What’s it all about?
Cryptic Crosswords make people seem cleverer than they are.
To the uninitiated they can seem impossible – best left to geniuses and English people. Yet once taught the basics, you will find them addictive, satisfying and surprisingly accessible.
This course will be perfect for people who came to the last class a couple of weeks ago, but we will also cater for those who didn’t make it first time around. Everyone is welcome!
What will we cover?
We will begin the class with a recap of the basic rules of cryptic crosswords, and the different sorts of clues we encountered in the first session.
We will then quickly cover the types of clues we didn’t get to – Cryptic Straight Clues, Homophones, and what we like to call ‘Almost’ Clues – and bring everyone up to speed on their basic mythology in a quickfire classics round.
The people who didn’t make it to the last session can then press on with the worksheets (with some kindly coaching), while the rest of us stuck into a Real Puzzle.
The idea will be to give everyone the confidence to pick up the Age without alarm and do a couple of clues every day. Everyone has to start somewhere!
Who will be teaching?
Tom Ding first came across Cryptic Crosswords at school, courtesy of a wayward French teacher. Since then his addiction has developed to the point where he can’t open a newspaper without flicking to the puzzle page. His vocabulary is still an issue though, and he isn’t above thesaurus.com. Tom is also part of the Laneway Learning team.