crackingthecryptic

Wind in the Willows Solutions, part 1

Gridogram, with Glitches

Connect Four

Gridogram times Six

A Sucker for Connections

The Meanest Monthly Madness Crossword

Gridogram Gets Going

Connections on the Map

Two more daily puzzle games?

Some tough Connections

December Reward - The Wind in the Willows

Overthinking the Connections

Put Out More Flags - the results

Connections on the Slow Train

The Craziest Cryptic Crossword

Connections with a Slam Dunk?

Connections hitting the Iceberg

Mark had a streak of 112 correct Connections games as he starts this video. There are five days of Connections from the New York Times here, from 8th - 12th November.

See how he is doing by the end of it here: https://youtu.be/vyqbxxDUXfo

Cruising the Connections

It's another five days of Mark tackling Connections from the New York Times - the standard has been a bit variable lately, but maybe things are getting a little more manageable ... maybe?

Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/OY4TNeZ6kxc

Mark takes on another Listener (Knockout)

This is another video of Mark tackling another Listener (themed, cryptic) crossword, without any preparation. The puzzle is Listener no 4,885, Knockout by Harribobs from September 12th 2025.

The Listener crossword is an advanced crossword that is published each week in The Times. If you are a Times subscriber, you might be able to see this one here: https://tinyurl.com/HarribobsKnockout

Here's wher you ...

The Hardest Connections Category Ever?

Mark runs into some difficulties as he tackles five more games of Connections, from the New York Times 29th October - 2nd November.

You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/NwVDHlJ7mfs

November Reward - Put Out More Flags

Hello Patreons!

UPDATE! An edit to puzzle 2 means a useful solution message will appear this time!

Thank you so much for supporting the channel. We are delighted to bring you November's monthly reward today, a sudoku challenge called Put Out More Flags.

We have gone back to 9x9 sudokus this month, with a set of puzzle inspired by some less well known flags from around the world. You can play the puzzles online - there is a link on each page - and you can hide the cell colou...

The Mad Monthly Club Special Cryptic

It's a bonkers cryptic crossword today from the Times Monthly Club Special, for September - it's by Roger Phillips, and it's tough, tough, tough!

You can see thw video here: https://youtu.be/rXkqymiOurE

Is it Possible to Get a Century of Connections?

Mark has extended his longest Connections streak ever (previously 50) all the way to 97! Will he get to 100 ... or not?

He takes on five days of Connections from the New York Times, from 24th to 28th October, in this video, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/GElHmCkRqzA

October Patreon reward - Successful Solvers

Dear Patreons! Thanks so much to those of you who sent in a solution to Extra Bite, by Skunkworks, our October Patreon reward. The attached pdf lists the people who submitted in time (by 20/10) and with the correct solution. We were reasonably generous about the format of the answer as long as you included "fifteen" in words ...

Many thanks again to Skunkworks, to all the constructors involved, to Panthera who co-ordinated the whole pack, and to the testers also (they helped with our ow...

A Big Burst of Connections

Mark takes on a whole load - six days - of the Connections game from the New York Times, but this is not the easiest group of editions of the game!

See how he does here: https://youtu.be/C_PUzWcGt3g

Connections - Easy and Hard

There seems to be a wide variability in difficulty level of these four goes at the New York Times's Connections - Mark not only tries to solve the puzzle but also to guess how hard it will have been rated ...

See how he does here from Oct 14th - 17th: https://youtu.be/ows3-gKqzTI

Spyder by Sabre, Mark's attempt, part 4

Mark starts bringing the code stuff together as he continues trying to finish Listener Crossword no 4,884, the incredible Spyder by Sabre - you can watch his attempt continue here: https://youtu.be/VhEjME10VHQ

Spyder by Sabre, Mark's attempt - part 3

Mark cracks on with trying to solve Spyder by Sabre, the tough Listener (cryptic) crossword from a few weeks ago. This is the 3rd video in the series.

Simon's efforts are already here on Patreon, but Mark is enjoying himself too ... you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Ged14xgy1ZY

Spyder by Sabre: Mark's attempt, part 2

Mark continues to try and solve Spyder by Sabre, the tough Listener (cryptic) crossword from a few weeks ago.

Simon's efforts are already here on Patreon, but Mark is enjoying himself too ... you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/tSpUf0CI7tE

Spyder by Sabre: Mark's attempt, part 1

A few days ago, Simon posted videos of his journey trying to solve Spyder by Sabre from the Listener, a series of incredible cryptic crosswords with themes.

Here's Mark's first foray into the puzzle: https://youtu.be/_VpNZb7m8FE . Other videos will follow!