How To Crack A Cryptic Crossword

We take a look at today's Independent Crossword by Hob. It has a hidden theme - can you spot it? A special welcome today if you watched the amazing Zoom lesson last night with Dave Gorman.
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[@Bustersword910]

Now that I finally understand how cryptic crosswords work, I can conclude that I still won't ever be able to complete one.

[@euanmcdougall1917]

This one was particularly difficult because it involved a lot of references.

[@Alteffor]

I'm just finally starting to understand how to solve cryptics after watching all of the recent ones posted. For anyone struggling, here is a simple set of steps: 1) Read clue. 2) Do wizard gobbledygook. 3) Finish puzzle.

[@megauser8512]

LOL!

[@Goryus]

Simon, I think it would be very helpful for a lot of people on this channel for you to do an *extremely* beginner Cryptic Crossword video. Explaining things like where the definitions are found, how the clue surfaces don't actually mean anything, what the different kinds of clues are, etc. :)

[@alistairbrown1308]

Have you checked the CTC back catalogue I remember a similar video from a couple years ago

[@alistairbrown1308]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHyXYaF4o6yCr9k maybe give this one a go?

[@beintelegant]

Have you tried Lovatts? It's free, daily, and is designed for beginners.

[@samfarquhar1829]

Ironically, Spurs have a player called Eric 'Dier' so when you made the joke I firstly thought of that instead of 'dire'!

[@goodyeoman4534]

I caught that lol

[@CrosswordRobert]

I’ve been getting addicted to cryptic crosswords lately, but it’s amazing to me that this is the standard crossword format in the UK. So tricky!

[@edwina.t5866]

Ah, here we go again. Questioning the efficacy of my 30+ years of speaking and reading English.

[@truckerob70]

Please tell me you spelt efficiency wrong on purpose for a joke...

[@justsomeguy892]

@@truckerob70 Nope, efficacy is a word. It pretty much means "effectiveness".

[@Airantu]

Male and female in Clue 19 means that it is a name used by both females and males.

[@bibliopolist]

Brilliant. Even Keat's first name "John" was mentioned in a clue. And airy is a word he used in his famous quote about the "airy citadel".

[@btnskillsh0t810]

I really do enjoy the logic of Cryptic Crosswords and the solve. Yet, it feels incredibly hard to really get into it yourself, especially when English is not your native language. I know the meaning of the clues but it would take ages until they would come to my mind in a solve.

[@WheatGrinding]

It's not just knowing English, it's being from Britain specifically for most of these

[@KveruLars]

​ @Wheat_Grinder Definitely. I'm quite fluent in English, as a second language, but I have NO CLUE when it comes to culture, slang and "inside information"

[@Hedning1390]

I can't even do anagrams in English. Like when I watch "8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown" I'm hopeless.

[@SnowTheJamMan]

@@Hedning1390 I've gotten about 4 or 5 conundrums of like 50 i've seen and i'm very proud of myself.

[@squelchedotter]

Not only that but a lot of them require knowledge that you'd only be familiar with if you grew up at a certain time in a certain cultural surrounding

[@bogdanbotezan7162]

Sibiu is a Romanian city, which has a cycling tour: the cycling tour of Sibiu(turul ciclist al Sibiului)

[@gfvasco]

I am a Brasilian with intermediary/advanced english and I have no idea of most of the clues he decifres. Or even the explanation. After saying that, I cannot stop watching. I love listening he explaining it and beeing exited doing that!

[@escaperoomleander1948]

So we only need to know French towns, English poets, Roman numerals, the French language, British slang, Romanian cities and sporting events, birding expressions, novelists, silent film stars...

[@andreidaian2441]

The only words I could figure out were "autumn" and "Sibiu". The latter is my native city, so it was quite funny watching Simon's struggle with the easiest word (to me !) :D

[@euanmcdougall1917]

I believe you mean Simon not Dave?

[@andreidaian2441]

@@euanmcdougall1917 Of course! Thanks for pointing it out!

[@SilverKiMak]

You've got Romaniacs in your home city! Envyyy... :)

[@nickburton5871]

Lovely to see a cryptic solve! My standard approach is 1) What does it mean? (ie the meaning of which word are we trying to find?) 2) Which is the "doing" word? (ie is there a word that tells you it is an anagram, hidden worse, reversed, sounds like, but spelt differently letter missing etc.?) 3) Is there an "aha!" word? (ie a word, which, in crosswords, has a few common abbreviations or alternatives (eg Dr for doctor, d for died or daughter, Ian for Scotsman, etc) which form part of the word we are looking for, 4) Is there an "Oooo!" word? An "Oooo!" word is one where you might say "Oooo! I wonder if that is an Aha! word?" ie a bit more obscure. 5) A question mark often indicated a double meaning of the whole clue. 6) Give it a hard stare! 7) Go and do something else, and let your subconscious have a go! Failure comes if I am unable to disambiguate the clue (a good CTC word, there!) or I'm ignorant of some meaning or word, which happens rather more than I'd like! But it amazes me how often a clue which stumps me one day, will become surprisingly clear the next day!

[@MattyBGAMINGUK]

Lindsey can be both a male and female name

[@rebeccamoore9993]

I just wanted to say that I absolutely love all of your cryptic crossword videos. I had never heard of a cryptic crossword before starting to watch you almost a year ago now. I've gone back and have watched all of your old crossword videos as well. I really love cryptics now. And there is a small group of us over on the Discord server having fun solving and setting cryptic puzzles, as well. We recently put out a collab puzzle that was very fun to set.

[@bibliopolist]

Now what is the sum of all the digits of A to Z?

[@yichen6313]

Now that would be a knowledge bomb

[@bobblebardsley]

I don't know X, Y and Z, but I know N is small and O + I = 1. Apparently.

[@AlRoderick]

351

[@tricia1072012]

You don't know your triangular numbers to 26? Shocking!

[@nickloader3184]

Just 13×27. 13×30 - 13×3. 390 - 39.

[@rostre]

Thank you for taking a little more time over explaining the clues today! Found this very useful, most of the classic abbreviations still escape me.

[@Adrian_Grey]

Fanny Brawne was mentioned twice in the clues, she was Keats' lover.

[@bibliopolist]

After the third mention of John Keats (which is something that the English do daily, I guess): what may the theme be here?

[@nofeetmemestealers1867]

Honestly have never been so confused in my life, makes me realise how smart some people are

[@Hedning1390]

Practiced, not smart. Although smart helps too.

[@theorganizedgrandma2523]

I've never been able to work out cryptic clues, is I was super pleased just from watching you on this one video that I got the clue Ski Pole!!!! but not the way you worked it out

[@retards587]

stakeout was such a cool clue with all the anagrams for “keats” outside the puzzle grid

[@christianloizou4463]

"Male or Female" referring to the fact that "Lindsey (female) / Lindsay (male)" is a unisex name, perhaps?

[@yiotatort]

I thought it was a y thing male is xy female is xx

[@ambergreen3298]

I thought the same as i know both males and females with that name. When he said it i was like “yes!!!” And it annoyed me he didn’t know that and he knew these logics i would never think about 😂

[@israelRaizer]

I thought it meant the name of a person, because it can be either male of female

[@powt0wn]

in case anyone wondering about KETAS - chambers tells me a keta is a pacific salmon (a more obscure fish than the IDE?)

[@henryhaak4810]

After watching this video I think I may have lost my ability to speak english

[@noahkilgus9860]

The Tom Lehrer reference is incredibly appreciated

[@chrisj50]

Now there’s a treasure trove of content for a themed crossword!

[@nightwishlover8913]

Here's a funny thing - Paul Kossoff was the son of David Kossoff, who played Alf Larkin on UK Television The Larkins - Simon's (unfortunately incorrect) answer to 2 down was LARKIN....

[@davidkay6655]

Hahaha Rude rejection I was trying to justify pissoff before he put the anagram round the edge

[@missioncardiac7599]

Ha, ha I had piss off as well for a while, then thought it would be too rude!

[@missioncardiac7599]

A cracking crossword. Solved it in 70 min (but missed some of the parsing, so enjoyed Simon whizzing through some clues that had me stumped for some time. However I was laughing when Simon blithely put in Larkin, which was too clever by half! Having got Endymion earlier the first poet that came to my mind for 2down was indeed Keats. But I absolutely missed the Keats anagrams around the edges. Brilliant.

[@charloo5878]

This one was a barn burner Simon! Thanks for a good time!

[@Rafabeen94]

"There might be a famous person called Linklater" yes, Richard Linklater, director of Boyhood and the Before Trilogy.

[@StorymasterQ]

When he tells an anecdote he once saw in a website somewhere, but can't search for it because he didn't have access to internet at the time, does he say that he'll give the linklater?

[@Rafabeen94]

@@StorymasterQ wow. Wow wow wow

[@peanut.butter.anjali]

simon explained the answer to every clue but im still so confused on how you get there by yourself 😭

[@SimCityOver9000]

Nice little jab on the Spurs, there!

[@paradise2783]

Is there a recording of that zoom call somewhere?

[@Rafabeen94]

I'd love to watch as well!

[@PhilPreen]

43:52 Simon gets the guitar out :-)

[@jimmarshall5337]

These cryptic crossword tutorials must be doing the trick for me as there was a cryptic type question on Only Connect which I managed to get.

[@stardustbiscuits]

Please do a video on solving Minesweeper

[@Pwecko]

I managed to get ten answers before watching the video, including the KISS OFF one. Being a lifelong fan of Free helped there. Knowing absolutely nothing about Kents made the rest of the puzzle a little bit harder.

[@Pwecko]

Keats, not Kents. Autocorrect is a pain in the backside.

[@user-yl3pp8fy9w]

It would be hard if you had N's where your A's were 😂

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Simon, I would have loved to hear you recite off rather more of "Endymion" -- A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

[@I_LoveBubbas]

I have no idea how these puzzles work lol

[@Wecoc1]

Yeah, you have to draw a line across the labyrinth and get out in the other side.

[@cycklist]

Too stupid for crosswords? Try sudoku.

[@I_LoveBubbas]

@@cycklist i know how sudoku works, i just dont know how crosswordpuzzels work

[@kilimanjarocruz660]

Awesome video as always. More Cryptic content please, I love those.

[@KinkyTurtle]

23:09 If it is a Romanian city, we're not up the Khyber, we're up the Danube!

[@KalOrtPor]

If you're from the US and trying to solve these, you're at a severe disadvantage and it is almost impossibly difficult. Terms like: CID, loo, pen, Nevil Shute, John Keats (and for most, poets in general), sweet Fanny Adams, Postman Pat, China (for friend), Peel/Douglas on the Isle of Man, Tottenham Hotspur, and nibs are all things that would be considered obscure or completely unknown. Clever wordplay of this nature is also more culturally British and comes easier than to others, while its popularity in Europe and relative obscurity elsewhere is reinforced by the top setters and puzzles coming out of the UK, and being UK-centric with foreign and archaic phrases and roots. Now get that down your gregory!

[@mickeyjupp1]

Nevil Shute was knowable no?

[@KalOrtPor]

@@mickeyjupp1 I'm sure for some more well-read people, but to general Americans probably no....though it's not likely a random person off the street in the UK is going to be familiar with a pep rally or "the devil is beating his wife" either.

[@girlindigo8]

4 down is probably Richard Linklater the film director. Can't think of any others.

[@MarkJGGs]

I always wanted to be a person with the kind of esoteric knowledge required to solves these clues, but alas instead of doing the work, I watch stuff like this on youtube.

[@Ruddigore]

I found this a nice cryptic puzzle to do, much of it was well within my pay grade. The only answer that really left me out in the cold was 'Sibiu' I took a guess at it but I must confess I did check that it existed on google before I submitted my completed puzzle. It was funny to see Simon struggle on the same clue.

[@bristolrovers27]

Terrific to see another crossword A Tough one Well solved

[@Pachyo]

The very first Chord you've played on guitar reminded me of "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens. I almost shed a tear and I loved it!

[@peterkelley6344]

American here: Shakes my head. And here I thought we had bizarre crossword puzzles.

[@henrymarkson3758]

I would have googled "Romanian Cities" without feeling any shame

[@TomBruhh]

My first ever genuine attempt at a cryptic crossword, and I got Omsk, Odes, Autumn, Newel and Capita. Quite proud of myself even though some of the clues made me think my brain had stopped working.

[@Oblivion776]

Worth noting for those who are trying to break into cryptic crosswords but are put off by this and Dave's puzzle that the Independent's crosswords are _terrible_ starting points for newcomers, especially those who are not native Brits. They are replete with Britishisms and contemporary cultural references that are inaccessible to foreigners and they are also well known in the crossword world for being willing to play a bit loose with the rules and conventions of cryptics. The Times is a bit better in both respects, especially their Quick Cryptics which are relatively digestible, but unfortunately are also locked behind a paywall (they do sell compilations of the Quick Cryptics on Amazon for cheap, though, which can be a good starting point). Peter Glass also has a couple of books called "Cryptic Crosswords - for fun!" that are crafted to be relatively region agnostic and are generally more approachable.

[@missioncardiac7599]

The other not so difficult, but still great fun cryptics are the guardian Quiptics on Mondays (free). And if you are stuck on a word you can reveal. Guardian Sunday Everyman and Monday regular are also quite "approachable". And the parsing is available at the fifteen squared website.

[@gordonglenn2089]

The Times Quick Cryptics books are available on Amazon, etc. Very approachable for a North American who has become adept at solving GAMES magazine cryptic puzzles, with a few Britishisms still getting me perplexed.

[@mikefr96]

More of this please

[@GordonjSmith1]

Totally prefer the cryptic puzzles to the sudoko. Lots more please. I love it when my brain itches :-)

[@ieatatsonic]

I somehow got 15D on my own and proceeded to laugh at the wordplay. Genius.

[@camdent6619]

I got Ski Pole, and that’s my highlight. That’s one more than the last few times!

[@istilldontcare2]

Lindsay is a gender neutral name. So it could be male or female

[@teliots]

The Spurs are an NBA team from San Antonio. Very confusing to me when you were talking about some other Spurs team.

[@KalOrtPor]

I'm almost certain it was referring to Tottenham Hotspur, a London football (soccer) team also known as the Spurs. Most of these puzzles and the best setters are from the UK where they're popular, and along with all the international and historical references Europeans tend to be more familiar with, I think it's next to impossible for non-natives to be able to solve unless extremely well-versed in British English and culture.

[@philipjohnt]

Anyone know if the DG Zoom is available to watch retrospectively

[@shifttheshaman]

I don't suppose the Zoom call from Dave Gorman was uploaded anywhere?

[@lukebradford]

SPOILER ALERT: Even further wordplay on 25 down: A guitar also has a neck, and you can use a bottle neck as a slider.

[@joefoxon75]

For "lucid", I thought the clue was "loo said" with some force, I guess it worked!

[@gordonglenn2089]

I loved 16A! Not being that familiar with them, I immediately Googled the band Free. All Right Now! :-)

[@nickjayyoung7662]

Where can I watch Dave solving a cryptic crossword? I honestly would like to watch it? Is it on Patreon and I somehow missed it?

[@gerrygunn5109]

Eagle's lofty perch nest, aerie.

[@rosiefay7283]

32:10 23D Perhaps Hob's idea was that "Heads" is the def, and "those" refers back to "heads" as first-letter indication.

[@KettleandString]

I try and do a cryptic each week (telegraph so easy) but this is hard!! Some of these words are very obscure!

[@inediblenut]

If I didn't watch Simon solve these, I would doubt that anyone could ever figure them out. I do American crosswords, which must seem idiotically simple to Brits compared to these.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Yes and no. Mark has done some videos where he solves American-style crosswords and he's often surprised by the different conventions -- little word-play, answers can be phrases or hyphenated without any indication in the clue, and so on. Then, too, the pop-culture references are frequently opaque if you're on the wrong side of the Atlantic (in either direction). I find American crosswords either too easy or too full of references that only make sense to someone half my age, so I don't do a lot of them; but I'm still not facile enough to do cryptics even though I grew up around them -- my father loved crosswords of all sorts and did moderately difficult cryptics without breaking a sweat.

[@Luckingsworth]

I surprised myself actually getting lucid before it was explained.

[@freyadunn2621]

Dave Gorman retweeted !!

[@SamBrev]

Since you were helped out by Tom Lehrer and Free: fans of the band Violent Femmes would have understood the "rude rejection" a bit quicker than you did!

[@kindlin]

This puzzle _was absolutely _*_ridiculous!_* How in the name of holy mother of FSM were you able to get even half, nay a quarter, nay EVEN A SINGLE DAMN ONE of these clues!! Absolutely remarkable. I'm speechless, this puzzle was ridiculously. Never. I will never do one of these puzzles. EDIT: In fact, I don't even know half of these words (like, literally never heard them) or any of the people. This is just madness.

[@alfazenntauri6328]

I would have gotten zero clues, but I feel smart knowing Sibiu is a Romanian City.

[@beachsnail]

I would have given up with many of those clues, but strangely, I did get TRICK and KISS-OFF quite quickly.

[@pickerjo2000]

Yeh this is great except I know nothing about poetry or geography or any of most of the answers

[@quinnbartlett7233]

You missed that a neck is part of a guitar. Its funny, the ckues you skip past quickly are often the ones i find easiest, whereas a clue i have no idea with you'll get after a few seconds

[@hendrikd2113]

I think 15 is the only one I can solve by my self.

[@NobodyXaldyn]

Is there a VOD available of Dave's video? I've tried searching but been unsuccessful.

[@UncleSnottie]

Was Dave Gorman's Zoom recorded? Is it on KZbin anywhere?

[@TheTruth-xp2of]

John Keats references 5 Down, Ode on a Grecian Urn 6 Across, 7 Across, To Fanny 9 Across, 23 Down, Ode to Psyche 11 Across, Ode to a Nightingale 12 Across, To Autumn 21 Across, Endymion 21 Across, Ode on Indolence 21 Across, Ode on Melancholy 23 Down, Hymn to Apollo 26 Across, To Sleep

[@missioncardiac7599]

Thank you. I missed some of these references.

[@carteryott7710]

Simon and Mark, it seems so easy when you lay it out for me in these beginner videos, but when I try to do them I can only ever get a few clues from the definitions... I’m only 15 and I’m from Canada so a lot of the vocabulary and references are unusual to me, but still I feel like I should be getting more. Do you think it would be helpful to study the short reference-words, or is there anything I can do to get better? It’s very frustrating

[@dirtywashedupsparkle]

Brutal clues there - you need knowledge of not only English but British references. 24-A Was happy: in what universe does happy mean to scramble or anagram??? Tough cryptic, and a little unfair in a few places, so really great skills there. Thankfully there are easier ones around for the rest of us to feel better with.

[@nickloader3184]

For it to cycle to make SIBIU, it'd have to start as IBIUS which means 'before lunchtime' means 'has before it, lunchtime', I guess this is fair but seems unnecessarily complicated. Why not just 'after lunchtime'? Does it happening 'before lunchtime' really add to the drama of the story haha?

[@garymacmillan6401]

Is Dave's Zoom call going to made available?

[@darkmaster9607]

Lindsay can be both a male or female name

[@PhilPreen]

Lindsay as a first name can be male or female.

[@Shif80]

Does anyone have a link to the zoom call that Simon mentioned at the start

[@sohein]

Surely the Zoom call was recorded? Where can we find a link?

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

Pen is a female swan. But also worth remembering cob is a male one!

[@manwalrus]

"Recondite" though.

[@billiamswartz2355]

39:45 Sibiu is a Transylvanian city also, this is one of the most horrifyingly difficult puzzles I've ever seen are all cryptic crosswords like this

[@powt0wn]

this is a fairly tricky one imo!

[@andrewgrant6516]

And in transylvania of course, the teeth have nibs, and you need to get your stake out.

[@goodyeoman4534]

I always get stuck after completing about half a cryptic. Especially if the clues contain a lot of obscure references.

[@LednacekZ]

welcome the the class English as your 100th language

[@roro.32]

7:54 for the team ______________ Spurs. What does he say?

[@Cleanblue1990]

For me as a non-native English speaker, this crossword is absolutely impossible. I do know some play on words, but these deductions are not accessible to me. I must be missing quite a vocabulary.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

Don't give up! I am a non-native English speaker. My mother languages are Dutch, German and Czech. But I have bought into the world of English crosswords and they have become a staple diet. I would not want to tackle this level of difficulty but I do the Daily Telegraph's, back page and Toughie. It is pure joy to creep into the mind of a brilliant setter. Some of these clues are so incredibly good that they remain with you forever. Just learn to read very literally. Pick up some standard techniques. Get used to conventional crosswordese, new=N, one=I, nothing, love=O, speed=RATE or MPH. Before you know it you are doing really good crosswords.

[@Bootenks]

As non-native speaker I must confess, when I would do this, it would be a mess.

[@hugobouma]

31:15 How does this "China"-"friend" connection work?

[@nickloader3184]

China plate is Cockney rhyming slang for mate (friend), then china plate gets shortened to china so that people have no idea what's going on haha

[@hugobouma]

@@nickloader3184 Ahh, got it, thank you. Usually when the clues refer to people I have just never heard of, it's clear what I'm missing, but this one went right over my head.

[@elena-gw3rf]

and i thought the sudoku puzzles were difficult

[@Mokaygee]

This is both logic and obscure knowledge with required inspiration. It's not for me. I only care about logic.