How To Solve Dave Gorman's New Cryptic Crossword
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- ** Today's Crossword **
It's been too long since we did a crossword on the channel and we're delighted to attempt a puzzle from British comedian/cruciverbalist Dave Gorman, which appeared in The Independent on 7 Feb 2022. Try the puzzle at the link below:
puzzles.indepe...
Puzzle number 11020 by Bluth (Dave's pseudonym).
A couple of comments on two of the clues (SPOILER ALERT):
1 Demeanour of experts circulating mails to support admission of guilt for covering up deception
I figured out exactly how this worked after I turned the webcam off. "For covering up deception" is saying replace CON (deception) with PRO (for). Very clever.
2 Bowler moving lower, looking up 10 across
There might be a slight inaccuracy here, which Dave was kind enough to mention to me. A LOWER is a cow, for example ie a creature that LOWS. So MOO as a synomym for LOWER may be a stretch as the dictionary doesn't support LOWER = LOW.
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This feels like listening to Sherlock Holmes explain why a spoon being positioned upside down on a plate near a dead man means that his killer was a 6'4", left handed, Bulgarian man living with his girlfriend's grandparents one county over.
In 1-down, the word "for" in the clue means "pro", which replaces "con"
just to complete this explanation, "con" is clued by "deception"
I thought it was "to support" = "pro"
my thinking was "profession", not as in a job, but as in "to profess"
@@virtuous-sloth No, "to support" is indicating that the anagram of MAILS is underneath everything else in the clue.
Since it's a long and tricky clue, might as well give a detailed breakdown:
Demeanour of experts / circulating mails / to support / admission of guilt / for / covering up / deception
Demeanour of experts = PROFESSIONALISM
circulating mails = anagram of MAILS ---> ALISM
to support = put "ALISM" at the very end
admission of guilt = CONFESSION
for = PRO
covering up = "PRO" will replace some of the letters in what we have so far
deception = CON (this is what will be "covered up")
So CONFESSION + ALISM changes to (PRO)FESSION + ALISM, which gives PROFESSIONALISM.
As a non-native English speaker I'm just happy that I actually know most of the words Simon has said during the course of the video
As a native English speaker... same, honestly.
As a non-native English speaker, I watch the solve and wonder at Simon’s ability to understand anything at all in this crossword 😆
@@SandraTheatre Honestly same, I'm totally in awe
As a native English speaker, you're doing better than me 😂
I absolutely adore these crossword solve videos. With sudoku, I have (an admittedly small) chance of solving it. But these crosswords... I know you're speaking English but it may as well be gibberish to me. Watching you solve it is absolutely 💫magical💫
When you asked if there was a craft that starts with CRO. I was literally crocheting while watching you solve the puzzle. I laughed out loud. 🙂
I like crocheting while i watch these videos too! I hope i will soak up enough tips to solve some NYT cryptics, but they are full of Americanisms whereas these clues are often unique to British English.
3 minutes into this video and it's already blowing my mind. somehow this is even more next level than the sudokus. really fascinating stuff
Watching this has made me realize british crosswords are an entirely foreign language. There's no way I could ever begin to crack this on my own.
Hey, there are some American cryptics too!
I agree, the leaps and multiple meanings in this almost make Cockney rhyming slang make sense.
Right? I'm going to stick to puzzles with numbers, thank you very much.
With their unfamiliar vocabulary and strange way of speaking, Americans are hard to understand for us Brits, too. And that's on any subject, not just crosswords!
Mountebankery: a word created by the publishers of the Chambers English Dictionary, to help lock in their monopoly of the crossword enthusiast's market.
Ha! Very funny; possibly correct!
I think it's confession, with pro (if you're pro something, you're for it), covering up the con (the deception).
I got upstaged and finish before Simon, which is probably the best I've done on these things. The rest was way above my head. Good fun though.
Thanks Simon.
Surely it was Simon who got upstaged, if you finished before him?
I'd definitely like to see more crosswords, they're a real joy to see on the channel!
I certainly didn't upstage you but that was the only one I got. Wouldn't have had a clue without the letters you'd already put in though.
Finally something I did quicker than Simon! More crosswords please!
impressed!
Given that I'm not a native English speaker and wouldn't stand a chance to get anywhere with one of these puzzles, I feel quite proud that I actually got UPSTAGED as soon as Simon explained that exited could mean UP. But besides that little slip-up it's mastery in action, as usual.
What a nice surprise! Thank you for the in depth explanations and humor!!
Just found your channel and I love it, I usually do the maths game, sudoku and pitcherwits in the Mail on a daily basis...you guys have upped my wits on the Sudoku and the cryptic sections of pitcherwits.
I might try and tackle a cryptic crossword in the near future, thanks for the content.
Nice solve! Got the sudoku book yesterday, really looking forward to getting stuck in!
Love seeing Dave Gorman's crosswords here.
Great content
Very tough but elegant puzzle, out of my league but I enjoyed this solve very much
More please
i feel conflicted about cryptic crosswords, on one hand, they’re insanely impressive solved. on the other hand, i literally can’t
ever hope to ever get even 1 clue on my own. it’s not like sudokus where i can see your logic and follow it through on my own. for this, i basically need every approach explained
I'm honestly not conflicted at all, I just hate them. Corporations are stomachs? You can just reverse "alps" for some reason? They are just absolute nonsense. I only watch Simon do them once in a blue moon because I occasionally forget exactly how nonsensical they are.
@@StarManta you can reverse Alps because of climbing. (The letters climb up the grid.) As for corporation, I'd bet it's some rather archaic language.
@@BryanLu0 probably “corporation” meaning “corporeal” meaning bodily and to “incorporate something” for us, to literally “put something in body” would mean to eat. but this amount of logic is so ridiculous i could never hope to get this on my own
I'm expecting to start levitating in a minute as this must be a spell 🤣🤣 and yet I'm mesmerised by these videos
Having said that I think I've just got crochet 🤞
So great to see a crossword make an appearance… been a long time… thank you
Thanks for the tip off, Simon. Quite a diverting crossword, not entirely ruined by the Independent's ghastly website. If memory serves I've only done one of Mr Gorman's puzzles before, and it seems his clue writing has come on quite a bit.
1d CONFESSION but change CON (deception) into PRO (for) then add the ALISM as described in the video.
This was thoroughly entertaining, I was shouting the last clue to my phone 😅, most of the others couldn't even begin to unravel
Awesome setting and solving! Dave’s so good at this! Thank you for the explanations and the bonus video as a whole!!
Great to watch you work these out. I’m learning a lot…👍
Some of these answers work well together, such as: pressure group disregards professionalism.
wow, i've never seen a cryptic crossword in action so this was very fun to watch!! i'm not great even at regular crosswords so i'd have no chance at this. the one thing i thought i had an inkling of was 25 across (i was thinking maybe "unseated", though i couldn't justify the wordplay aspect), but im mostly just relieved i was able to follow the explanations hehe. i would definitely love to see more new cryptics once in a while!
Well after 35 minutes of feeling like an absolute doughnut and not even playing the same sport as Simon (not a single clue correct despite pausing) I got the last 3 clues first!
It's funny how 99% of this relies on experience and a bit of genius and the 1% that can stop you in your tracks is just whether or not you can visualise the answer out of the remaining letters, something that I imagine you can have very little control over and can't really force...
Oh well, time to leave this feeling completely unjustifiably yet deliciously smug haha
I feel proud of myself for getting 'finish' almost immediately when you had to go back to it...for all the other clues i was lost 😂
I managed to see the answers to 12 across and 23 across almost instantly. The rest, nope, not a sniff of the right answer.
I consider that a minor victory.
Fantastic, thanks for this great video - any chance you can get an interview with Dave with his thoughts on constructing the puzzle?
I don't think I really understand the premise of the way these clues are written, and the kinds of deductions you make. Is there sort of a set of conventions and secret handshakes made specifically for cryptic crosswords, and you just have to learn them in order to be able to solve them?
Don't mean to sound critical, I love your content and the vibes as always but I just wonder if I'm missing something about this type of puzzle.
A cryptic crossword clue has two ways to get at the answer. One is a definition. The other is wordplay. It's up to you to determine which part of the clue is the definition and which part is the wordplay.
The best place to start is any word describing position (in, around, with, up to, etc.) and anything attached to that word will be telling you where letters for a synonym for that word will go. The next thing to look at are verbs, as they will often tell you what to do with the letters or the word. You can think of the clues less as definitions and more as instructions for what to do with the letters of words in the clue. The rest is down to knowing synonyms for words.
The actual answer will end up being one of the words in the clue (usually the start or end of the clue), or the clue as a whole will actually also be a definition for the answer.
I think so, as can be noticed in the video, he knows what words to look out for and what they can mean in a cryptic setting, has huge knowledge of abbreviations and words. I'm sure it's due to a tonne of experience and just a load of knowledge too.
Mark did an intro to cryptic crosswords a couple months ago that may help understand the conventions :) th-cam.com/video/ecytVCusIeY/w-d-xo.html
@@LorisLaboratory glad you had that link! it was what I hoped to recommend.
More of these please
Thank you Simon! Fascinating as always. And I learned that there is a specific word for the Throwing Line in Darts. Sure, ok...
Not sure why the dictionary didn't include it but in law rr is definitely a valid abbreviation for rules!
I would like to get better at these puzzles, still this is like watching a spanish lecture on quantum mechanics for me.....
That formic acid clue is so cool! (entomologist here)
I saw part of a soldier's defence as FORt
35:54 The word 'support' gives you the Pro in professionalism.
Love it when you do crossword videos.
These are impossibly difficult and I could never hope to do one, but it tickles me when I do get one before you like the daughter.
Thank you so much for this! I have to admit I was laughing a little when Simon went straight for roe before fish, making that the only clue that I solved before Simon, along with several other people I note. Excellent grid, so many clever misleads. Only thing I disagreed with was lower = moo. Surely that should be 'low' - though that would mess up the surface of course.
A lower is a cow, and a cow can be called a moo.
The first clues you had trouble with were the first clues I got. But I got stuck very quickly after that.
I got exactly one clue before Simon, and that was because I've been crocheting a cardigan for the whole video.
11A: I took the American as referring to EAGLE and style meaning to jumble the letters up. Then the -nce from pence. Not sure if that's valid or a coincidence.
it's a coincedence, and not valid because it doesn't use the whole clue
However, I like the EAGLE anagram, so here's a clue that does use it! (Indirect anagrams are usually not allowed in actual crosswords though because they're too hard)
One time, headless dogs tormented American dignity (8)
17 down was the ONLY one I got before you did.
13:17 Simon passes on 13 across and soon accidentally mentions the answer when explaining a different clue :)
Looking for any excuse to use the word "mountebankery" from now on.
Galloway has been using it quite a bit during the past two weeks.
Did you see that Dave Gorman was referenced in Saturday's Guardian Cryptic?
I went through all the across clues and couldn’t get a single one! The downs were easier though, and after getting some of those I managed to complete the thing pretty rapidly. I didn’t correctly parse 1d or 17d though.
The site crashed a few times (I’m using a very old iPad which might have something to do with that), but luckily saved my progress.
A crossword like this would be a great idea for an English exam in high school or something.
I got crochet before Simon... but only because he asked if there was a craft that started with CRO-.
ditto! lol
Got this one, and I was certain that Simon was on the right track with excited = up and was not happy with him when he changed to "un" and kept repeating it... it ruined my "up" words flow... Most of the clues I was lost on and never going to get, even the Omega that was in plain sight, but I was sure the Sturgeon was not going to be Fish Eggs, but a Fish.
I knew about oche, just never knew how it was spelled :)
Hey I just realized that Dave Gorman was on the Taskmaster series. Good fun!
Postcodelottery? How the hell would I even begin to know what that was? Whats next? Bangers and mash? I guess it just goes to show the brilliance of the puzzle makers out there who understand the minds of their target audience and make amazing puzzles for them.
I will guess, that the "PRO" in Profesionalism comes from something along the lines of recognizing that "pro" is the opposite of "con", as in "CON-fession"
I have absolutely no idea about any of the logic, and English not being my native language does not help the matter. It's kind of fascinating to watch these being solved though. At least with the Sudokus I usually understand after the logic is explained. Here... 40/60 ^^
That's a nice puzzle. It took me 30 minutes, slowed down by my limited vocabulary!
2:24 Dave G's got the clue elements in a wrong order here. B is in TELLY, not in PO, but the clue says B in PO.
I thought Gorman did puzzles that had themed words in the ‘gaps’. I was certainly expecting some explanation of SEA FOAM, SEER I AM SLED. Um, maybe not then?
22:01 Thank you for this screenshot. This has clarified a word I've often seen on the web in contexts where nobody explains it: "oped". Is it American?
"Breaking rules" meaning "RR" was quite naughty, you might even say it broke the rules.
This broke my brain, but I loved watching it!
Corporation is your stomach? wut? lol. I love the Sudoku's and can watch or play them all day.. but cryptic crosswords just make no sense to me. The word replacements could literally be anything. Seems like it's all based on prior experience and doesn't use logic at all. Though I am happy to be derided as a sub-novice, simple minded 'flat-worder'... or whatever the term might be. :)
Is it just me that noticed the last column very nearly reads "misled"?
I'm a sudoku fan, and crossword newbie, but really enjoyed this!
I find the 'official' abbreviations a little b.s. though... (Like 'doctor'=GP is fine but not 'rule'=r). To me, they feel a little like a cop-out, making the clue significantly less elegant.
Can you do the Times monthly crossword? That would be a delight
Mark does those every month on Patreon (paid); usually about an hour long and fun to watch.
@@Anne_Mahoney Ahh okay!
Any chance of a video of the NY Times Crossword from 6 February? I think you'd enjoy it.
When you do Sudoku, I can at least always follow the logic after the fact.
With crosswords I am absolutely lost.
I guess it doesn't help that English is not my first language...
Can anyone give an example of when you would use a lower case b as an abbreviation for book?
Pro=support
I got Finish, Formic Acid, and Upstaged before Simon did, but I'm still mystified with the "leg" in 11 across "elegance". I understand it is a cricket term, but I don't see how it fits into the clue.
"not the first coppers" = "ence" ("pence" with the first letter removed)
which "take on" (wrap around)
"American" = "a"
"Style" is the definition.
So where does "leg" come from? Have I incorrectly interpreted "to take on"?
I think the relevant part might be 'to take', with 'on' being the synonym for 'leg'.
Other person here suggested American style may reference American Eagle... the clothing company.
Do you have those stores there?
It says "for" (ie, pro) covers "deception" (ie, con)
And I thought doing cage maths in sudoku was hard…
How could it be known that "Alps" would appear backwards in 3D? Just because otherwise the answer wouldn't be a word?
Because of the word climbing before it that indicates the word is written from the bottom up.
What are you using for the dictionary? I was looking for something, but I can only find mobile apps and a subscriptions service that looks a bit different?
On the off-chance anyone is scrolling through looking for an answer 2 years later, this is the CD version of Chambers dictionary. It's now out of print and ebay is your only answer.
You Europeans have fascinating crosswords. In the future I think I will pass on them.
A succulent Chinese meal?!
This is like the joke caricature of Nicolas Cage in National Treasure where he just spitballs random shit barely connected to eventually get the correct answer that has nothing to do with the clue.
Apolitical has it limits. When the "ruling party" is overtly wrong, statements can be made.
🤯
To lower is to moo? In which dictionary? A cow is something which lows, so it's a lower, and is also a moo.
So, where is the rules?)
The moment you said that the word Book means it's a letter B made me think this just seems intentionally obscure, vague and inaccessible. Like an old boys club mentality for crosswords.
I think I can better summarise my thoughts on this - Personally it leaves a puzzle feeling dishonest as I think a puzzle should provide you everything you need to solve it. Extra hidden information feels wrong to me.
Crosswords have got so complicated 😭
These puzzles are absolutely absurd.
I followed the entire explanation in the first 3 mins and I still haven't got a clue, I'll stay away from these
1D - 'Profess' guilt, perhaps?
Or "fess" alone... as in "fess up".
Is that slang there in the UK, as it is here (US)?
That more of a US convention, really, but Dave Gorman... I wouldn't put it past him to crowbar as many cryptic puns in as possible.