The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: 20 September 2024
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- ** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
In the latest edition of our attempts to solve a Friday Times crossword, Simon tackles today's puzzle which is of about average difficulty.
The puzzle is available to play on The Times crossword club website (which is behind their paywall):
www.thetimes.c...
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Didnt think I would be shouting 'VIRGINS' for so long to Simon on a Friday morning! 😂
Couldn't have done it myself, since I had never heard the word virago, but after Simon mentioned it I immediately understood the clue... Funny that Simon sometimes identifies the part that is the definition wrong and then simply doesn't change his reasoning for much too long.
@@bibliopolist True, I never could have fully solved the clue completely, myself!
It was just when the checking letters was V_R_I_S and 'maidens' was at the end of the clue!
Me too!
Me too!~
I cannot express how much I look forward this Masterclass every Friday ! 🙂
The best "hello!" I get every friday!
This is my favourite video of the week - thank you Simon.
Absolutely always a pleasure to have Simon kick off my Friday mornings!!!
Love these cryptic crossword videos!!!!!!
That spoonerism on 15 down had me cracking up :D Well done on solving all of this!
Always a highlight of my week getting to watch these.
these videos light up my fridays :-) thank you!
Thanks Simon. Love the Friday Masterclass
My favourite YT video of the week!
Alwyas on of my TH-cam weekly highlights, thanks Simon.
Solving cryptics is why I subscribed to this channel.
Always look forward to these on a Friday. Thanks :)
The thunderstorm was one of the main characters in this video, so extremely cosy! Absolutely love these videos, haven't missed a single one and it is routine on Saturday morning with hot tee and toast.
One of the most important things that Simon has taught me is to never trust the setter. 7 down is a really nice example of the kind of misdirection that used to drive me up the wall. Nice to see that Simon is not immune to this either 🙏
Best TH-cam experience ever. I take about an hour to do the puzzle and always have one or two answers that must be right but I'm not sure exactly why. Simon's patient explanations are wonderful, and despite his utter brilliance I love the fact he's willing to show he's human by occasionally struggling over clues.
I've noticed recently that the hidden clue is often the final across or down clue. Is that something of a setter's convention or has that just been a coincidence in the last few weeks?
Such a delight, as always. Thank you, Simon!
thoroughly enjoyable, as usual.....thank you...yes, my dad also taught me the basics :)
Somebody needs to publish a book of all the Times Friday cryptics since Simon's first masterclass. It would be an instant best seller!
Turning “say she ate” into “claim female consumed” reminds me of the aliens from the Strange Planet comics by Nathan W Pyle.
Strange Planet FTW! 😆
Well done Simon. Good luck with the golf next week!
Great learning experience for us, Simon!! Thanks a ton!!
I've loved cryptic crosswords since Araucaria's days at the Guardian, and these videos are wonderful for teaching me all the ways other setters do things that I didn't know.
Well done Simon! And 🔥🔥🔥 on the QC, amazing!
Let's get cracking! Thank you as always for the brilliant solve.
Good news, I got a notification this week!
Hi Simon love the weekly masterclass. In the weekly puzzles newsletter from the interim editor last week he stated very clearly that the prohibition on using the names of famous living people (apart from the monarch) has been abolished. I love trying to complete the Friday crossword and then seeing which clues challenge you - or not. Loved the answer to temporary stable worker etc. Keep up the good work.
I thought 'nabob' was just how people in Yorkshire greet me 😝
Just to note, not every one of these is in your Crossword Masterclass playlist. I know getting YT to add it to the algorithm is tough, so perhaps next time someone has a spare half hour correcting the playlist might help.
50:01 I know Simon will get this, but I'm pleased to have done so. Harridans (Viragos (he was right)) with spirit (gin) replacing earlier (ago)... maidens (Virgins)
🥳 Love these videos
Simon is brilliant!
Very atmospheric this week - shades of Hammer House of Horror, what with the dim lighting and the sounds of thunder, I was half expecting The Evil Setter to make a sudden appearance behind Simon, as he battled to find the missing Virgins at the end.
Thank you so much, Simon!
really liked this one, was even able to do a few of the clues myself!! this channel helped me learn how to do these so now I can do them with my friend :) funnily enough this particular friday happened to be my birthday!! thank you for these and for helping us all to learn to think cryptically :D
The way I learnt was by buying a newspaper and then (when I got none right) bought the next issue and tried to work out how the clues work from the answers...suffice to say I still do the same 20 odd years on...😜
US guy here. I subscribed to GAMES magazine for 15 years before I even attempted one of their (fairly easy) cryptic crosswords. I would get a clue or two or three and then grab a couple more words from the answers, figure out the wordplays, then try to get another crossing word or two. Now, 30 years later, I breeze through them in 15-30 minutes.
I now carry a paperback copy of the (London) Times Quick Cryptics for waiting rooms, etc.
Friday yay!
To remember all the things he knows Simon's brain must have unlimited could storage 😅
VIRAGOS really is a classic crossword word, as an answer or for wordplay, as here. It ends with a vowel, which is useful, and has a wry and funny meaning.
v^2 = u^2 + 2as
(No doubt ninjaed below, but I'm lazy)
Got 19 down: start with viragos, replace "ago" (earlier) by "gin" (spirit) to get "virgins" (maidens).
me too!
Can confirm that maidens are both difficult and interesting
Half-formed wish half-warmed fish... my favourite Spoonerism :-)
I can’t help wonder if every example of a spoonerism that Simon thought of was at least slightly rude (cause that was true for me!)
'You have tasted the whole worm' is pretty good too.
smart feller
A well boiled icicle
Funny that while Simon was searching the dictionary for “re” to explain a different clue he passed right by rhenium
Gin replacing Ago (earlier) in the word Viragos to yield Virgins is just absolutely mental. What an utterly brilliant setter, I hate them.
The fact that I got "virgins" 20 minutes before Simon now makes me feen uneasy.
"You can't just abbreviate any word to a letter"
* Shows page-long list of "M" abbreviations, and there are 11 separate lists *
Oh really? :D
Georgia isn't in Russia Simon, it's an independent state.
4D is the ultimate 'non-Englishmen not welcome' clue.
Hardly. That prize goes to 16 across, since you need town-level knowledge of English geography.
That Spoonerism clue was a cunning stunt…. 😏
say she ate :D
Thanks to Simon for another excellent Friday crossword masterclass.
Virgins? I ask you!
😊😊😊
11 Across could equally have been "Coach regularly coming from Torbay isn't returning 5 Down".
Definitely compulsive viewing!
This is my firsr time seeing one of these and the only one I got right off the bat was Virgins. Weird world we live in.
So 15 down was bass ackwards?
spoonerisme ? like in french, la berger du verger ?
Could someone please explain the porridge clue from the quick cryptic?
Porridge is not only a common scottish food, but also slang for being in prison, i.e. a convict
You were so close with viragos, you just thought it was the definition when it was wordplay. It wasn't vicious, in fact I found this clue just about the easiest. Ousting obviously signified part of the word was being swapped. It could have been virgins with gin being swapped to give viragos, but the "with" told us it was the other way round.
I found this one quite tough, not monstrous, but I just didn't seem to get on the same wavelength as the setter.
There were definitely some nice clues in this. Stand-in groom was good.
I'm a sucker for a good Spoonerism, and first name was a good one. One of my favourites is "weddin' the daughter", which might actually prove to be a synonym as well.
South Ossetia was pretty obscure. But for John Simpson's reports from the region I would never have heard of it.
I think the explanation for satiate works better if you consider the whole word is a homophone, rather than "say she" plus "ate", the whole word is "say she ate".
As a schoolboy player and lifetime follower of both rugby codes, I've never heard of out-half, but apparently its another name for stand-off or fly half.
I was doing well until I got to the Object lesson and first name intersection. Ended up with those incorrect and Varmits instead of Virgins! Never mind.
The madlads really used virago as wordplay, poor Simon couldn't conceive of something so ludicrous
Requesting full element song performance for 1mil subs
I feel like Simon questions or complains about some clue structures but lets other sketchy ones pass. In this one, for "brief article on money" how is it ok to have bread before th? Unless "on" means "after," which seems very odd.
Quote of the day: "Is Georgia in South Estonia?"
I know of at least two Georgias, who says there isn’t a third?
At 05:55 he claimed it was in Russia!
surprise surprise....Newton's equations again
Pretty sure nabob is pronounced nay-bob in English, Simon.
I learned the word from Spiro Agnew, disgraced former US Vice President's phrase "Nattering nabobs of negativism!"
@@gordonglenn2089 Hey, kudos, the original repulsive slimeball politician! I think I might have first seen it used in a Ditko-era Doc Strange comic.
i actually managed to do the 19 down out of the clues that Simon mentioned. Herridans are viragos, spirit is gin, Vir-gin- ago-s. oustin earlier remove ago and you get virgins. I am so proud of myself. Getting the logic of the clue construction. Considering i dont know half the word Simon says.
16:28 it’s right near the beginning: There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminium, selenium, and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and RHENIUM! 😀
and nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium...