Here is the long-awaited solution video to Saturnalia and By Jove!, from June’s monthly reward, our ‘Planets Suite’ of sudoku. Mark explains a way you could have gone about solving each puzzle.
There were other ways of approaching both puzzles, but especially By Jove! So t...
2023-07-04 09:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi folks,
RockyRoer sent us a pdf which contains the puzzles (of July's Patreon reward - Kraken the Cryptic) for people who like to print them out and solve on paper.
Sorry if not including these bothered anyone - let us know if this document is useful to many ...
Simon & Ma...
2023-07-02 07:49:42 +0000 UTC View PostDid the makers of ‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” decide to capitalise on our channel name sounding like from Kraken the Cryptic? Or did we just lean into a lousy pun?
Whichever, it mean that now you get the chance to try six RGTK-themed puzzles as our July monthly Patreon reward...
2023-07-01 15:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostHere are solution paths for the first four puzzles in The Planets Suite: Mercury Rising, The Martian, V-ness between Us and Blue Marble.
We will be creating a video for Saturnalia and By Jove in due course!
Thanks for being with us on Patreon! Here's the video:
Hi Patreons!
Here is a VERY approachable sudoku challenge - five 4x4 sudokus, which anyone can try. Do please try and get your friends, relatives, and especially young children to give these puzzles a go!
Experienced solvers will be done in a matter of minutes, so there are no prizes,...
2023-06-18 14:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostSo each month, Mark takes on The Times Monthly Club Special, the insanely obscure cryptic crossword published for Times Crossword Club members. And each month, due to a mixture of confidence and hubris, he tackles it without a dictionary available - just his memory and wordplay deciphering abilit...
2023-06-17 09:20:01 +0000 UTC View PostHello, Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting the channel.
Welcome to June’s monthly reward, our ‘Planets Suite’ of sudoku. There are six puzzles in the pack. To enter the competition, send us the list of digits in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in order (no spacing), by 4pm UK ...
2023-06-01 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo many thanks to DiMono for his amazing sudoku-and-treasure-hunt-cum-novel The Jewels of Osiris. And now he has created solution videos for the puzzles (and the riddles, and the Arabic) in the story!
DiMono tells us that there is a chance of the story continuing, but it may require a KickS...
2023-05-31 14:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostOn the channel, Mark's Friday masterclass video showed him attempting Thursday's crossword (by mistake). It was suggested that he attack Friday's actual crossword at speed, and then explain it afterwards ... and here you can watch the result:
TS Eliot says April is the cruellest month, and here Mark takes on April's cruellest cryptic, the Times Monthly Club Special - without a dictionary, as far as possible.
This one is by Roger Phillips. You can watch the video here:
Hi Patreons,
Here's another special mid-month reward, conceived as a way for kids to enjoy a sudoku hunt, or those who want some puzzles a bit easier than the regular monthly rewards!
Many thanks to the Paint-By-Numbers Institute, aka Panthera and TheAsylm, who came up with these puzz...
2023-05-16 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostDiMono has asked us - quite reasonably - to provide the accompanying document which supplies some help with the final part of Act 1 of the Jewels of Osiris. Just as a reminder, if you finish the hunt, you have to send us an email with the required text and suggestion to crackingthecryptic@gmail.c...
2023-05-02 08:28:15 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons,
Please see the Monthly Reward post below/earlier. However it seems that on some devices it is difficult to browse the files in the zip folder, so we are posting them separately here too.
To make sure the Arabic script reads correctly, you might need to use the Word doc th...
2023-05-01 16:35:00 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting us.
As a thank you, here is our May monthly reward - an extraordinary story, combined with a Sudoku and Treasure Hunt. The author is DiMono, who we know as a fine and gifted sudoku constructor. We can now experience DiMono's writing too!
<... 2023-05-01 14:59:02 +0000 UTC View PostThanks so much to the constructors and testers who made the Knightmare on Sudoku Street hunt - you are brilliant! Here you can watch videos of the solve paths of puzzles 13 - 19, which take us up to the end of the pack, including Spirogenesis which could only be revealed by means of ha...
2023-04-26 08:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostThanks so much to the constructors and testers who made the Knightmare on Sudoku Street hunt - you are brilliant! Here you can watch videos of the solve paths of puzzles 6 - 12, the middle section of the pack.
Here are the videos:
6 123 Sudoku Street by Doran T: 2023-04-25 08:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Thanks so much to the constructors and testers who made the Knightmare on Sudoku Street hunt - you are brilliant! Here you can watch videos of the solve paths of the puzzles - this video covers the first five puzzles, which were necessary to get you into the prize draw for the month.<...
2023-04-24 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe most devious cryptic crossword regularly published is The Times Monthly Club Special, for Crossword Club members. Last month's is by Richard Rogan, from March 2023.
Mark, as usual, takes it on without using the dictionary - which seems mad! But he keeps trying it...
2023-04-19 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons,
Here's a special mid-month reward, conceived as a way for kids to enjoy a sudoku hunt, or those who want some puzzles a bit easier than the regular monthly rewards!
Many thanks to Ashish Kumar, who created the first three of these puzzles, which are LINKED Sudoku - none o...
2023-04-15 15:03:17 +0000 UTC View PostMany thanks to the PBN Institute (Panthera, TheAsylm & Montinox) for not only creating the Alice's Adventures in Sudokuland hunt, but also to Panthera, TheAsylm and SudokuHero for making these videos explaining the solutions! This is the second set of videos, including a revision to the Teapo...
2023-04-04 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostMany of you have been absolutely intrigued by this astonishing puzzle, which Simon was pranked by Mark into attempting on April Fools Day.
The video, which is jolly long, can be seen here:
https://youtu.be/PnWctUoudKk 2023-04-03 11:06:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Please note we have re-uploaded the Knightmare pack (both in the original post and here), with one small revision in puzzle 18. This hasn't stopped some people solving the whole pack already - congratulations to them, but it may help you if you were stuck on that puzzle!
Thanks to Matt Boss...
2023-04-03 07:03:17 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting us.
As a thank you, here is our April monthly reward pack of puzzles - a brilliant set from the Skunkworks collective. Despite the date today, there is no foolery here. Many thanks to Wisteria Fall, BremSter, Fra𝜋, MavericksJD, Doran T, Du...
2023-04-01 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMany thanks to the PBN Institute (Panthera, TheAsylm & Montinox) for not only creating our March monthly reward, the Alice's Adventures in Sudokuland hunt, but also making videos explaining the solutions! This is the first set of videos, and another set will be coming out soon. Click on the l...
2023-03-25 08:47:53 +0000 UTC View PostEvery month Mark takes on The Times Monthly Club Special without using a dictionary (at first) - how mad this is gets revealed when you see some of the puzzle's answers go in, and their clues explained.
These puzzles are the hardest regularly-published cryptic puzzles anywhere. This one - f...
2023-03-22 10:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostSimon has a go at at Listener crossword from last year called Late Arrival by Aragon. The Listener is the hardest crossword published anywhere in the World by a mainstream publication and it's being going now for nearly 100 years. It comes out every Friday evening on the The Times cro...
2023-03-07 10:41:14 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting us.
As a thank you, here is our March monthly reward pack of puzzles - a brilliant set from the Paint By Numbers Institute (aka Panthera, TheAsylum and Montinox). Many thanks to the constructors/poets/narrators/artists for their brilliant doc...
2023-03-01 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHere are the solutions to the remaining puzzles from Jay Dyer’s astonishing Numeric Alchemy puzzles, which would have been enough to get you a shout-out on the channel!
The theme of the hunt was Modifier cells, and Jay talks us through the solution paths to these puzzles with their fascin...
2023-02-27 10:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostPhilipp Blume, aka glum_hippo, has been kind enough to make us videos showing how to solve all the puzzles in his brilliant Fossil Hunt, the February monthly reward. Here are the videos of him talking us through all the puzzles, and how to find the secret message at the end of the hunt!
The...
2023-02-24 10:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostEach month, Mark takes on the Times Monthly Club Special, clearly the hardest cryptic crossword, with the most obscure vocabulary, regularly published anywhere. This is January's puzzle, by Richard Rogan.
The post title references Simon's attempt at a very hard Times daily puzzle earlier th...
2023-02-23 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post