Crosswords fascinate me, but I have to admit that I don't really know where to start when it comes to solving them. The regular arrangement of white and black boxes and initially nonsensical clues is like a secret language to those that are members of a special club.
On Saturday night Mr C and I caught the BBC 4 repeat of the Timeshift programme How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords and it attempted to give the viewer an insight into this special club. The different types of clues were demonstrated as we were taken through a crossword that had been created especially for the programme. It was very revealing, and most of the clues did seem to make sense once they were explained, but I have to admit that I'm not sure that I would have know where to start without someone taking me through them.
On my shelves here I do have a copy of How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords
that Mr C bought me a few Christmases back, complete with a weeks worth of Times crosswords (and solutions) cut out of the newspaper at the time in an attempt to learn how to solve them.
that Mr C bought me a few Christmases back, complete with a weeks worth of Times crosswords (and solutions) cut out of the newspaper at the time in an attempt to learn how to solve them. Time got the better of me back then, but maybe it's time to try again. I guess I might be buying a newspaper again soon.
Try as I might I can’t solve cryptic crosswords… I don’t even get them when I’ve got the answers!Perhaps I should get a copy of your book.
There’s no excuse these days: After a re-read of your how-to-solve book, have a go every day at the Times, Independent or Guardian puzzle. When you’re stuck, you can check most answers and see explanations for them, at one of two blogs: http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times (Times puzzles), http://fifteensquared.net/ (Guardian, Independent, some FTs). New solvers have reported very good progress from doing this. You’ll do really badly some days as some puzzles are really hard, but don’t worry – understand the answers so that you’ll see the tricks next time.
So how’s your solving going, Mrs C? I finished a truly magnificent Christmas crossie by Araucaria in the Guardian, and it promted me to start writing an ebook about solving. Peter’s right – you just gotta stick with it and become addicted to looking up the answers the next day!
Good luck,
Julia
I have to admit that I’ve not really had time of late to try to put into practice what I’ve been learning. I am collecting a great pile of crosswords though from various newspapers, so when I do have some time I certainly should have plenty of practice!