A Viciously Hard Puzzle! The Times Crossword Masterclass For 29 August 2025

John Henderson set today's utterly fiendish crossword in @TheTimes and it's one of the hardest puzzles of the year. Let's just say that if Verlaine is taking over half an hour, something strange is going on! The puzzle is available to play on The Times crossword club website (which is behind their paywall): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzleclub... If you enjoy these videos, PLEASE subscribe to the channel. It is free to do so and helps the dreaded YouTube algorithm understand that these puzzles deserve a wider audience. ** NEW CONTENT ON PATREON ** Simon has been releasing a series of videos in which he attempts to solve last week's Listener crossword 4880, Listen! by 'Eck starting on Wednesday and culminating in videos to be released at 4pm today! Ths puzzle is incredible ...   / crackingthecryptic   ▶SUDOKU WORMS NOW LIVE! ◀ You can try worms (strings of sudoku which feed each other) by Marty Sears or James Sinclair (or both – approx. $1 apiece) either on Steam at these addresses or on AppStore: AppStore https://apps.apple.com/us/app/crackin... Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/37... https://store.steampowered.com/app/37... ** NEW CONTENT ON PATREON ** Mark's solves of last month's Back to the Future hunt are gradually being released on Patreon.   / crackingthecryptic   ** ORDER OUR BOOK HERE ** https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... ▶ Contact Us ◀ Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic email: [email protected] Our PO Box address: Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe Box 102 56 Gloucester Road London SW7 4UB ▶ABOUT US◀ Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the 13-time winner of The Times crossword championship and twice Senior World Champion in Sudoku, and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles. Thank you for watching! Simon and Mark #crossword #puzzle #cryptic