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.
After attending this course you will know all the tricks you need to tackle any cryptic clue. And with a little extra practice you will soon be smugly finishing The Age puzzle over coffee while your friends look on in awe and/or disgust.
What will we cover?
In this class we will cover a couple of the different types of cryptic clues and work through a selection of my favourite recent examples. We will mix this up with a little bit of history and some practical tips, before finishing the session getting stuck into that day’s Age.
These are the specific types of clue and bits of theory we will cover:
- The Basic Rules
- Anagram Clues
- Double Straight Clues
- Hidden Word Clues
- Common Abbreviations
- Cryptic Straight Clues
- Homophones
- ‘Almost’ Clues
- The day’s Age
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.