The Times Crossword Masterclass: 13 December 2024: The Hardest Puzzle Of The Year!

[@shellmichael9665]

Don’t ever let this series go away.

[@britlion]

How Simon must be hated by other youtubers that get no traction, and here is man doing a crossword, rambling about comedy, Eric Bristow, takes a quick break to play with his guitar, makes a one shot recording video that's an hour and a quarter and has 622k subscribers. We absolutely love what you do, Simon. Keep making us laugh, cry and loving to invite you and Mark into our homes daily. You're both awesome.

[@skymotel2]

Dear Simon, I can appreciate that not being at the very top of the leader board can be disheartening when you are so very good at solving crosswords, Sudoku, pencil puzzles and logic problems. However I have come to realise that in this world there is ALWAYS someone better, quicker, stronger, brainier, funnier or more skillful. This does not diminish the skills that we each have. You are brilliant at what you do here. Not only can you solve these puzzles 'live' but you teach at the same time. Could others on the leader board do as well under that pressure? I do not know because I have not see them do so. Be proud of what you achieve each day. You are fantastic! Best Wishes. E x

[@bruresende]

I have no clue what's gpoing on these videos 99% of te time, but I still don't miss a single one!

[@colinstuartsmith]

Sid Waddell quote when a player scored 180 .... " you could get those 3 darts in the eye of a Maggot" .... alll in Sid's wonderfully accented way.

[@gamergirl4u]

These cryptic crossword videos make my whole week! I don’t voice my love for this series as often as I should but I’ll always look forward to them :)

[@Alex_Meadows]

If I could solve that QC in two and a half minutes it would be the best day of my life! Anyway, thank you for the video, these are always a lovely end to the week.

[@avalancherelapse]

It feels absolutely surreal to dive into the world of modified sudokus and then stumble upon a video like this where yet again its a whole new world of constructors and solvers and the way the language is played with in these clues makes my head spin, could not last a second without the brilliant explanations by Simon, this is just ridiculous.

[@PhroXenGold]

As someone in that narrow slice of the venn diagram, I'm rather disappointed my specialist knowledge of Iron Mainden song didn't end up being needed

[@Sgray-ep7se]

Wow, what a grat crossword! Pangram, Simon's guitar, THEdonis... Everything in it today!

[@pancentricism]

1) - you were under the weather (2) - you slowly and carefully explained everything you were doing, including breaks to look up abbreviations (3) - you stopped in the middle to play guitar. You started the crossword at about 3 mins into the video and finished it about an hour and three minutes, which means that if you had submitted to the leaderboard you'd still have have been forty-second.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Always ❤ Simon playing guitar! Always impressed with his extensive knowledge! Great puzzle! Great solving! Hope you feel better soon, Simon!

[@trunk39able]

Sid Waddel. The greatest comeback since Lazarus.

[@leeuwevdh]

I’m surprised Simon didn’t mention it, but the reason “china” means pal is because of Cockney rhyming slang! The word “mate” rhymes with “china plate” which was then shortened to just “china”

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I really like difficult puzzles; the SNITCH was at 161 when I started this one, so I knew I was in for a struggle. As a Mephisto blogger, I did know narthex, which definitely helped. Like Simon, I was totally baffled by world-beater, but that did fit the anagram letters. My time was around 75 minutes, and I wasn't the slowest solver, either.

[@AO968]

This was just what I needed after a long and exhausting day at work. For 16D, Energy is VIM, as in "vim and vigor" The clue tells you to put BURN (consume) + U (Uranium) in VIM (energy), which gets you VIBURNUM (a plant). Also, 2:31 is a VERY fast time, and to then land in the top 3 is nothing to sneeze at.

[@atsartanis2337]

Thanks very much Simon. The guitar excerpt was great. I've been practicing my tongue-twisters as of late, tedious stuff. Happy practicing to us both!

[@martinstanton2048]

Steve Beaton is THEDonis - as Sid once said, he's not related to the cooking Mrs Beaton but he's got Bob (Anderson) in a stew tahneet!

[@bobblebardsley]

The curse of Friday 13th has stricken me. Subscribed with notifications set to 'all' and once again, KZbin decided not to tell me this video existed. (Of course I know to look for it at this time on a Friday anyway...) So vicious algorithm, all I want for Christmas is consistent notifications for the Cracking the Cryptic Friday Times Crossword Masterclass cryptic crossword solve video, is that really too much to ask?!

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

That's quite upsetting as a creator - especially as this puzzle is so incredible that it would be fabulous if it got a big audience. I'm sorry for anyone else who is subscribed to everything but doesn't get told :(

[@bobblebardsley]

@@CrackingTheCryptic It's really frustrating, I've done everything I can think of. Maybe I'll try clicking through every crossword video and adding it to a private playlist of my own, maybe then it will pick up on the fact that these are an immediate view for me every Friday. It's not your fault at all and if it's any consolation, I'm a guaranteed view either way, so rather it neglects to notify me than someone who otherwise wouldn't watch!

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

@@CrackingTheCryptic - I just keep refreshing on Friday morning until it comes up. I saw it less than a minute after it was posted.

[@tinarion3598]

I set post notifications on X as Simon (I assume) always posts when a new crossword video is up (as well as streaming).

[@Kleyguerth]

12:16 - An example of cedilla, in portuguese: "coração", means "heart". The "ç" is a c with a cedilla, the cedilla softens its sound by turning it from a /k/ (sound of c in caramel) to a /s/ (sound of s in sound).

[@kurohone]

The fiendish difficulty of this puzzle isn't in trapping solvers with obscure abbreviations or uncertain spellings... it instead traps the experts in the depths of nostalgia!

[@bluerizlagirl]

Oh, yes, indeed! The more obscure things you know just from having encountered them in cryptic crosswords and then looked them up, the more diversions your mind can take .....

[@girlfromthedwarf]

Wonderful as always! I've been baking for most of the day so this was most welcome after all my hard work

[@PeterMoore66]

Simon: "Beware of setters misleading you in the clue" Also Simon: "Is this going to be an Iron Mainden song?" (Me feeling smug as I spotted the trick!) 🙂

[@SomethingVeryGeneric]

Wonderful stuff! My favourite video of the week!

[@bluerizlagirl]

You can tell this puzzle was created by someone who just loves words, and thinking about words, and how they relate to other words in meaning, in sound and in the ways in which the letters fit together. The act of setting a puzzle is inviting the solver to come on a journey into the setter's very thoughts, and be shown some of what the setter has discovered about the artform.

[@gappy3234]

I usually get The Graun when I have time to kill and want to do a crossword, but yesterday the shop I visited was out, so I bought The Times. Watching the intro to this I feel much better than I only got just over halfway whiolst eating a quick dinner!

[@bebhinnnimheara3820]

Learning so much from you Simon, you are the reason I can even attempt the cryptic, something I thought was utterly beyond me! Thank you for these videos.

[@richardsmith3021]

16:00 I do have no knowledge of cricket, nor of British culture (other than what I've learned from the cryptics) and yes, it's hard haha. These videos help a lot though, they're great!

[@stevewood8]

Congratulations to both Simon and setter.

[@colinstuartsmith]

st for stumped is in my newer version of chambers Simon.... time to upgrade your copy my friend.

[@JamieFox-g7e]

Unfortunately the newer Windows Chambers app (13th edition) has some glitches and limitations. The old CD-ROM is nicer, I think, albeit out of date (it's the 9th edition). Today is interesting as a couple of differences have come up. St for Stumped is in 11th edition as well (I have a paper copy), but presumably missing from the 9th. 'Totes' for 'totally' has been added in the 12th or 13th, as you might expect for a word that feels so new.

[@breamo2]

What a puzzle indeed! Pleasure to watch and great job Simon

[@nsrikand1]

Excellent Simon. Pl keep going.

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

In the LUDDITE clue, it means 'lite' in the culinary sense. Low calorie or low fat products are often called 'lite'.

[@Alex_Meadows]

That's interesting, I thought that "in the kitchen" might be a homophone indicator ("kitchen" being slang for the percussion section of an orchestra).

[@TokuHer0]

1:04:25 Granted, I'm no where near the expertise of cryptic solving that Simon and Mark are, but after seeing Simon's throught process, I think I can justify it: Consume = Burn Uranium = U energy = Vim (as in "Vim and Vigor") So consume uranium ("burnu") goes in/between energy ("vim) to get viburnum. And Viburnum is a type of plant (and plant in this case is the definition of the word)

[@rhj5667]

T. S. Eliot, 1931: "I am one of those - I suspect fairly numerous - who until a year or so ago would have thought that a Narthex was one of those African antelopes which are so useful to makers of crossword puzzles."

[@lillycullen2235]

I can't even do a normal crossword, yet this is always the highlight of my Saturday mornings!

[@jayclarke3142]

Great video as always.

[@sebastienlecoq3956]

3 hours + without error, or 1 hours with 7 error, and you will still be on the leader board. That's a testament of the difficulty.

[@davidjc1234]

Great job Simon on a very difficult but high quality puzzle.

[@creaghant]

Excellent solves Simon - Cheers 👍

[@katsamiddluns8211]

What a delightful watch!

[@bestthinger]

I love how you parse the clues. I've learnt a few shortened words today. Also love the bit of 'One' there on the guitar!

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Really struggled with that one, so what a relief to find it wasn't just me. I assume the editor decided it was so brilliant, they held it back for Friday the 13th.

[@TimWalton0]

Big Iron Maiden fan and cryptic crossword fan here, so there's at least one Simon!

[@andymoss]

Two

[@LednacekZ]

i like the difficulty of this one. I dont know what Simon talks about most days, so it is nice to see him have no clue aswell.

[@erickehr4475]

I’m normally in the 7-10 minute range, and it took me over half an hour. Unbelievably difficult. Enjoyable though.

[@Donrafa189]

A little U2 along a cryptic video. Wow. Christmas came early.

[@debrabowen4276]

Love these cryptic crossword videos!

[@mityaadamskiy]

In my mobile version of Chambers st for stumped is present. Just checked the latest paper version and it is there as well. So probably just a glitch of your desktop version!

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

The version that Simon uses was produced in 2005 - just confirmed by firing up my copy. (Although it's old, it has a nifty search feature not included in the current electronic version, which doesn't run on Windows PCs). I don't have the print version that would then have been the latest, but I have a couple from the 1990s, which don't have st = stumped. Presumably added later …

[@heatherallan9767]

thanks for a delightful time bubble

[@trisha2584]

Brilliant solve of this difficult crossword

[@gabrielvintescu3620]

Can we take a minute to appreciate the symmetry of the board

[@aang_arang]

Wow i actually had background knowledge for ten across!! Series of races TT stands for time trials!

[@annastevenson27]

Best Simon comment: "I only know things from doing crosswords."

[@yenwastaken]

ST for stumped is in my copy of the Chambers dictionary 4:53

[@mjkluck]

Good solve with a musical interlude.

[@erickehr4475]

That was a really great solve. If you had been racing you would have been right near the top of the leaderboard!

[@jamesmoriarty6782]

The TT Races are held on the Isle of Man every May. There are a number of races on different engine sizes and configurations of motorbikes. TT stands for Tourist Trophy. The races were originally held to attract people over to the island for a holiday while watching the sport. The Isle of Man allowed motor vehicles to travel without speed limits (unlike the UK) so they just needed to close a few roads for racing without special laws being passed.

[@khaaqshy]

As an Aussie, 'Gun'.... you would refer to someone being a Gun at something if they are really good at it. Travis Head is a Gun Batsmen. Isnt Hugh Jackman a Gun! What a Gun Strategy!

[@DJColdCutz_]

Only 72 minutes today? Simon flew through this one!

[@Ruddigore]

At the very start of the crossword Simon indicates that the finished crossword could be a pangram and mentions it again when the letter Q turned up, but totally misses the fact that the only letter he needed was a V when inputting the final word. 😶A well solved puzzle.

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

There already was a V, in OVERDO

[@Ruddigore]

@@SomeRandomGuyOnKZbin WOW, I missed that one. I stand corrected.

[@Phog273]

Brilliant

[@erickehr4475]

The cedilla is not really used in modern Spanish, but is still sometimes seen in the abbreviation Barça for Barcelona football club (where without the cedilla the ‘c’ would be pronounced ‘k’.

[@GregJonesLivesHere]

It's used there though because it's Catalan, not any legacy of old Spanish.

[@icecreamandsadness]

I would love to have known what Simon's time would have been if he wasn't solving for us, I feel like he really smashed this one ❤

[@danielcarrier3577]

Ut is used to represent do in french musical notation, such as ut majeur.

[@peterbiddlecombe1939]

That's true but there's more. Ut was the original syllable used for the first note of the major scale, or back then, "hexachord". "Then" is the early 11th century, when Guido of Arezzo used the first syllable in each line of a hymn called Ut Queant Laxis, as those syllables were sung to the six notes involved, in pretty much the same way as Julie Andrews did with invented lyrics about 850 years later. Ut was replaced later, because it's the only closed syllable (i.e. one ending in a consonant) of the six.

[@sanctionbuster]

Dr Seuss certainly used the work VIM to mean energy.

[@mityaadamskiy]

NARTHEX is one of those clues where I seriously think Chambers should go ahead and replace the current definition that they have with a clue. If they can have fun with 'eclair' and 'mullet', they probably can afford to put a genuine crossword clue in the dictionary.

[@Willd2p2]

There's only one word for that - magic solving.

[@stephenmccarthy1795]

I wonder if Simon’s slow way is faster than going fast. For harder clues. His step by step approach will get himself to the end result every time.

[@manwalrus]

Now I'm imagining Simon dressed as Winnie the Pooh or something at the darts.

[@gappy3234]

I dare say someone's said this below, but "light in the kitchen" is Lite because of the names of foods which are low-calory

[@nigelgraves8784]

most recognisable example of a cedilla would be garçon - turns the hard c into an s

[@OddLittleShoppingBag]

Can “wind” be used like “cycle” to indicate rotating the letters in order? Like winding your watch rotates the hands without changing the order.

[@esti369]

Sits down to watch this when the kids are still awake. Sees video length. Notices title. Decides this video needs quiet, a glass of wine and my proper attention to do it justice. Be back later…

[@garybrittain8210]

Woodford Reserve Bourbon makes a great base for a Mint Julep

[@-ARatnakumar]

I got continuous notifications and Simon be like ,Let me see why my phone is going at me like this ,ah its nothing 😂😂,Wierdly co incidence

[@ryanoftinellb]

'Gun' is apparently Australian slang for "someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool". I’m learning things about my own dialect here.

[@lucasglanville2880]

saw the snitch rating this morning, thought i'd just watch your video instead of attempting it myself haha

[@richardlyons7582]

Hope then deflation at the end.

[@lukebates22]

Thanks for the tutorial on solving cryptics. All you need to do is look at a checking letter or two, and then guess the right answer! Did you even need any clues?

[@andrewgrant6516]

One mint julep was the cause of it all.

[@JS...]

Bakelite is hard plastic used for example in old telephones.

[@michaelpdawson]

Yes, and named for its inventor (Baekeland), nothing to do with baking as Simon's train of thought seemed to suggest.

[@sh4dowchas3r]

The Bronze(d) Adonis is Steve Beaton

[@timothybexon6171]

15:59 Petition to rename Cryptic Crosswords to Cricket Crosswords.

[@im6870]

1 across and already everything I thought I knew about cryptic crosswords is in tatters...

[@johnhantsuk8461]

Shame we didn't get the guitar interlude. Maybe Mark was the setter (could be moonlighting behind Simon's back)?

[@DadgeCity]

The way you solved this, it didn't seem that difficult, certainly not the hardest of the year. At the end, V went in as the last letter of the pangram.

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

V was already in OVERDO. It was a great solve by Simon. I guess the difficulty was mostly from the SE corner. The rest of it was clever but do-able.

[@majedal-baghl4917]

Not a sausage-a UK idiom, I guess?

[@mccabjo]

Per the SNITCH, Pnmcg is a neutrino. Colin Thomas is mauefw but I think he normally solves on paper.

[@stephencolwill148]

I think it was a pangram...

[@oak3001]

How in the dickens do you casually know the word "Narthex"??? No hope for me on this one. (But I did manage the Guardian twice this week)

[@VonBlade]

26:35 I don't have Whatsapp. I also have as many friends as you'd imagine, so my phone only goes off for emails informing me of sales and deals.

[@thescrewfly]

Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. The boy android can build his post-apocalypse super-villain lair without my help.

[@MrBileDuct]

Simon, love you long time, you've aroused me enough to attempt to crack one off on my own. Good Times ahead promised. If I find it too hard to finish, I'll probably go down and settle for a quickie like you often do. What's your fastest finish ever? x

[@harrylittle8912]

Do you intentionally record this before Mark has a go? He's never in the top times when you look!

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

You would have been a lot more confident about viburnum if you saw that the pangram was lacking a V!

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

There already was a V

[@phyphor]

I also​ missed it in "overdo"