The Times Crossword Masterclass: 17 January 2025: The Funniest 1across Ever?

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
Another Friday, another super crossword from @TheTimes - this one boasting one of the funniest clues we can remember at 1across :)

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

James Pagan's crossword puzzle is here:

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#crossword #puzzle #cryptic

[davidalderson]

Mark completing this puzzle in under 6 minutes is ridiculous.

[romanthompson]

I am very new to cryptic crosswords but made it a New Year’s resolution to get better! I’ve been watching these videos for the last two months and this week I solved my first full puzzle. Thank you Simon and Mark!

[bobblebardsley]

The easy way to remember whether an em or an en is wider is the fact that they're based on the width of the letters M and N (hence the names).

[ChairboyRules]

Please keep the masterclass coming I really hope to be able to crack one of these one day and your training is my only hope!!

[Flikus]

America is an eponym because it takes its name from Amerigo Vespucci, an italian explorer who was (allegedly) the first to recognize that America was a new continent

[Umbra]

Simon saying “gg, perhaps” would be a great soundbyte! Especially with his StarCraft background

[dominicsymes]

Great job Simon, tough tough puzzle! The peer/pee-er split was hilarious, and I also loved home of ice for igloo. Makes me think of penguins building themselves little cottages haha 🐧 thanks for doggedly and enthusiastically continuing this series despite the algorithm; they're my absolute favourite, and having you expatiate the tricky tricky abbreviations has massively helped my own solving. thanks again! ❤

[simgha]

This is the earliest I've been in seeing one of these! Really love watching your crossword videos as I learn so much every time. Please keep this series going :)

[geraintwilliams]

A popular word for chamberpot is “Guzunder”, because it “goes under” the bed!

[vinylEarthlink]

Horse is H from betting slips - H is horse, M is mare, G is gelding.

[Astervista]

“I’ll put ANNETTO. I’m not gonna change it, so let’s look at the dictionary”

Proceeds to change it

[stevehickman]

One of the You Tube highlights of the week. I struggled with this one at first but once I'd got a handle on the setter's style it fell in to place quite well. Simon is such a good teacher and communicator. The fact he struggles with some clues actually makes the video more useful as we get a real-time insight into his solving strategies.

In the Midlands at least, everyone talks about the local cut. You rarely even hear the word canal.

[jadeEpeace]

Thanks Simon, love these videos. I love seeing your enthusiasm for a good clue, but I do wish you would cut yourself some slack, you are a fabulous, patient, entertaining teacher (evidenced by 8823 views in 19 hours and dozens of nice comments) - plus a fantastic solver! Plus, I love the long videos as it gives me more time to try (and ususally fail) to figure it out for myself - I got Plato, but no idea how the word play worked until you explained. And loved chamberpot - that cracked me up! Thank you!!

[daylightsleeptight]

I'm gonna recommend this video to my buddy the algorithm. We call him Al for short.

[jonathansavage]

Thanks for another great masterclass Simon. I really enjoyed it as always.

[mrscraftalot]

Thanks as always, Simon! Great fun to watch your solve. I am definitely obsessed thanks to you both!

[creaghant]

Excellent solves Simon - Cheers - My favourite video of the week (and Cut is another word you can use to refer to a Canal) 👍

[bobhackett]

My housemates and I used to have a game called Natalie Portmanteau, where we would turn celebrities’ names into portmanteaus 🤣

[VonBlade]

Sub 2 minutes for the Concise, even with a typo, is impressive Simon. Mark being 3 minutes quicker than Matthew and Chloe is jaw-dropping.
No idea why Chrome was fiddling you about, but I have to mention that Google constantly break things. My Gmail notifications often refuse to work after an update.

[Observer-me]

Many thanks again Simon. These videos are a highlight of the week. When I solved it before watching the video I wondered whether the reference to America in the eponym clue was to the band America and their song about having been through the desert on a “horse with no name “?