Times Masterclass 44

[@mikechappell5849]

I enjoy the contrast between the two solvers, Simon always suffering anguish and Mark strolling through it without even raising a sweat

[@jonchalkers]

Exactly. Always nice to have a Mark solve so I can sit in awe at how he breezes through it.

[@Alex_Meadows]

I'm always amazed that Simon can get through these in under an hour, and absolutely staggered that Mark can seemingly do it without being at all stretched. It must be like Neo seeing the Matrix.

[@nemuchan]

imagine you're a constructor of cryptic crosswords and you spent hours setting up difficult clues lkes these and then comes Mark.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Have you ever tried any of the puzzles Mark himself has set? I've seen a couple, including a free sample from the Magpie website, and was utterly, totally lost. This guy knows crosswords inside out, backwards and forwards, up and down -- makes it a special treat when it's Mark's turn to do the master class! 😺💙

[@richardlyons7582]

It amazed me that Mark made this puzzle see so easy and was in low gear to slow down to explain the clues for us mere mortals.

[@michaeljarcher]

Seems a bumper week of bonus content, what with Mark on Countdown, and a few extras from both Mark and Simon. Cracking the Christmas comes early.

[@abergavennypeal]

I don't know if it's infuriating or enjoyable to see Mark solve faster than I could whilst clearly explaining every bit of each clue and *deliberatley* slowing down his thought process enough to make the whole thing seem obvious. Actually, I do: it's joyous.

[@trelliema]

Yes, I love when we get Mark crossword solves!

[@royston1928]

Haha! Thanks for the birthday wishes Mark!

[@Alex_Meadows]

Well done Mark! I thoroughly support the Jeeves and Wooster recommendation - if I'm ever feeling a bit down in the dumps, Wodehouse sorts me out. The 90s Fry and Laurie TV adaptation is also worth watching if you can find it.

[@mjkluck]

Happy, happy! Friday is cryptic time.

[@TheGroatesque1]

An effortless solve, Mark - absolutely wonderful. I fully concur with your recommendation of the Jeeves stories. The lorgnette answer put me in mind of this. I remember walking one day in Grosvenor Square with my aunt Brenda and her pug dog Jabberwocky, and a policeman came up and said the latter ought to be wearing a muzzle. My aunt made no verbal reply. She merely whipped her lorgnette from its holster and looked at the man, who gave one choking gasp and fell back against the railings, without a mark on him but with an awful look of horror in his staring eyes, as if he had seen some dreadful sight. 😀

[@emilywilliams3237]

I really enjoy these crossword videos, and look forward to them every week. It's such a treat to have you here today, Mark - thanks for this (and for staying up into the small hours to be able to post it on time). You and Simon have provided so much excellent fun in addition to the normal brilliancies of the regular sudoku videos. Thanks so much.

[@jamestaylor961]

Completed this earlier and I found it brutal. Brilliant how you can just sail through it. 21A took me forever.

[@SourabhDas95]

Simon always says, "The more experience you get in these puzzles, the better you get at recognizing wordplay," often in reference to an example, "Like these sequence of letters screams anagram/wordplay, because it doesn't make any sense unless it's providing letters." And I've definitely improved a lot in being able to deduce how a clue might be constructed from watching these videos, even if I can't always work out the actual word from it. At this point I can get anywhere from 20%-50% of the clues in a puzzle with enough time. But I'm also realizing that it's much harder to make progress past this point, as a lot of the clues I'm completely lost on, ends up being the type of general knowledge that's hard to build up a word bank on naturally, as a non-Brit. Whether it be local geography (like London Burroughs, or English counties, rivers), local history, cultural references, sports clubs, references to celebrities/politicians/people, cockney rhyming slang etc. I just end up with too many clues where I don't recognize a word or name, and think "that's got to be wordplay, right?" only to hear Mark say something like, "Mr Wooster is surely Bertie Wooster," before I hang my head in defeat 😂

[@Alex_Meadows]

I find that stuff difficult and I'm English, so I sympathise!

[@BryanLu0]

If you're familiar with American culture more, there are American cryptic crosswords too

[@SourabhDas95]

@@BryanLu0 I grew up in Singapore, and now I live in Canada, so I'm fairly well versed for both compared to the average foreigner, but I don't have that level of local expertise that the best cryptic crosswords tend to demand with either, unfortunately 😔

[@longwaytotipperary]

❤ these!! Mark you are terrific!!

[@davidrattner9]

Mark did another fantastic job today!! 💜🩵

[@bristolrovers27]

Always a pleasure to watch Mark solve, both puzzles and crosswords, this was very smooth

[@dkamm65]

I know nobody cares, but for the first time, I figured out a clue before Mark and i'm elated! (1A)

[@dglthrawn1]

Feeling quite pleased with myself for getting a few of these.

[@Raven-Creations]

Rhubarb rhubarb was a beloved device used overtly by the Goons. Not too tricky this week. Although I wasn't too far behind, the speed you are able to get the clues amazes me. You've already got the answer while I'm still deconstructing the clue. I wouldn't have got lorgnette though. That's a new one on me. Given time, I may have spotted that the crossing letters happened to appear in the clue. Although I got gunpowder plot even before reading the clue, I've never heard of gunpowder used as a type of tea.

[@peternamey4430]

My favourite CTC of the week always and extra special when Mark does the solve - incredible brain.

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

Ha! I solve at 1/3 the speed of Mark, but for me 'using' was a two-second write-in - that was easy. Same thing with icy - instant answer. I still took 41 minutes to solve this one, whereas Mark probably would have taken about 10 minutes if he was solving at full speed.

[@Alex_Meadows]

I was smug at getting "icy" and "libertines" before Mark did, and decided to conveniently overlook the fact that he was a hundred years ahead of me in every other clue.

[@Prazzie]

A relatively easy puzzle for a Friday, but I've never heard of a "lorgnette", so was stumped there. Thank you for walking us through the solution, there were a couple of answers I couldn't parse fully, so I was looking forward to being enlightened!

[@peterdunlop7691]

Love these Cryptic Crossword videos. Thank you.

[@arthurcharest9061]

Thanks for the solve Mark!

[@Ruddigore]

Another brilliant solve by Mark. Thanks CTC for all the bonus content this week, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

[@davidrattner9]

Thank you Mark for solving this today!! Your explanations and speed is outstanding!

[@adrever1986]

As always, a great Friday crossword video and super seeing the channel being promoted on Countdown this week!

[@missioncardiac7599]

Well, that was a breeze through. For Mark!

[@aravendad860]

Thank you mark for acknowledging the uk references in times crosswords nothing wrong with it of course but worth noting

[@gordonglenn2089]

Friday is always a delight. Thank you for keeping the CRYPTIC crosswords in CtC!

[@MichaelLamparty]

"Fruit crumble" is a rather wonderful dessert and one definitely can make it from rhubarb. If you want a wonderful fruit crumble Mark I can recommend "Humble Crumble" which is located in Old Spitalfields, Borough, and Camden Markets in London. I try to visit them at least once now every time I am in London. On last years visit I actually went to the Spitalfields and Borough market locations.

[@rhodrijames7962]

"Gunpowder" is indeed a green tea, named because the tightly curled dried leaves looked like grains of gunpowder.

[@stevewood8]

Thanks for the great solve Mark, and good luck for when you resume your Countdown appearances (in the plural hopefully). When you calmly request those letters from Carol at a high speed I'm sure it must unsettle your opponents.

[@waynethomas7406]

From Carol? Blimey, has he been on before?

[@stevewood8]

@@waynethomas7406 Ha! Now that would have been a very long gap between appearances! Clearly Christmas must be on my mind :)

[@sarahlowes1501]

This is Mark's second attempt at Countdown. The rules changed a while back to allow two attempts. I hadn't watched for a number of years due to work and dad stopped watching when Carol left so I didn't catch it when on leave. For 8 years I have had a long-term illness that requires a strong acting medication which has the effect of drowsiness so I fall asleep during the day or early evening for at least half hour so I have rarely watched the show since dad passed away 7 years ago. Need to watch More4 over next couple of weeks to see countdown & GBBO.

[@louisesuth8141]

Masterful! so enjoyable to watch

[@clara931]

Any cryptic crossword to me as a non-native feel a bit like magic. Mark solving them is just insanity!

[@bibliopolist]

Mark is just out of this world, doing this without any apparent effort. I do enjoy Simon's struggling a bit with the puzzles, but I'd prefer if he did less dictionary lookups (while the puzzle is unsolved), the constant explanation of the abbreviation standard etc.

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

Just noting that re 1D, something like "the court listened to the uninformed officer's testimony" is, in my memory, a classic among entertaining misprints.

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

+ Piaf: active as a singer both sides of WW"

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

WW2 (stuck shift key?)

[@jodyvanliew2514]

Mark , you are amazing . I learn so much from you and Simon . Of course I am at a disadvantage being an American not knowing British phrases etc .

[@nickr3115]

Once again an enjoyable solve, many thanks.

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Thanks!

[@glum_hippo]

It's not the Iliad that contains the story of Dido and Aeneas... but rather the Aeneid. Virgil, not Homer. Nice puzzle, nice video!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Thanks for this: I was cringing, meowing, whimpering in pain.... In fact, I thought to myself -- don't be too insulted, now, Mark -- "that was the kind of mistake Simon makes"! 😸

[@nickloader3184]

Yes, I got ICY before Mark haha. He blitzed me on the rest. Brilliant puzzle. Great surfaces :) Thanks Mark :D

[@gerrygunn5109]

This morning I started reading "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier; the word 'lorgnette' appears no less than five times towards the end of Chapter 2. Coincidence? I think so.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

There's a creepy book! Don't read that one before bedtime: you'll have nightmares.

[@alistairpurdie6051]

Wow

[@BryanLu0]

In American English, what you call suspenders are called garter belts

[@nemuchan]

surprisingly, even if crosswords is really developped here in France, i don't think i've seen anything like the cryptic version in French yet. Maybe because we're too smug about our language to dismantle it like that ? So i really want to try to build one of these in French myself. However, i lack the basic technical knowledge of how to create those grids. Does anyone here know of a good software when you can produce the grid, and enter a few words so that they are placed in a way they fit ? Possibly with an autocompletion feature based on a dictionary ?

[@Landis963]

14:36 In Britain, and among viewers of the film _Inception._

[@basilicon.]

I'm from America, and I've only ever heard of suspenders being used as a piece of clothing. I've never heard it used as a thing to hold up stockings. Then again, i live in Florida, so it is never cold enough to merit wearing stockings, so maybe it is a thing here too. America is a big place.

[@BryanLu0]

It's called a garter belt in American English

[@philipbrooks402]

Very enjoyable but left me feeling very inadequate!

[@SnugglesPlays]

Can someone please explain this clue? Rainwear wrapped around heartless lothario (6)

[@SnugglesPlays]

Need help understanding the following two clues for which I have got the answers but don't fully understand the wordplay: Improve at noon? (5) I understand the definition but don't fully get the wordplay. It's not drunk at the Officers' Mess - the public can't buy either. (7,4) Again, I got the answer from the definition, but really can't fathom the wordplay. Thank you! 🙂

[@R.Daneel]

@18:00 I heard 'that's an old phrase for penis'... which still fits as a rather amusing euphemism.