Thinking cryptically

Cryptic crosswords are the least popular and most misunderstood of puzzles.

They’re also one of the best for your brain, because they force you to look beyond the obvious and try to work out a hidden meaning.

Many more people do a quick crossword than a cryptic, mainly because cryptic clues appear to make no sense at first glance, and there’s never any instructions to help a beginner.

You only have to know a couple of things to get started.

Cryptic clues are normally (but not always) in three parts:

• A straight (synonym) clue

• The answer, hidden somehow

• Words that indicate how that answer is hidden.

These parts are made into a sentence, not necessarily in that order, which sort of makes sense - but usually the wrong sense!

The best way to solve a cryptic clue is to see if you can identify the straight (synonym) clue.

You can then start looking at synonyms for that clue and suddenly, when it is correct, the cryptic clue will make total sense.

Here’s an example: Open the voter changes (5) The straight clue is open, the cryptic clue is voter: indicator is changes, telling you to change a word.

So the answer is an anagram of voter = overt. (Overt: ‘open to view, not concealed)

If you’ve never tried a cryptic before a good way to start is go through the clues - you may not be able to solve any, or may solve a couple but not know why - then look at the answers, and try to work out how they relate to the clue.

If you keep doing this you will gradually be able to solve more of the clues.

Puzzles 1 and 2 are easier, 3 and 4 are slightly harder and are from the series that runs in the Herald daily.