HOW TO SOLVE A CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

By John Halpern, crossword setter

LOOK FOR ‘ANAGRAM’ CLUES

There are usually five or six anagram clues in our cryptic crosswords. You can spot them by finding anagram clue “indicators”. These are words suggesting change or that something is wrong; words such as “broken”, or a phrase such as “out of order”. In the clue “Language Belgian translated (7)”. “Translated” suggests change, so indicates that we’re looking for a language that is an anagram of

“Belgian”. Bengali!

WRITE DOWN LETTERS TO BE UNSCRAMBLED

If you’ve found a potential “anagram” clue, write down the letters of the word/ phrase to be rearranged. The answer sometimes jumps out at you.

LOOK FOR ‘HIDDEN ANSWER’ INDICATORS

Words in a clue such as “some”, “partly” or even simply “in” might suggest we’ve hidden the answer inside the clue. “Member into popular music (3)” suggests that a “member”, or “arm”, may be found inside the phrase “populAR Music”. In these clues, the answer is staring the solver in the face.

LOOK FOR SHORT CLUES

Shorter clues are often less complex, and some might even be simple double definition clues. Double definitions are where there are only two “straight” definitions of the answer, and nothing more cryptic than that. These are often short clues, such as “Give gift (7)”. In this clue, the editor Chris Lancaster discovered her work and got in touch asking if she would be interested in submitting a sample crossword for possible publication. And so, following the Telegraph’s grid system and rules, Lucy spent three painstaking weeks on her debut.

“It was very exciting – and scary,” she says. “I had a few ideas for clues already, picking words that had good potential. I took my time over it, jotting down ideas at school and work.”

Her mum recalls the moment when Lucy came downstairs from her bedroom to tell her the Telegraph was definitely publishing her puzzle.

“It was all very casual. We were jumping up and down and saying that’s absolutely fantastic. She’d taken it all in her stride,” says Emma.

Now at Rainham Mark Grammar School studying A-levels in French, biology and psychology, Lucy hopes to study linguistics at university. Meanwhile she’s already working on her second Telegraph crossword. Although her parents haven’t finished the first.

“I just can’t do them,” says Emma. “Her dad has tried and all the family are extremely proud, but everyone has got halfway through and had to give up.”

Hanging out in her school’s music rooms during lunch is where Lucy tries out new clues on her friends. It is something she would like to see more young people doing; she has now also written a crossword for her school newspaper, hoping even more of her peers will discover the joys of puzzling.

“Doing them has developed my lateral thinking skills,” she says. “It’s encouraged me to think outside of the box. It’s also improved my confidence. Putting my crossword online for others to critique took a lot of courage and I’ve had to become comfortable with getting feedback.”

Given her age, she acknowledges there are gaps in her expertise. “Anything to do with politics I just don’t get at all.”

In the meantime, she is working on developing her own signature style and hopes Telegraph readers will warm to it, too.

“A good clue is really clever and it’s satisfying when you solve one, and write one. That moment when it clicks is always so enjoyable.”

And just in case you are still wondering, the answers are… REBELLED, SCRAMBLED EGGS and PATELLA. answer is PRESENT, which means “give” (as a verb) and “gift” as a noun – a double definition.

DON’T TAKE THINGS LITERALLY

In the clue “Black suit passed to tailor (6)” the imagery has us think of a jacket and trousers being handed over to a tailor. However, “to tailor” indicates that we must “tailor” (i.e. anagram) the letters of “passed”; this gives us SPADES, a black suit in a pack of cards. You are training yourself to ask “what else could this word/phrase mean?”.

Visit the new Telegraph Puzzles website at puzzles.telegraph.co.uk