The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: 26 April 2024

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
In the 63rd edition of our attempts to solve a Friday Times crossword, Simon tackles today's puzzle, which definitely contains some traps.

The puzzle is available to play on The Times crossword club website (which is behind their paywall):

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[louisesuth]

I am constantly amazed by what Mark and Simon know, and equally bemused by what they don't as I see them as omniscient

[droid-droidsson]

I cannot believe Simon would, completely out of the blue, spoil Wallace and Gromit for everyone like this!


/s

[TheAshFantastic]

Simon! Today's the first time I've heard you play your guitar, and my goodness did you play that beautifully. Here as always for the cryptic, but now I'll be hoping for more little guitar interludes as well. Thank you for these wonderful videos!

[bristolrovers]

Hand is the unit of measurement for the height of a horse (4 inches I believe) and a foot is 12 inches.

Weekly crossword is a highlight for me of this excellent channel

[bryantvia]

it surprises me when i know something that you don't. you have such a vast amount of knowledge that the hand vs feet and stop-motion trip you up so much, but your genius still comes through. well done, sir.

[BGBRDBGL]

Loved the musical interlude today simon <3

[craftsmanwoodturner]

I particularly liked the clues for "strident" and "talon". Plenty of misdirection there, but Simon managed to avoid the bear-traps.

[LednacekZ]

a hand is also a unit of length. about 10cm foot is about 30cm.

[imgpw]

incredible solve as always. an addendum to your wallace and grommit example for stop motion: that film is claymation, which necessitates the use of stop-motion animation, but not all stop-motion uses clay. claymation is the square to stop-motion's rectangle. you can think of stop-motion as a more advance zoetrope because they use the same principle of multiple photos being taken and being played back quickly (usually 24 frames per second in movies) to give the illusion of motion

[Bacca]

It's possible that "in charge" is in your Chambers app as "i/c" which is how the UK military commonly shortens it.

[LednacekZ]

i knew 3 today. that is way much more than usual.

[andyrooiam]

The unit of hands is measured roughly by turning your hand on its side with the fingers together.

[davidrattner]

Thank Simon for giving us another great solve and explanations for all your answers!! Bonus for throwing in a guitar session!! Classic song by 2 exceptional musicians!!

[stevewood]

Interesting to read in other comments that the US pronunciation of Reveille is different to the British one. As a paperboy in the early 70s I would often deliver a weekly newspaper of that name that was pronounced 'ruh-valley' which I believe is the typical British pronunciation. French, meaning wake up, I believe. Great solve by Simon, avoiding a number of traps.

[debrabowen]

Thank you for this video. Friday cryptic crossword is a highlight of my week!

[craftsmanwoodturner]

I think you have to type in "I/C" to see the abbreviation for "in charge".

[icecreamandsadness]

I knew those were the fingers of a musician. Beautiful!

[oak]

Hooray for a Friday evening crossword video. Please, algorithm, keep these videos coming!

[drbutler]

Always love the crosswords!
And as far as I know Horses are still measured in Hands.

[jamesmoriarty]

I think i was shouting out three answers at the screen. Unlikely to happen again. I remember lots of library books in my youth having a frontispiece. Lovely word.