A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptic Crosswords
How to unravel those devilish clues
The first cryptic crossword I attempted was in a newspaper, and at the time I didn’t even know what the word meant concerning a crossword. But, I delved straight in, confident that I’d at least be able to pen in some answers. How wrong I was.
It wasn’t just that I didn’t understand any of the clues; the clues themselves were complete gibberish. I read one, then another, and there were no coherent statements in either of them, just sentences interrupted by apparently random words. I immediately gave up on the cryptic clues, and set about filling in the answers from the quick clues side of the grid (readers could use either set of clues for the same grid). This was more up my street, if somewhat less taxing:
Capital of France (5)
Many months after that, my younger brother, for what reason I know not, took to compiling cryptic crosswords, and I looked at one of his efforts to see if I could gain a better understanding of this phenomenon that was beyond my grasp. The first clue read:
Observed, the cake was unfinished (7)
When I saw the answer, which was noticed, I got it. It was an epiphany; the penny had dropped, and I set off on a journey that would develop into a passion for devilishly…
