solve, as always.

[@joshuaknowles]

I was very entertained. Thanks a lot !

[@rabidsamfan]

Good grief. That is incredible.

[@Wecoc1]

Me at the disco, 1am - Hey babe, you look so pretty tonight. Do you like pizza? Me at the disco, 4am, drunk & desperate - Normal, some claim ultimately, to get it for sex, say?