The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: 6 September 2024

[@danielchadwick-hh3cn]

I say this every week, but it bears repetition, great video, thanks 🎉

[@0Taneb]

I was watching a documentary on the history of mathematics the other day, and the presenter said that you could think of a mathematical equation almost like a cryptic crossword clue! Thought of you immediately

[@mccabjo]

The 21D explanation is that TED (old rocker) is "below PAR" (Chambers: 2. Out of sorts, not particularly good in health, spirits, etc). I luckily guessed the answer from "Left" and the checkers, and only then saw the parsing. Many other solvers went for WASTED instead. I suspect that probably at least half of Jason's time was spent on this clue.

[@johnciolfi5085]

I’m admittedly one of the ones who went with WASTED. Very frustrating.

[@kevinmartin7760]

subpar

[@MrBigrig5]

I also went with WASTED - couldn’t figure out the clue for the life of me. Was happy with the rest of it so I was gutted to finish with the error

[@hoagy_ytfc]

I went "wasted", though I knew I wasn't happy with "was" as left.

[@longwaytotipperary]

How is “Ted” an old rocker? Somebody’s name? Oh read comments below - Ted was a “Teddy boy” - will look that up.

[@annastevenson27]

Favourite YT video of the week. Thank you!

[@peterdunlop7691]

My favourite vids of the week. Thank you for making them each week.

[@MrBigrig5]

Best video of the week, Simon! Absolutely love these solves. Keep them coming please!!

[@debrabowen4276]

Thank you for this video. We LOVE cryptic crosswords!!!

[@davidrattner9]

Fabulous to continually do these for us Simon. Excellent way to educate the brain and get weekend started!

[@DarklordZagarna]

Fascinatingly, if you add one word (suppose the clue read "left old rocker inside not feeling great, apparently") to 21-down, you can get an entirely different answer ("ranted)" that works with the same checking letters while reversing the location of the definition from the front to the end of the clue! The way that works is you'd have ANT (Simon explained why that works for "old rocker") inside of RED (someone who is "left") and one could infer that someone who ranted was not feeling great.

[@nsrikand1]

Learnt a lot, Simon. Please keep going!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Always delighted to spend my Friday evening with one of these! (Yes, the video comes out in the morning in my time zone, but I don't start watching things until dinner time.)

[@bluerizlagirl]

21D. "Not feeling too great" is "under par", "Old rocker" is "Ted" and "apparently" is saying that describes what the clue looks like. If you put "TED" under "PAR", you get "PARTED".

[@whirledpeas5717]

It's Friday! Simon is crypticizing while I get ready for work! 😊

[@Shez-gv3ve]

I’m so excited! I actually got one before Simon. Guttersnipe is one of my favourite words. I’m so abysmal at these I have to wait for Simon’s explanation.

[@auximenes]

Thanks Simon. I particularly liked the offer definition for assassin.

[@Prazzie]

I only watch these videos after solving the puzzle myself and unfortunately I was only able to get to it on Sunday evening. Absolute torture having to wait so long before I could get to it, these solves are usually my end of week treat after my toddler goes to bed. Thanks for another entertaining one!

[@VonBlade]

Wow is it Friday already so soon. Fantastic. "Worker in grounds" is particularly piquant.

[@VonBlade]

21 down is monstrous. Under par (not feeling great), Ted (old rocker ... from Teddy Boys if you're particularly young) - Under the word par, ted. Left = parted.

[@stevewood8]

So entertaining. Really enjoy these weekly videos. PARTED went in immediately as a perfect match for the clue definition, but was then dismissed. Then with just TED left in there, the old rocker we were searching for was staring up at us, waiting for the penny to drop...

[@evah4431]

Ha, I feel called out... at minute 7, I was laughing to myself, thinking "he just used a letter abbreviation, I know exactly what he's about to explain next", and then the next thing I hear is "I explain this every week but it bears repetition - don't laugh at me!". Sorry! :)

[@nickr3115]

This was certainly a tricky one! Well done for sticking it out. Very enjoyable to watch as always. Proud my feeble brain deduced "curtain call" when there was only a "C" ! Small pleasures for the not so cryptically abled !

[@creaghant]

Great Solve - thank you Simon 👍

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I don't know if you're aware of it, Simon, but Andy Fisher has booked a place in the Times Championship - all the way from Australia! I don't think John McCabe usually comes.

[@mccabjo]

John McCabe has been to every Times Championship since 2010, except last year's (and probably this year's too).

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

Well, since last year was the first one in three years, it's hard to remember the 2010-19 ones - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

[@repand1]

Best way to end a long week

[@bobblebardsley]

While reading through the comments I JUST understood that Ted is 'below par' because it's a down clue, not because 'par' itself means 'not feeling great'. It makes more sense to me now. If it had been an across clue I don't think it would have worked but I can at least understand that logic.

[@philipbrooks402]

Thank you once again.

[@richardfarrer5616]

Possibly thanks to being an amateur actor, I got "miscast" and "curtain call" almost immediately. I feel I might have got a lot of the rest too but Simon beat me to it. Don't think I would ever have got some of them though, particularly "parted".

[@arty9935]

Great work Simon, Ted below par is the correct parsing of 21 down (I think). Love these videos.

[@barrycross8952]

That moment when you realise that Simon cheats at conkers. Soak in vinegar indeed, tut tut. 😂

[@Alex_Meadows]

I bet he bakes them in the oven too, the so-and-so.

[@arekfu1980]

You're right, I really liked 23a!

[@royston1928]

Loved it

[@chitraagarwal8259]

18D was my fav for this one

[@thescrewfly]

"Bed must be correct, it must". An old rocker = 'ted' (teddy boy), not feeling good = below 'par'. Hopefully Simon will get out of "bed" at some point! I know someone will have commented to this effect already, but it is highly amusing, particularly wondering if the folk singer/actor with the angelic voice could be the "old rocker".

[@MarcMcMillin]

Happy Friday! :-) Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

[@auximenes]

I like the way You Tube is offering an English translation

[@gordonglenn2089]

I learned about Teddy Boys from a song by Paul McCartney, released on his first solo album.

[@stevecox4978]

A Teddy boy is an old rocker and he is under par. Was shouting at the screen. Good video as always

[@bobblebardsley]

18:25 All I could think was 'cabbage head' too 😂

[@mjkluck]

Cryptics are great.

[@andrewkitching9339]

Failed by three clues on this one. Cicero, the writer and the old rocker were my undoing.

[@Squishy3757]

Without any justification an old rocker not feeling well is wasted.

[@Raven-Creations]

I don't know how you struggled so much with parted. You got it right, then took it out. Even after you removed the third letter, leaving TED at the end, you spent ages trying to think of an old rocker. It was right there in front of you. Par is not great, Ted is an old rocker. Simple, and not at all outrageous. The "apparently" fulfilled the role of the question mark. There were some lovely clues in this, including parted. I liked barista being a worker in grounds, even though I spotted the conceit immediately. Alister/a-lister was nice too. I got a bit stuck on bonkers, because I was convinced it was bananas, and was trying to find some way to transform pinatas into bananas. I kicked myself when I got it, because it was another really nice clue. You have an advantage over us for the quick one, because by the time we see which clue you're looking at, you've already read it and answered it. It's still a good performance though.

[@HighMansx]

It's moops!!!

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I had to laugh when you put in the correct answer of parted but couldn't parse it. I biffed parted, and saw the parsing right away......but only after struggling to come up with any answer at all. Yep, the Ted was below par!

[@ryanoftinellb]

"Solid cannot be abbreviated to S" might be a bad example -- I remember from high school chemistry putting (s) after solid compounds in chemical formulae. I guess it needs the parentheses though.

[@thescrewfly]

I'm missing the weekly claim of being "bonus" ... and about time.

[@ColinStiles-o9r]

Great video as ever. If someone has left being an old rocker you could say he or she was ted. Wasted works as a definition. So not sure this one is completely fair.

[@RobertBarrett-rv1hc]

when Simon looks at times, and says some are "typists", what are typtists in this context?

[@heatherallan9767]

the "typists" seem to do the puzzle first, then press go and type in the answers and then submit that as their time...not sure how that works...it is purely a spectator sport for me

[@Kleyguerth]

@@heatherallan9767 They solve it on paper, then open the website and type in their already solved answers. Apparently it has been proved they are typists by analysing their time: they always take the same time on average no matter how difficult the puzzle is.

[@tonyog9458]

I really wanted 21D to be Rick Parfitt without the "fit", but couldn't justify the "ed"

[@bobblebardsley]

19:58 That 'damned' woman might also be referring to the Bloody Mary 'game' where you recite her name three times into a mirror and then something demonic is supposed to appear in the reflection. I'm not sure there was a specific historical Mary upon whom the game is based but I think there's a whole bunch of theories about that.

[@MultiNacnud]

English queen Mary Tudor 1516-1558 known as bloody Mary for her persecution of her religious opponents.

[@peterp9918]

I thought that last clue was going to be 'wasted'.

[@sorrowinthewind4258]

This is my first time seeing a cryptic crossword. It seems completely impossible to solve for me 😢

[@Ruddigore]

Under Par Ted

[@andrewgrant6516]

As much as I love Simon's daily love hate relationship with Maverick, am I the only one who has never actually heard any aeroplane noise?

[@stereomike75]

1. across - I don't believe it, first time ever for me, I got it within a few seconds! I'm more cleverer than Simon!

[@TheFrogfather1]

Yes! Same here. Much happiness :D

[@sh4dowchas3r]

Jeez! Simon telling people how to cheat in conkers. Next he'll be telling you to put them in a hot oven for a bit.

[@maribelfarnsworth4565]

I was screaming PARTED (ted below par) ages before the end.

[@johnlewis2930]

Dip it in vinegar? I may have to unsubscribe.

[@AO968]

"Solid cannot be abbreviated to just 's'". Yes, it can. It's frequently used in chemical formulas to indicate that a substance is in its solid form. Same goes for just 'l' for liquid and 'g' for gaseous. As for 21D, the definition is "left", aka PARTED (as in, parted ways). - For "old rocker", I was thinking of Ted Nugent, who is a *literal* old rocker, hence TED. - "Not feeling great" = PAR. - I'm guessing "apparently" is meant to indicate you need to put one above the other. At the very least I got Bloody Mary right away. Probably the easiest one in the puzzle.

[@PotmosHetoimos]

20D and 29A both seem to require the solver to pull letters out of thin air rather than providing them through wordplay…is that unusual, or am I going mad?

[@scarletmanuka6170]

Are we sure S isn't an abbreviation for solid? It's used that way in chemistry....

[@danielhanson3733]

15 Across, it seemed to me, is a poor clue. A "dismissive remark" about (e.g.) a play or movie or song is a "PAN"; and one who instigates (that is, goads or provokes) a Tory is a Liberal, abbreviated L. Put L inside PAN and you get PLAN, which is a strategy. Although PATH is the correct answer, it seems to me to be much more of a stretch, especially since I have never once heard anyone utter a dismissive "Pah!"

[@Frie_Jemi]

marc- Is what you call the refuse, or trash, from pressed fruit used to make wine.

[@skx9159]

As a beginner, Parted was the easiest one. Feeling 'under par' screamed out but was thinking of Ted Nugent rather than Teddy boy 😄

[@derekjohn178]

Ted.....teddy boy old rocker

[@Zihuatanejo-]

BONKERS - don't get it. Swingers game = conkers. Beginning anew = replace the 'c' with a 'b'. Where is the instruction that the initial letter is to be replaced with a 'c'?

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

How many other -ONKERS words are there? It's either that or YONKERS, or maybe HONKERS but not really.

[@Zihuatanejo-]

@@SomeRandomGuyOnKZbin ok got it so you can't get it on wordplay alone, you need to apply some common sense and.or GK. The wordplay alone is not going to spoon feed you the answer. These are much harder than my usual (Guardian Quiptic, Everyman).

[@DontMockMySmock]

"Solid" is abbreviated to "s" frequently in chemistry, so that's a bad example of a word that shouldn't be abbreviated to its first letter.

[@iwishexamsneverhappened]

hi