Mark Goodliffe

Mark Goodliffe in Series 62...

...and 13 years later in Series 88!

Mark Goodliffe was a contestant in Series 62 and 88. At the time of his first appearance in 2010, he was a finance director. As of his return in 2023, he was a non-executive director and former chief financial officer. He was from London and was also a qualified chartered accountant.

Goodliffe is a twelve-time winner of The Times Crossword Championships, with a remarkable ten-year undefeated run spanning 2008 to 2017. He is also a former UK Sudoku Champion.

Goodliffe is well known alongside Simon Anthony, a Sudoku World Champion, for their YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic. On this channel they demonstrate (and occasionally live-stream) challenging paper-and-pencil puzzles, mainly Sudoku but also cryptic crosswords. The channel has been active since 2017, but grew in popularity during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It now boasts over 500,000 subscribers.

Episodes

#	Date	Type	Contestant 1	Score	Contestant 2	Presenters				Guest	Lex	Max
4962	21/01/2010	P	Oliver Garner	81 – 75	Mark Goodliffe	Jeff Stelling	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	John Stapleton	Susie Dent	115
8166	08/12/2023	P	JJ Burrows	81 – 93	Mark Goodliffe	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Bob Harris	Susie Dent	137
8167	11/12/2023	P	Mark Goodliffe	117 – 41	Nicola Lawson	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	122
8168	12/12/2023	P	Mark Goodliffe	94 – 38	Paul Woodward	Colin Murray	Rachel Riley				Lucy Summers	Marcus Brigstocke	Susie Dent	120

External Links

• Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube