crackingthecryptic

The Planets Suite - Solutions to Saturn and Jupiter

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 appr...

Kraken the Cryptic - Print-out version

Hi 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 d...

July Patreon reward - Kraken the Cryptic!

Did 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 ...

The Planets Suite - Solutions up to Earth

Here 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 ...

June Kids' Challenge - 4x4 Sudokus

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 do...

Experience a Series of Epiphanies

So 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...

June Patreon Reward - the Planets Suite

Hello, 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’...

The Jewels of Osiris - May Monthly Reward Solution Videos

So 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 o...

The REAL Friday Crossword Masterclass!

On 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:

The Cruellest Cryptic

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:

2023-05-26 09:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Kids' Monthly Reward - May

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 ...

The Jewels of Osiris - Act 1 Help

DiMono 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...

The Jewels of Osiris - unzipped files & Act1 Help

Hi 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 read...

May Monthly Reward - The Jewels of Osiris

Hello 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...

The Knightmare Sudoku pack - Solution videos part 3

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 puzzles 13 - 19, which take us up to the end of the pack, including Spirog...

The Knightmare Sudoku pack - Solution videos part 2

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 puzzles 6 - 12, the middle section of the pack.

Here are the videos:...

The Knightmare Sudoku Pack - Solution Videos pt 1

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 necess...

That Most Devious Cryptic

The 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 dictiona...

Kids' Sudoku Reward - April

Hi 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 ...

Alice's Adventures in Sudokuland - Solution Videos Part 2

Many 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 secon...

And Then There Were None by Agatha "fjam" Christie

Many 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:

2023-04-03 11:06:52 +0000 UTC View Post

April Reward Pack - Knightmare (Revision)

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 we...

April Monthly Reward - Knightmare Sudoku Pack

Hello 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...

Alice's Adventures in Sudokuland - Solution Videos 1

Many 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 a...

Some Monstrous Crypticity (if that's a word?)

Every 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 regularl...

How To Use A Computer To Solve The Listener Crossword

Simon 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 c...

March Patreon Reward - Alice in Sudokuland

Hello 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 constructo...

Remaining Solutions to Jay Dyer's Numeric Alchemy

Here 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...

Fossil Hunt Solution Videos

Philipp 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 th...

The Actual Hardest Cryptic Crossword!

Each 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 at...