Thank you to all our Patreons for continuing to support us, and for the lovely messages you send us, which we really value. This month, we are bringing you something very special, both in terms of quantity and quality!
However, 100 sudokus may sound like an over-rich Christmas diet, until you learn that ALL of the puzzles in this pack are 4x4 sudokus. Individually the puzzles may not take...
2023-12-01 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostTo celebrate the festive season that arriving soon, Sandra & Nala have created this incredible sudoku advent calendar. It features 24 puzzles (one for each day of December upto Christmas Eve) themed around Nala and Christmas with the calendar itself being a (25th) solvable killer cage puzzle made by Raumplaner. Sandra & Nala would like to give this as a present to the s...
2023-11-25 13:59:39 +0000 UTC View PostAs a follow up to Crux by Jay Dyer a couple of weeks ago, Simon attempts another beastly sudoku that we've had recommended/requested. Darth Paradox has come up with a variation that seems absolutely mad at first glance (and twentieth glance) but the logic herein is consistently interesting AND fair. It's another Lord Of The Rings' length edition (even longer than Crux!) and we'll mo...
2023-11-17 20:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostEvery month, the Times publishes an extraordinary workout for its Crossword Club members. The Times Monthly Club Special is not intended to be tackled without Chambers Dictionary* and perhaps Google* close at hand, but every month Mark gives it a try with just his knowledge and experience to try and help him finish it.
This one is by Roger Phillips, the Listener crossword editor, and you ...
2023-11-12 15:15:49 +0000 UTC View PostToday Simon attempted one of the hardest sudokus we've ever seen. Jay Dyer's behemoth Crux is a puzzle that is both fascinating and baffling! With apologies to those who prefer their videos at well under Lord Of The Rings length, you can watch Simon's solve below. We're going to monitor the comments under the Gallimaufry video to see if there is any appetite to release this on...
2023-11-02 21:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for sponsoring the channel! As November's monthly reward, we are delighted to bring you "Solve in Sudokuland" by DiMono, a short story featuring 6 sudoku puzzles that you have to solve to reach the story's conclusion.
We previously brought you DiMono's novella The Jewels of Osiris (visit dimono.ca if you are interested in...
2023-11-01 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! Here are solution videos to seven HIDDEN puzzles in Trick or Treat, the October monthly reward, a pack of 6x6 sudoku puzzle by the Sudoku Skunkworks. In addition, we are again including the video which showed you how to find the hidden puzzles throughout Trick or Treat.
Thanks so much to Sudoku Skunkworks, and the individual puzzle constructors and video-makers, for letting u...
2023-10-31 16:08:40 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! Here are solution videos to the second set of puzzles in Trick or Treat, the October monthly reward, a pack of 6x6 sudoku puzzle by the Sudoku Skunkworks. In addition in the last post we included a video which showed you how to identify hidden puzzles, and indeed puzzle packs, throughout Trick or Treat.
Thanks so much to Sudoku Skunkworks, and the individual puzzle constructo...
2023-10-24 09:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! Here are solution videos to the first nine puzzles in Trick or Treat, the October monthly reward, a pack of 6x6 sudoku puzzle by the Sudoku Skunkworks. In addition we include a video which showed you how to identify hidden puzzles, and indeed puzzle packs, throughout Trick or Treat.
Later we will bring you solutions to the other puzzles in the hunt, and the hidden Easter Egg ...
2023-10-22 09:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostI thought I'd show you how I go about solving the Listener Crossword - an advanced, themed cryptic crossword published each week in The Times. This one is from September 15th, and is called Joint Submission by Mozart.
This time I solve all the clues and piece together the endgame - enjoy watching the video:
2023-10-15 09:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMark has recorded a video of himself solving last month's Times Monthly Club Special, the extremely hard puzzle for Times Crossword Club members. Nobody sane would take it on without a dictionary open, but Mark does - and the compiler, RIchard Rogan, acknowledges this today - watch out for 5 down!
Here is whger you can watch the video of this extraordinary cryptic puzzle...
2023-10-14 10:24:44 +0000 UTC View PostToday is "Ren day" on Cracking The Cryptic. We started with Simon's reaction video to Hi Ren (link below) and we'll be continuing with two videos later on where we each tackle one of the puzzles from this free Ren-themed sudoku pack (attached)!
It's the work of ZegreS, Sandra & Nala and Raumplaner (as well as a lot of Skunkworks testing) and it really is a treat. 2023-10-13 15:35:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Thanks so much to Skunkworks for not only creating the brilliant "Trick or Treat" sudoku pack for our monthly reward, but also for embedding a number of extra puzzles within, as Easter Eggs.
Here they have prepared a video explaining how to find the extra puzzles. Please enjoy:
Si...
2023-10-11 19:38:36 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for sponsoring the channel! As October's monthly reward, we are delighted to bring you "Trick or Treat" by Skunkworks, a collection of 6x6 sudoku puzzles that will entertain and amaze you.
Skunkworks are a collective of sudoku setters and solvers, who include some of the most widely-respected sudoku names in the world. We are very grateful to them for contributing this pack of p...
2023-10-01 14:59:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe Times Monthly Club Special is a brutal cryptic crossword, with insanely esoteric vocabulary in the answers and the wordplay, but Mark takes it on every month, without a dictionary to hand! Watch how he gets on with Augusts' challenge, set by the august Roger Phillips.
It's always a treat to see how he tackles the puzzle, and whether he can finish without looking into Chambers.
H...
2023-09-27 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostMark takes on "That's Touching", puzzle #798 from Matt Gaffney's series of 1,000 meta crosswords.
Watch him solve the grid and then try to identify the meta. Test yourself with the puzzle, and its endgame!
You can watch the video here:
2023-09-21 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostWe hope you've had a chance to look at this very clever puzzle constructed by Kurt by now. (Link below if not). Kurt sent it to us as he's been investigating geometric properties in 6x6 puzzles (as you do!)
There is an old Patreon video on properties of diagonal 6x6 puzzles in which Kurt himself proves the property relevant to solving this one... it's linked below if you want ...
2023-09-17 15:00:59 +0000 UTC View PostOn the first Saturday in August this year, the Listener Crossword in The Times featured this puzzle, Citation Needed by Cagey.
There is a lot of talk about this being one of the all-time cryptics, and Mark takes the time to explain, not the clues, but how the preamble was to be interpreted and how the endgame worked, and shows you the solution to the puzzle.
Enjoy the video here:
Hello Patreons!
Thank you so much for supporting the channel! We love to bring you great rewards as a thank you, and we hope we have done it again this month. This pack of 7 variant sudoku puzzles features lines and shapes, and has a variety of difficulties.
For what it's worth, we think puzzles 1 and 4 may be the more approachable ones here, but we promise that the others wil...
2023-09-01 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostMany thanks to Philipp Blume (aka Glum_Hippo) for creating these videos on how to solve the last three puzzles, and the fiendish final meta, in his "Tennis, Anyone?" hunt, which was our August Patreon monthly reward.
The three sudokus covered in this video are:
Elimination Bracket
Game, Set & Match
Drop Shot
and the meta, Wikipedia is Your Friend
Watch th...
2023-08-31 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostPhilipp Blume, aka Glum_Hippo, is a great friend of the channel, and created almost all of the "Tennis Anyone" August monthly reward. He has very kindly recorded videos of solution paths to all the puzzles, and here you can watch him talk you through the first three puzzles.
These were: Centre Court, Love Means Nothing and Rackets.
Every month, Mark eschews a dictionary as he has a go at The Times Monthly Club Special, a crazily difficult cryptic crossword prepared for members of the Times Crossword Club - this one is by Richard Rogan. The vocabulary involved in the answers is always almost completely obscure, and Mark has to piece together the answers from the wordplay in the clue, together with fragments of words in his...
2023-08-09 10:12:06 +0000 UTC View PostA small correction has been made to the pdf and links for "Tennis, Anyone?", the August monthly reward. We have had plenty of correct answers in already, so the small error wasn't stopping anyone, but this document, specifically puzzle 5, has now been corrected.
Thanks to various solvers who pointed out the slip!
Mark, Simon and glum_hippo
2023-08-02 09:44:28 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting us.
As a thank you, here is our August monthly reward - a pack of six puzzles, by Philipp Blume (aka glum_hippo) and ourselves, themed on tennis! There are six sudokus, one of which is a 6x6 puzzle, and then at the end there is a meta challenge called "Wikipedia is your friend".
You have to send us the required solution by 4pm o...
2023-08-01 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostToday on the channel (29th July), Mark solved Seeing Double by James Kopp, a puzzle that uses numbers outside the grid both to provide X-Sums clues and diagonal clues. You can see the video here: https://youtu.be/QJSaMlv54Hk.
James created another companion puzzle called X-Rated, which you can solve from the link b...
2023-07-29 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostDuring the walkthrough solve of Mermaids, Mark forgot about a possibility in row 6 that needs addressing.
Thanks for the kindness of the comments pointing this out, especially to Julia Gog and Brother Squirrel!
Here is the video explanation of why 7 cannot go in r6c2! Watch it here: https://youtu.be/HFdoGF8BQ_M 2023-07-26 10:06:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Very well done to DiMono on getting his Kickstarter funded with less than 48 hours to go! Now we are going to get to see the sequel to The Jewels of Osiris, and maybe we will get to find out what those adventurous characters 'Mark' & 'Simon' get up to in the thrilling future!
If you are still interested in joining DiMono's KickStarter (there are still 33 hours to go as I write), here ...
2023-07-25 09:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! We are delighted to bring you the second of our two solution videos to Kraken the Cryptic.
Here we take you through solution paths for the last three puzzles: Trident, Ruby and Queen of the Seven Seas.
Here's where you can watch the video: https://youtu.be/zSTSDgqYALc
2023-07-22 08:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! Thank you so much for everything you said about Kraken the Cryptic and its puzzles - we were very proud to bring them to you.
Here we go into solution paths for the first three puzzles: Tentacle, Mermaids and Kraken.
Here's where you can watch the video: https://youtu.be/shkAAHUQZvY
2023-07-21 08:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostMark takes on the Times Monthly Club Special for June, that legendary beast of a crossword puzzle, where the vocabulary is so outlandish as to elude Mark's own knowledge much of the time - and requires searching in the depths of the dictionary. But Mark tries to tackle it without one!
This puzzle is compiled by Roger Phillips, and you can watch it here: