World's Best Crossword Solver Vs Monster Puzzle

A regular Times cryptic this time - but this one is pretty difficult. Mark solves against the clock.
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Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the eleven-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.
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Simon and Mark

[@mechatyrants6218]

"Pre...baked...no that's nonsense" Yea everything else was just straightforward

[@filam7371]

Lol 😂

[@PatchworkPS]

I had never seen a crossword being solved - that was absolutely mindblowing. Substractions, reverse words, porte-manteaux... Never knew crosswords were that intricate. I'm also still looking for all those anagrams that were mentioned.

[@M4TTM4N10]

Do note this is a cryptic crossword, regular crosswords are not that intricate

[@mphayes98]

In the United States we do crosswords very differently, they're not as "puzzly" as the cryptic ones

[@darktemps]

I Got lost after the first clue. Would love to see one where you explain abit more about the process

[@vinyl1Earthlink]

I did solve this puzzle on the day, but my time was 70 minutes. That's 10 minutes over the time allowed to solve all three of these puzzles at the championships! I did know 'apocope', which really helped. Mark, you may be interested in the new leader on the main leaderboard, a fellow named 'obviouscheatwhybother'.

[@rabidsamfan]

That was very impressive.

[@GenWivern2]

I very much enjoyed that, thank you. The puzzle looked like rather a good one, but it did rush past in a bit of a blur. :-) My best wishes for the championship.

[@Cryolemon]

I was shouting "Prepared" at the screen for ages ... but it was about the only clue that I would have got.

[@Wouter10123]

This makes me think... You guys should release a crossword app after the next sudoku app!

[@davidbod]

As someone who only just about manages to do the Times most days (but slowly: often 1 hour+), strangely I seem to do better on the 130 SNITCHes and the slightly tricksier ones they seem to keep for Saturdays, than something like a 90. APOCOPE was unknown to me but very fairly clued. Your organic way of working around the grid using letters you already have seems to match mine, but do you think it would be better to go through every clue at least once to find the sitters such as GNOCCHI and CUL-DE-SAC first?

[@mathiaspoulson]

What the hell is going on

[@marklevy6883]

Wow. Incredible

[@rogerwprice]

amazing!

[@Pyrois]

For what it's worth, apocope is pronounced "uh-POCK-uh-pee". Fairly certain I had never encountered that word before today haha

[@cameron1004]

Pretty sure he's being ironic... leaving out the last sound of the word

[@Tahgtahv]

While I haven't a clue at all on British crosswords, I enjoy watching these morning (for me) videos. TBF, I haven't a clue on American crosswords either, my vocabulary on this kind of thing just isn't that great.

[@zander4658]

What are the best Crossword apps for beginners (especially like Homescapes) with more important "answer key" and without buying answers? Possibly $5 or less if its cost money. Crosswords for beginners!

[@phillipcarlroberts4640]

Great stuff🤩...there is no wonder why you guys are champions.

[@d4r4butler74]

Fabulous! I haven't watched you speed solve a Crossword before. I think you would yawn your way through what North Americans think of as crosswords. I would have taken longer than you just typing in the answers!

[@powt0wn]

can anyone explain how the definition works for CLOVER? 'ease in this'?

[@phlogiston6292]

Living 'in clover' means to be living a life of luxury/ease

[@powt0wn]

@@phlogiston6292 thanks!

[@Tony-uu9hs]

hello welcome to wordle in a minute

[@rocarajol7964]

Lmao what a thumbnail

[@AgentMidnight]

Could someone explain 13 across? (5:00)

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Nancy's very = TRES because Nancy is a town in France, so they would use the french TRES for 'very'; a 'cross' is a PASS (in soccer at least); 'that's wrong' is the definition for TRESPASS

[@AgentMidnight]

@@CrackingTheCryptic Thank you!

[@caramba10]

Could someone explain 23 across please?

[@RandomBurfness]

I just looked up the definition of 'rhubarb' and it turns out it's an informal American slang for an argument. Therefore the definition should be 'rhubarb' with the wordplay being the rest. The 'dispute' is found reversed in 'beET UPSIDe-down', with the clue indicating it's a hidden being the 'found in' before the 'beet' and the indication the hidden is reversed is found in 'back-to-front'.

[@caramba10]

@@RandomBurfness Thank you, makes sense now (I would never have seen that)

[@Gennys]

How do you get from regular crosswords this nonsense clues? I wouldn't have gotten a single line. Not one.

[@Tahgtahv]

Right, you (as am I) are from the United States. British crosswords are *very* different. I suppose it's a matter of what you're used to. I think Mark has solved a US puzzle or two on the channel, but it's not very common.

[@MsMattness]

The guys on this channel has made several videos explaining ""easy"" cryptic crosswords in an attempt to learn people to do them themselves. Not an easy task, but the videos are interesting nevertheless. This is almost one of the rare videos where they attempt to do it as fast as possible and explain little.

[@bennnnnification]

What the fuck...

[@robinbruce7838]

I ... What ?