The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: Episode 26

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
In the 26th edition of our attempt to solve a Friday Times crossword, Simon takes on today's puzzle, which is rated harder than average. Simon has had to use a new laptop today so apologies if the audio/visuals are not what you're used to. We are doing our best to keep the videos coming!
The puzzle is available to play on The Times crossword club website (which is behind their paywall):
www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzleclub...
You can find more information about the SNITCH rating here:
xwdsnitch.herokuapp.com/cross...
** NEW CONTENT ON PATREON **
Joining us on Patreon costs as little as $2 a month and includes Mark's new solve of The Times' Club Monthly special - a vicious cryptic!!
/ crackingthecryptic
** ORDER OUR UPCOMING BOOK HERE **
www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
** NEW CONTENT ON PATREON **
Joining us on Patreon costs as little as $2 a month and includes Mark's solve of The Times' Club Monthly special - a vicious cryptic!!
/ crackingthecryptic
** NEW GAS PACK IS OUT **
The new GAS pack is out on Steam for PC here:
store.steampowered.com/app/21...
It's already out on Android and App Store. 60 original puzzles by Sam Cappleman-Lynes, Clover and Philip Newman!! Earn party hats and dinosaurs with these brand new puzzles!
We've also released a FREE app full of handmade puzzles to celebrate reaching 500k subscribers - simply download the Cracking The Cryptic app on Android, Steam or App Store and then select the 500k pack. We're streaming a playthrough of this app and you can watch all seven episodes
▶ Contact Us ◀
Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic
email: [e-mail]
Our PO Box address:
Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB
(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Our New App ◀
You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:
iOS:
apps.apple.com/us/app/svens-s...
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/17...
Android:
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”
**************************************************************
▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀
/ discord
▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE - ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀
tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue
▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
teespring.com/en-GB/stores/cr...
▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀
[e-mail]
▶FOLLOW US◀
Twitter: #crypticcracking
@crypticcracking
Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): crackingthe...

[@toerag572]

"Pocket" - to appropriate, and then penny changed from p to older d.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Thanks!

[@st0rmforce]

I was so pleased to work that one out. I'm sure I wouldn't have got it without Simon's work getting the checking letters and mentioning shillings and pence. What he missed was changing from new to old.

[@Zimodo]

neat theme of having 2 tons in each corner

[@michaelpdawson]

With only a couple of clues left I was thinking, "hey, there hasn't been a hidden word clue!" Then bingo, that excellent MELATONIN clue. Getting BOCCHERINI 100% right and accepting it because "it sort of sounds like an Italian composer" is classic Simon.

[@davidrattner9]

Again Simon, just thank you so much for continuing to provide your immaculate explanations in solving these for us, even while you are on vacation. Hope you have had a wonderful time.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Ditto!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Indeed: hope you're enjoying your vacation.

[@richardclegg8027]

Been watching this long enough that "immaculate explanations" made me think "how many letters".

[@BryanLu0]

In case people are confused about pocket meaning appropriate: Pocket can mean steal, as in "I'll give them 80% and pocket the rest."

[@longwaytotipperary]

Ahhh….

[@kingofbritons]

Appropriate can also mean dock as in to dock pay as in a withholding.

[@BryanLu0]

@@kingofbritons But "et" doesn't stand for any type of coins

[@kingofbritons]

@@BryanLu0 you are correct as far as I know, but a change in older coins could be the T which comes from toning or the coloration of older coins which can raise their value. We would just need to justify the 'E' then from seeing....

[@davehx]

@@kingofbritons it is Pocket changed to Docket as the "p" (short for new pence) is changed to "d" (short for old, pre decimal penny). The "to" can be read two ways..."change to older coinage" could mean "make a change to an existing older coinage in pocket" , or "convert to older terms"...it's the second option

[@Jonty340]

I very much enjoy these solves. They feel very real. With Mark’s struggles with the monthly insane cryptic these are the most authentic part of the channel. I do not wish to disparage the suduko part but they do not publish failures. I know they do not want to wish to publish incorrect solutions.but Simon’s struggles mirror my own and I appreciate that. It’s very instructive. Please publish all attempts, regardless!

[@ConManAU]

While there are many Simon-isms for the sudoku videos, for cryptics we have to include “apologises for being unaware of something incredibly obscure if you don’t have a degree in Classics”. Brilliant solve as always, and I remain glad to have spotted one or two small answers before Simon did.

[@francesT5877]

Thanks as always and as you say like many others I am getting better. I used to only be able to do at most a third of a puzzle, and now I can finish almost all of the quick cryptics and over half of the main cryptics. Thanks so much for your help, all the patient explanations make me see how the patterns work.

[@paul_harness]

This is my experience too! So great to make progress after trying for so long (before discovering CTC) 👍👍👍

[@longwaytotipperary]

Thank you for giving up part of your holiday to provide us with the puzzle! Hope you are enjoying your holiday!!!

[@davidrattner9]

Always appreciative of him providing these for us. 💜💛

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@davidrattner9 yes! 💕

[@SolreLami196]

Other than his infamous Minuet from the String Quintet, Boccherini is actually somewhat known for writing some chamber music for guitar, so you should add him to your obscure guitar composers databank!

[@listey]

🎶 That's T in the corner. That's T in the spotlight. Losing its religion. 🎶 🎶 That's T in the corner. That's T in the spotlight. Losing its religion. 🎶

[@orosma868]

What a Friday! Cancelled my chemo so I could come to London and catch the last few days of a few exhibitions only to find out at 5pm our Airbnb wasn't available, flooded out. Trying to find affordable wheelchair accessible accommodation on a friday night in central London is not easy! Finally got somewhere in Mayfair, did some shopping, settled down for CtC with a well deserved clase of rioja and fell asleep! Hats off to my son who did all the heavy lifting (literally, there was no lift! 😳), and put me on to CtC many years ago when I was first starting to get ill. Thank you Simon for another late night entertainment package. What would I do without you, Mark and morphine...my 3 best friends at the mo! x

[@DevilboyScooby]

Boccherini is famous for literally just one song that almost everyone will have heard somewhere without realising it- Minuet.

[@emilywilliams3237]

Always fascinating. I am sure I am the slowest learner among your viewers, but at least what you say in your explanations sounds like a language I have heard once or twice now, rather than sounding like something from another planet! Thanks, Simon, for making this video while on holiday! (And I'm thankful you were able to get a new laptop so quickly!)

[@deniseiln]

"lo" is old-fashioned, but still in use on some level. "la" is... Well, I just searched Pride and Prejudice on Project Gutenberg and found this: "La!" replied Kitty, "it looks just like that man that used to be with him before. Mr. what's his name. That tall, proud man." ...if "la" as a synonym for look isn't considered archaic, it's well on its way, at least.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Well done! --- good searching.

[@martinwilson5210]

Found that extremely difficult, I think you have a moral victory with an excellent solve and the really annoying LA instead of LO

[@mitchharwood2982]

Hi Simon. I've been watching the Friday Times video from the start. Definitely improved my solving a lot. I hope you continue the series. It's excellent.

[@user-gs3nz8xj5x]

Brilliant solve as always. After doing this with you week in week out I feel I am getting much better at these and then THIS puzzle comes up. I found this puzzle completely impenetrable.. apart from Melatonin and a few others.

[@watchmakerful]

"Tonsillar" is natural from another point of view: there was "Describing glands" in the clue. "Describing" can mean "adjective related to something", and Latin-derived adjectives universally end in -ar or -ary, but never in -or (it's a noun suffix).

[@longwaytotipperary]

Then what to do do with the word “look?”

[@markmcknight9601]

Look => Lo. @@longwaytotipperary

[@theskyisteal8346]

If I had to guess "la!" is a *really* arcane/archaic exclamation meaning "look!"

[@Stu_1977_SEmelb]

@@longwaytotipperary I had to check this for myself as well. From the Cambridge Dictionary: la (exclamation, showing emotion; old use) an expression of an emotion, such as surprise or anger: e.g.: "La! You are mistaken!"

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@Stu_1977_SEmelb oh, la! 🤪

[@Capataro]

Those cryptic crosswords are insane as a non native speaker haha, I‘m always astounded when I hear the solutions

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

The reason for definitely choosing -LAR in 7 down is in the definition - “describing glands”. There are lots of words ending -LAR that fit “describing”, like circular or polar. And looking at words ending -LOR, I couldn’t find any with that kind of meaning. Getting word endings right can be very important - many -TION words have a synonym ending -TING - notation/notating, ignition/igniting and so on. Making sure you put in the right one can save you from having a duff checking letter. Likewise -ise and -ize, for which the variable letter is often unchecked, so a different kind of hazard.

[@profregan6937]

Docket -appropriate means ok ? Brilliant as ever and yes , your audience learns from every episode.

[@johnk4856]

"La" has the definition "Lo! See! behold! ah! indeed!" according to Chambers, but I've done a lot of crosswords and have never seen it. Using it in the wordplay of an obscure word without the aid of a checking letter seems mean to me and I think you're justified to feel a little hard done by

[@longwaytotipperary]

Agree!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

I don't have Chambers but I have a Concise Oxford on the shelf, and it doesn't give "la" in *modern* English. In Old English, though, we had "la" and it later evolved into "lo." On the other hand, I could look up "tonsillar" and verify that it ends in -ar rather than -or. Yeah, definitely very hard here.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@Anne_Mahoney ahhh (or laaaa 🤪)

[@JohnLeeShaw]

Hi Simon! Once again, thanks for another masterclass. It is amazing that you can solve these clues without necessarily knowing the answer, as with the Italian Composer -- well done! It's also interesting to hear you talk about how you notice people improving. This for me was another humbling failure (though I did get 10a), but I actually feel quite positive that I was on the right track with some of the answers this time around! My problem is rather complicated now, at being 50% not getting the answers, and 50% not being able to make answers I do get work. I'm undecided as to which is worse! 😅 Anyway, thanks once again, really appreciate what you do, and you've become a very welcome part of my Friday! Have a good weekend!

[@longwaytotipperary]

I think not knowing British slang is a big disadvantage as many clues and answers use it. But I am getting better at determining options and recognizing how the clue structure works… 😉

[@JohnLeeShaw]

Yes, absolutely. I find doing the quick crosswords of The Times also helps a little with getting to grips with clue structure and thinking a bit out of the box with how wordplay. Really glad you are getting better 🙂

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@JohnLeeShaw thank you!

[@glum_hippo]

I have never heard the word 'tat' meaning nonsense. I like it. Thanks for these as always!

[@glum_hippo]

Boccherini wrote one delightful piece that you surely have heard, a minuet for string quartet. He was a major figure in string music development, but just a cog in the great big wheel of musical invention really.

[@Stu_1977_SEmelb]

ICYWI: 'tot' can mean nonsense as well. 🙂👍

[@longwaytotipperary]

I agree “lo” is a better old-timey word for “look” than “la”. As in “ Lo, the angels came upon them” vs. “la a note to follow so”…. 😁

[@davidrattner9]

Loved this explanation from you!! 😄

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@davidrattner9 thank you, David! 🤪❤️

[@timshaw9627]

"US city" or "note" would have felt a fairer clue to "la" for me. It works as it is but if it was on a crossing square and could be checked I would have liked it better.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@timshaw9627 ah - US city - LA - would have been good!

[@orosma868]

So true, lots of other wordplay could have given a clearer signpost to the right letter. But I suppose this is the difference between knowing how it's spelt working out how it might be spelt!

[@racingstu]

I feel like I'm the only one to notice the pairs of "TON"s in all four corners of the crossword??

[@longwaytotipperary]

Wow!

[@tonyroberts3926]

Must be a homage to the TonTon Club

[@louisesuth8141]

YEs, i have learned so much from seeing how to read a clue, and am regularly finishing the Telegraph's cryptic crossword, albeit an easier one than the times

[@andrewnaylor477]

Per Oxford Dictionery - Old English- la', variant of look, v. To direct one's sight; to use one's ability to see. Hence (contextually): to conduct a visual… intransitive. With adverb or prepositional phrase…

[@Ruddigore]

Thanks for another great cryptic video. I would suggest that rather than just saying 'n' is a valid abbreviation of name because it's in the dictionary, it would be helpful to explain where the abbreviations can be found; ordinance survey maps, sporting score cards, music scores, pencil hardness's, compass points, weather maps, birth, marriage and death certificates, and the periodic table of elements, to name but a few.

[@lashers]

Your comment about knowing "strange composers to do with guitar music" is interesting because Boccherini wrote a number of works for guitar and string quartet.

[@brennan985]

Look up the Boccherini Minuet, you'll recognize that immediately :)

[@DaShikuXI]

I interpreted 11 across slightly differently. "ossi" is most of fossil. Then if your work is 'badly done', you get an F, like in school. and then the y is the ending in ignominy. Put that together and you get ossify

[@longwaytotipperary]

That works too!

[@timshaw9627]

I went that way also

[@johnciolfi5085]

I agree that the clue to 7-Down was somewhat unfair. If you’ve never seen that word before, you’d have no way of knowing which is the proper spelling, especially since the letter in question is entirely unchecked (and the word for “look” that you chose is far more common in cryptics, and in general, than the other option).

[@Terapiaelukka]

26:09 Suomi mainittu, torille! (Finland was mentioned, let's meet at the market square)

[@kevinmartin7760]

For me, "coup d'etat" (with the capital letters masking the missing accent) includes an apostrophe, which should therefore be part of the punctuation provided by the puzzle.

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

Until something like 30 years ago, apostrophes were included in the “enumeration” after the clue. I can remember being shocked when the opera L’elisir d’amore was “(7,6)” rather than “(1’6,1’5)”. Shortly after that, all the cryptics I did seemed to stop indicating apostrophes in that way.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

@@peterbiddlecombe1939 I was wondering about that. Of course, in American crosswords, we generally don't get word length indications: a 9-letter answer space could be a 9-letter word, or 4 + 5, or 3 + 3 + 3, or any other combination that works.

[@GordonjSmith1]

I will admit to liking tonsillAr, but 'hey' I thought 'lo' was 'look', so I went with Simon! I got a couple of the others quite quickly, but couldn't quite justify them to my satisfaction - but I was correct - just couldn't explain it!! Really enjoying 'Fridays' I am certainly getting better (however slowly...). PS The Italian composer would have had me beaten for a life time 🙂

[@Alex_Meadows]

Well done Simon! "La" to mean "look" does seem somewhat unkind - perhaps "note" instead of "look" would have been a more generous pointer towards "la".

[@longwaytotipperary]

Yes!

[@ashmeadowphoenix]

i've seen "la" a lot, but very specifically in romance novels set in the regency period. and i would've guess "lo" too

[@ahouyearno]

Tonsillar is the adjective of tonsil, it describes a tonsil as in tonsillar inflammation.

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I suppose some people have heard about the latest Times cock-up. A completely different puzzle was published in the paper version of the Times - this one was supposed to appear in two weeks. Mick Hodgkin has apologized for this in a post in TftT. I did this one. I spent my last ten minutes trying to figure out how 6 down worked - I had an answer, but I couldn't justify it. Then I saw the pocket => docket trick.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Yikes!

[@rohitg1529]

Great solve Simon! I’ve been getting into scrabble lately, and I couldn’t help but think that you and Mark, with your anagramming skills would be really good. I was wondering if you two enjoy playing. If you do, maybe you could consider collaborating with a scrabble KZbin creator?

[@erickehr4475]

Docket is pocket (appropriate) with p (penny) changed to its old equivalent, d. Although I wasn’t sure about tonsillar vs tonsillor as a word, I would have gone with ‘ar’ as that is the normal English ending meaning ‘relating to’ (eg polar, molecular, etc); whereas ‘tonsillor’ would be someone who tonsils!

[@eclectichoosier5474]

Registrar, commisar / torpor, pallor... English is weird. It seems to be more exceptions than rules.

[@Stu_1977_SEmelb]

@@eclectichoosier5474 A good example is how classes don't even teach the old "i before e, except after c" rule; there are apparently now more exceptions to it than examples of it.

[@anthonyhastings5961]

Appropriate = pocket. Change new p to old penny d. Docket

[@SnugglesPlays]

I think that clue was a bit naughty, I've heard of lo as a meaning for look, but not la. As far as I'm concerned, la does not mean look! The docket one, I think is ok for appropriate, seeing c for change, but then I can't figure out the older coinage part. I might be completely wrong though! 🙂

[@Alex_Meadows]

A new penny is abbreviated to p, while the old penny was abbreviated (for some reason) to d. Hence pocket --> docket.

[@PeterMoore66]

@@Alex_Meadows 'd' stood for denarius (or denarii) which was an old roman coin. Similarly 'L' stood for 'Pound' from the Latin 'librae'.

[@tonyroberts3926]

@@katv1195 Nothing would ever be priced at 40d - it would be 3/4 (Three and fourpence, aka three shillings and fourpence) As in the well known phrase "Send three and fourpence we're going to a dance" [ Message relayed from the front line through several runners which was originally "Send reinforcements we're going to advance"

[@user-jj8ed3vx2w]

6d ducket is old coin. replace u with OK for appropriate?

[@ayejaye]

Compare tonsillar with cerebellar.

[@danielcarrier3577]

The World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary gives "la" as archaic version of "lo".

[@yummers2001]

Every young violinist will have learned Boccherini's Minuet at some point!

[@user-gs3nz8xj5x]

Never a young violinist around when you need one

[@grenvillephillips6998]

How come, in Friday's paper, my Times crossword has the same number but is an entirely different puzzle?

[@Raven-Creations]

You don't substitute d for s, they are both old currency. You substitute d for p (old penny for new pence). s is a shilling, which is 12d, or 5p. Therefore pocket is appropriate, substitute the p for a d to give docket. I hoped when you said about Islington "You'll have heard of the Angel Islington if you're a..." that you were going to say Mornington Crescent player - probably the greatest game of skill and strategy ever devised. Just don't get in Nidd.

[@bibliopolist]

The clue 4 across should read (4,1,4) I think....

[@BryanLu0]

Coup d'etat is two words. The French like their abbreviations.

[@Illithien]

@@BryanLu0 The d' in d'etat is an abbreviation of "de" (meaning "of" in English). _Without abbreviating: coup de etat, meaning coup of state._ The abbreviation doesn't mean it no longer being a word on its own in my book. So I would count it as three words.

[@fregus.]

@@Illithien In English, "don't" is one word. Why would French abbreviations be any different?

[@Caleb-zl4wk]

@@fregus. I don’t get the feeling that transits exactly between languages.

[@fregus.]

Contractions act as a single word in any language. @@Caleb-zl4wk

[@mattahier8027]

Look inside glands to get "LA" ?

[@bolehtahan]

nah, because 'glands' has to be part of the definition.

[@PotmosHetoimos]

Not with "describing glands" as the definition

[@Stu_1977_SEmelb]

I had to check this for myself as well. From the Cambridge Dictionary: la (exclamation, showing emotion; old use) an expression of an emotion, such as surprise or anger: e.g.: "La! You are mistaken!"

[@joelindecatur]

"In receipt" made me think "as heard" - as in an auditory clue...

[@longwaytotipperary]

That would fit with the word “appropriate!”

[@socksygen]

Hamburger

[@jwolfe01234]

Happy to see a video that isn't constantly switching over to Chambers Dictionary. I find it hugely distracting, to the point where often I just have to close the video. And it doesn't even really add any substance. It's just drilling home the point, over and over and over again, that a Times Crossword is all driven by what's in the dictionary, not just any old thing the puzzle setter feels like doing. I much preferred it when the Chambers lookups were at the end, when I could watch them or skip them as I felt like doing in the moment.

[@Stu_1977_SEmelb]

Simon, you should perhaps show us "la" in your dictionary next week. It also would be well worth coming back to this next week to show everyone, as @racingstu pointed out, the eight "TON"s that nobody else seemed to notice (four pairs, a pair for each corner)! @tonyroberts3926 has pointed out that it could be a reference to the TonTon Club. I love these videos, please keep 'em coming. 🙂👍 Much to my own amazement, I am actually improving at these harder crosswords, clues which I never had a chance of solving, even in recent times! More cryptics, please! 💕