The Cryptic Crossword Friday Masterclass

Simon takes us through a solve of The Times cryptic crossword.

Learn how the cryptic clues work, and see if you can solve some before he does!

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Also: seven videos of Simon and Mark solving the 500k pack puzzles in live streams. See the playlist to get to them.

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The “Numeric Alchemy” sudoku hunt by the brilliant Jay Dyer is the Patreon Reward for January. This is an exceptional collection of sudoku puzzles based on modifier cells (such as doublers, etc.) Complete the introductory section of five puzzles and send in the correct result by 4pm today(!) to be entered into the prize drawing, or complete the whole set to have your name read out on the channel. Join us on Patreon at the $2/month level or higher to try these puzzles, $3/month or higher to have access to solution videos! (Also access to a patreon-only discord channel to discuss the Patreon Reward puzzles and get help if you need it!)

* Lots of other content on Patreon, including past Patreon rewards, crossword solves and Simon and Mark engaging in a couple of collaborative sudoku solves. *

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▶Credits◀
Music: Tim McCaskey (Guitar) or Lucy Audrin (Piano) or Riffclown plays Mozart's Sonata no 16 ("Sonata Facile"), and Mark’s outro music by Riffclown.
SOFTWARE: Thanks to Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Sven Neumann
Logo: Melvyn Mainini

Opening Credits: Joel Blundell

▶ABOUT US◀
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 twelve-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.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[Ruddigore]

Would love the Friday Cryptic to become a regular feature.

[jbaldwin]

I was shouting “CONTEMPT!! They’re a corrupt tennis player!” for a long time during this…

Crosswords are really easy when you’re watching someone else do them 😂

[sebastianpina]

Thank you for teaching us how you get the words from each clue, makes it so much easier to follow 💙

[lexyeevee]

"it's quite rare to see K used for one thousand", simon says, one inch above the text proclaiming he has 517K subscribers :)

[cjcalogero]

Yay! Love the cryptic crossword solves, wish there were more of them :)

[orosma]

I would love this to be a regular weekly feature. I'm mediocre at cryptic crosswords but love them nonetheless. It's brilliant how Simon can see things in the clues straight away that just have me stumped. I was very proud of myself to get a handful of these straight away but I know others would have taken me a month of Sundays!

[SaraMGreads]

It’s interesting that the ones you got right off the bat I would never have gotten but the ones that you struggled with I got right away. That’s why I like to do puzzles with friends.

[longwaytotipperary]

Woke up this morning to see rain has stopped, the sun is out and Simon is brilliantly solving a cryptic crossword! Thank you, Simon, for taking the time to explain the clues and your thought process! Yes, please - more of these! 😃

[th.nd.r]

I loved the contempt of court clue, I found it to be a quite amusing double definition, with the second definition being a pun! Good solving Simon, and I do want to see more of these! And geez, how in the world does anyone finish this sort of thing in just over 8 min? Well done on that, Mark.

[janineklein]

Happy Birthday Matt! Hope you solve this one in record time. I love you and the fact that you watch this every morning, instead of the news. ❤🎉

[davidrattner]

Wonderful surprise to wake up with this !! Joy to have Simon solve these for us!!

[Stephen-Fox]

More cryptic crosswords are always good. Very much enjoyed this, and if you wanted to start doing them once a week I would have no objections (especially if you start doing advanced cryptics on the channel again)

[chiderakalaji]

Having to get up for morning class but seeing a Cracking the Cryptic video definitely jolted me up 🤣

[stumbling]

These Friday Cryptic solves are invaluable to us crossword learners.

[rogerusher]

Love the Friday cryptic crosswords solves. More please.

[MrBigrig]

The more crossword content the better!

[grenvillephillips]

Friday's Times always seem a little more difficult and so very glad to get the walk-through.

[crashtextdummie]

These continue to mystify me. It often seems like Simon guesses the word and then reverse engineers what the clue meant.

[thejeqff]

Always impressed by Mark and Simon's solves of Cryptic Crosswords. Some of my favorite videos. I'm also very glad I got 17-across before Simon! My M.Div. studies coming to use.

[kaumatuaeli]

Tennis is an “etiquette sport”, meaning that a chair umpire may give an unruly player a warning, then forfeit a point, game, and even a match. They are referred to as “code violations”.

John McEnroe often demonstrated how a player may “earn” one or more of these violations, and thereby receive the “contempt of court” (the chair umpire being the highest ranking official of the tennis court).

Brilliant video as always.