Cryptic As!

Growing up in Bulawayo, my dad would buy the Chronicle newspaper.  I loved reading the Andy Capp and Hagar the Horrible comic strips.  But the crosswords frightened me, especially the cryptic one which made no sense at all.

When I started working in New Zealand, a colleague encouraged me to give the cryptic puzzle in the NZ Herald a crack.  I was relunctant but he persisted and we set a goal that I would try to answer at least 5 clues daily.  A year later, on rare days I complete the whole puzzle but most days I get between 5 - 10 answers correct.

So here are some tips to get you started on your cryptic journey!

Anagrams
By far my favourite, I love rearranging words!
Clue - Sees dirt, becomes repelled (8)
Answer - RESISTED (sees dirt rearranged is resisted, which means to become repelled)

 Initial/Last
Clue - Initially French fried might disagree with one (6)
Answer - DIFFER (F is the first letter of French, added to fried and rearranged)

One word inside others
Clue - Consumes portion of meat stew (4)
Answer - EATS (mEAT Stew)

Roman Numerals
Clue - After six, for each snake that's poisonous (5)
Answer - VIPER (six in Roman Numerals is VI, for each is per)

Keywords
e.g. Nothing
Clue - East loves nothing less than such fairylike beings (5)
Answer - ELVES (loves nothing less is lves, E is for East)

 Double meaning
Clue - Two fewer strokes needed for such high-fliers (6)
Answer - EAGLES  (an eagle means scoring two under par in gold, and is also a bird)

Have a go and let me know if you manage to conquer the cryptic!!
Photo Credit - Pixabay



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