Cryptics for Beginners

My First Experience with Cryptics

My first experience with Cryptic Crosswords wasn't a successful one. I don't remember it in a lot of clarity but I was on an international flight from Sydney to the UK with my friend Arin. With about 24 hours and a stopover, its the kind of flight where you want to come prepared with entertainment, lest you be stuck with only the inflight movie options. Arin had brought a cryptic crossword with him. After hours of screens and trying to sleep I was happy to give something new a try. But I wasn't quite coming to grips with the concept of how the clues work. I was still in a mindset that it was simply a "trickier" crossword with less straight up definitions. And without the confirmation of Google or some answer page to reference I wasn't convinced by the explanations of "yeah I think this heads means we need to take the first letters from these words" or the seemingly endless list of words that will pass as an anagram indicator. I remember leaving the experience skeptical of the logic of some of the clues, to no fault of Arin. Perhaps it wasn't the easier cryptic for a beginner.

An Explanation of the Format

Cryptic Crosswords can be quite a daunting experience for some people. I've definitely more than once seen people dismissing the format as all a bunch of nonsense and claiming that there isn't a logic to cryptic crosswords, but that really couldn't be further from the truth. I'd describe it as almost a whole new language!

Much more common in the UK and generally in traditions of English outside of North America, Cryptic Crosswords employ a variety of elements that we refer to as wordplay. While the wordplay can be pretty hard to read and interpret at first, with experience the patterns become a lot clearer. Importantly, a cryptic clue almost always can be relied upon to show you the answer in two ways. This is really important because it acts like a bit of a checksum or confirmation that you've got the right answer, especially given that both the wordplay and the definition can be questionable at times.

Example Clue

Let's look at an example:

Sketcher brings back prize (6)

For now let's break it down, spoilers ahead for Intro Puzzle 1:

Sketcher will be our definition, something that means sketcher or could be substituted for it. That means the rest of the clue is wordplay. In this case we have "brings back" which is a reversal indicator, that is, it's telling us to spell something else backwards. The only part of the clue left is "prize". It doesn't spell anything meaningful backwards, and it would still only be 5 letters if it did, but we could change it into something else that works!

That reversal indicator we used here is one of many types of wordplay you might find in a cryptic clue, and it could be indicated in a lot of different ways (check some out here).

Solve it with Friends

While most people think of the typical experience of solving crosswords as a solo activity, quiet and contemplative, alone over a coffee or tea on a Sunday morning, my ideal experience solving crosswords is as a group activity. With a whole group of people it becomes quite fun to bounce ideas or different readings and directions off of each other. I liken the experience to a good puzzle hunt, escape room, or even a pub quiz. Sure, sometimes somebody just knows the answer straight up, but the most satisfying questions come with some discussion — or someone unconfidently putting out what they know, and that being enough to connect the dots for another person to confidently put together an answer.

I've had quite a few experiences where i've brought out a crossword as something i'm doing to kill time and have managed to pique the interest of others. To be fair these have tended to be in fairly nerdy contexts already (quizzes, board game events, etc) but it's surprisingly how much more enjoyable it can feel as a group activity!

Where to go from here - More Resources

If you like the concept and want to give it a try, here are some good starting points:

• Start solving — check out the Intro Puzzles. The example clue above was taken from number one, so you've already got a head start. The format limits wordplay to just 4 types, all explained on the puzzle page. If you run out of these, find puzzles in the same introductory style for free from the Guardian: Guardian's Quick Cryptic. These are the format i've solved most of myself and have used to share my crosswording with others!
• Daily puzzles — Minute Cryptic are an Australian outfit offering daily cryptic clues, in a wordle like style, rather than whole crossword puzzles. They tend to be a bit more complex than what you'd find in the Quick Cryptic, often requiring two or more stages of word play, but there are hints and more available, and really importantly a short youtube video after every days clue from the creators, explaining its logic.
• Video Guides — Cracking the Cryptic has a huge library of solve-alongs if you want to watch how experienced solvers think through clues.
• A book — How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords by Tim Moorey is one of i'm sure many great primers, but importantly it is one i can personally speak for after reading. It works through different clue and wordplay types in detail, with lots of examples. Finally a book that attempts to answer, what makes an acceptable anagram indicator. If you'd rather try to understand things a lot more before you just get cracking on solving, this could be a good tool.

Happy Solving!

P.S: This flight was I think 10 years ago now, and I've only discovered the bug for cryptics much more recently. I'll reach out to Arin and see if he is still solving Cryptics!