The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: 4 October 2024

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
In the latest edition of our attempts to solve a Friday Times crossword, Simon tackles today's puzzle which is almost absurdly brilliant. This is a puzzle that will remain in the memory for a while!!

(If you do enjoy these crossword videos, please do try and leave a "like" or "subscribe"; we would really appreciate it and hopefully other people who get recommended the video will come to love these puzzles as much as we all do.)

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

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If you're interested in watching a live episode of Cracking The Cryptic and meeting us in real life then there is a link to the live show we're doing on 27 October at 10am at the Stratford Literary Festival below. There are very few tickets available so please do book early if you are keen to go.

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[tweetie]

Just here to listen to Simon explaining that you absolutely cannot just abbreviate any old word, it MUST be backed up by the dictionary. A weekly tradition it has become :)

[Sgray-epse]

Simon after 1, 5 hours explaining wordplay: "I am a moron!"
Everyone: "This guy is a genius!"

[puffin]

The longer the video the better. Absolutely love that this is basically the minimum length of a movie

[PotmosHetoimos]

What a stunning puzzle. Some of the best clue writing you’ve ever featured! No shame at all in having considerable difficulty parsing some of these

[OddLittleShoppingBag]

The Equal Rights Amendment was originally proposed in the 1920s, approved by Congress in the 1970s, but failed to be ratified by enough states to take effect before the deadline. Some states then rescinded their ratifications, while at least one state has ratified it in the last ten years, arguing the deadline was itself unconstitutional. Basically because of the numerous political arguments it implicates, the extremely high bar for amending our constitution, and the lack of detailed rules for making amendments (and the political arguments about those, etc.), the ERA has been a matter of occasional and often intense debate for nearly fifty years.

[archivist]

A very well written puzzle! And you managed to parse some incredibly complex clues while stumbling over the easy ones 😄

[Astervista]

As soon as I saw court in the etc clue I foresaw the tomography hint — I was like “yep, he’s going to do it, he’s going to read the definition of ct as tomography” was so pleased when it actually happened, I think we can forgive Simon.
Obviously ct being the exam in “ct scan” in an hospital, if you ever seen that it's not at all mobile

[skx]

We watch these logged out on the TV so no use to the algorithm but love crossword so much more than sudoku! Can't believe these get less views.
An absolute joy watching Simon

[davidrattner]

Great way to get Friday started!!! Constant joy and treat to see Simon work his magic for us in solving!!

[Astervista]

“Someone thinks you can abbreviate any word with its initial”
Simon, I don’t think anyone in the world will think that anymore after all that repetition :)
I’m kidding, keep doing that, it bears repetition!

[fatha]

21:47 that sudden realisation is hilarious 😂😂😂

[longwaytotipperary]

“It’s hard to see why that’s easy.” Yes. On at least two levels. I love the complicated clues - after Simon explains them and I understand how well crafted they are!

[creaghant]

That was a fantastic puzzle and a great solve - Cheers Simon - This remains my favourite video each week. 👍

[PassionPopsicle]

Ha, video appeared just as I refreshed. Lovely. This is my favourite video of the week ❤

[SvenBeh]

So yesterday was a holiday in Germany and hence i have a long weekend. This video actually reminded me it’s friday :)

[stubbsz]

My son's a rower and rowing families use the word erg more than you might imagine; so I got that clue instantly.

[jackieaug]

37:11 Simon’s joy at the beauty of this puzzle. Why I watch every week.

[VonBlade]

My favourite day of the CTC week. A constant delight. Hey YT, we love crosswords.


Or, as we say on a Mark Watson video, I am engaging with the content for the sake of the algorithm.

[hpStolz]

I've been here to watch the sudokus, but this just blew my mind! In no way do I feel ready to tackle one one, but this is the first time I have understood what cryptic crosswords are even doing.

Very interesting! Simon's patience at explaining every detail to us is very helpful.

Some of those solutions seem like enormous leaps of logic to me, but I do at least understand the idea of how they are constructed

[icecreamandsadness]

I love it when the videos are long enough to last me the whole weekend ❤