Approachable Apples

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along a grey thermometer must increase from the bulb end. Orange lines are palindromes, reading the same when reversed. eg 12321 or 4554. (All thermometers have palindromes above them and all Palindromes have thermometers under them.)

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@crypticcracking

▶Music◀
Tim McCaskey (Guitar) or Lucy Audrin (Piano) or Riffclown plays Mozart's Sonata no 16 ("Sonata Facile")
▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). Thanks to Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Sven Neumann for their work.
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini

▶Opening Credits Design◀
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

[TheKingOfApples]

Yo, This is amazing! Thanks to Mark for playing my puzzle. I really enjoy reading all the comments about the puzzle too! The main limitation I had making the puzzle was my own sudoku skill and speed, testing it multiple times myself to get it to a state I liked, Quite time consuming and couldn't make it more difficult than my ability. Also huge thanks to the people on the Cracking the Cryptic discord for testing the puzzle too and giving feedback. I hope Everyone has a wonderful time playing it!!!

(The origin of my name is quite silly my school used to have a old educational computer game that gave you apples for getting a question right and it had highscores, I committed hard to get the Number 1 highscore and got it after months. The memory has always stuck with me.)

[emilywilliams]

I wonder how many sudoku solvers quote poetry regularly on their videos, let alone in their lives. Thanks for the poetry tonight, Mark, and for the fun solve of an interesting puzzle. Enjoyed it.

[JohnRandomness]

15:15 "Something is done here, and I'm just not noticing it." Yeah, that happens. Often with 2s. Such as the 2 in C1R7.

[annajurak]

So after a few months I've dared to solve my first puzzle from this channel and it was this one. It took me 2 hours to solved, but I'm happy I tried :D Now I even more surprised how quickly Mark's done it.

[godbrothers]

I don’t know much about Sudoku but watching this get solved was really fun!

[Coyotek]

I couldn't get around to this puzzle before 11:15pm, so I'm grateful it wasn't insanely complex. Finished in a time of 16:27 and ready to go to bed.

Nice puzzle!

[zackrobat]

I love when Mark and Simon quote from things they like, like Dylan Thomas and Monty Python. :-) Do not go gentle into April the 15th of September!

[theviper]

This was definitely an approachable one. As a novice to sudoku I got like a 25 min time, so really happy with that.

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 02:54
Let's Get Cracking: 03:56
Mark's time: 13m02s
Puzzle Solved: 16:58

What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Three In the Corner: 1x (16:48)
Chocolate Teapot: 1x (12:10)

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 8x (05:28, 05:56, 06:18, 06:42, 07:07, 07:19, 07:34, 12:17)
Sorry: 3x (03:08, 05:35, 11:57)
In Fact: 3x (04:59, 08:28, 10:52)
Approachable: 2x (03:52, 17:01)
Bother: 1x (13:22)
Naked Single: 1x (13:01)
Clever: 1x (15:07)
Fascinating: 1x (00:16)
Shouting: 1x (11:57)
Surely: 1x (14:17)
Wow: 1x (08:33)
Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (04:27)

Most popular digit and colour this video:
Three (41 mentions)
Orange (4 mentions)

Antithesis Battles:
Even (2) - Odd (0)
Column (9) - Row (5)

FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[Xiuhtec]

Took me just over an hour for some reason. I've done much harder puzzles in under half the time, just had big issues with scanning this one. Also took me like 15 minutes to notice the 13 disambiguating the 38 on the thermo in box 89.

[jamesmaybury]

I managed a good portion of it before hitting a contradiction and came back to this video. It was only then that I realised that I had taken the palindromes as renbans. It is actually a nice puzzle and logic with renbans. Anyone fancy taking that idea and making it work. Try it out the start and break in are great until the point it no longer works!

[badmanjones]

ignoring his own 2 pencil mark staring him in the face through the very end when he decides every other digit in the box

[kwongshuchung]

37:57 for me
fun to play and not many tricks needed

[cluso]

Yeah :) Got it out with only one minor hint along the way. But it did take me a lot longer so now to watch Mark solve it to see how he did it.

Aha. While I saw the x-wing on 2's I missed the use of it placing 2 in r7c8. Still got it out without this. The hint I needed was r9c5 not being 3 but an 8.

[victorfinberg]

Mark demonstrates the most efficient solution.

1) Get the easy digits.
2) Goodliffe all the palindrometers/thermodromes.
3) Find a few short chains. (the most difficult part)
4) Finish off.

Whenever progress starts to slow down, switch to basic sudoku !

[wanderlustwarrior]

27:36 took me longer than I thought it would, but still approachable.

[joana_drb]

This was a really nice simple puzzle! I got it done in 24:51 which im quite proud considering my level 😂 Nice solve as always Mark!

[krisiverse]

Fantastic solve! I tried this one myself, but whichever way I tried approaching it I ended up placing two 1s in column 8 and I could never figure out where I messed up. I haven't been discouraged though, I'll keep working on my solving skills. :)

[TurquoizeGoldscraper]

21:28 for me - around the 14 minute mark it really slowed down and I couldn't see where I needed to go next.

[davidh.]

43:08. It took me quite a bit longer than expected, but I got there eventually. I probably shouldn't have tried tackling it at the end of a long day. still, I enjoyed this one.