No Cluedle? Try this online game

In a world in which we face more problems than solutions, the rush of decoding cryptic crosswords is that much more satisfying. Now, through Cluedle, a website he co-created, sub editor and journalist Jonathan Ancer is spreading the magic of solving cryptic clues.

Though Ancer’s children may not believe him when he tells them that wordplay is just as much fun as PlayStation, a rapidly growing number of Cluedle users are fast coming round to his way of thinking. Developed with his friend, computer fundi Alastair Otter, who programmed the website, Cluedle allows Ancer to teach those interested how to unravel the mystery of cryptic crosswords “one clue at a time”.

Unlike regular “coffee-time” crosswords, which generally seek a synonym or piece of trivia, a cryptic crossword offers players two opportunities to solve clues. “They give you a definition and the word play, and you use the word play, for example an anagram or hidden word, to unlock the solution,” Ancer says. It’s much easier than people initially think, he claims.

When, growing up, he watched his mother do cryptic crosswords, Ancer himself felt nothing but confusion. Yet he later developed a love affair with the practice. Working night shifts as a sub editor at The Star newspaper in 2001, he began spending his “lunch break” at 21:00 solving Business Day cryptic crosswords.

“The time they printed the following day’s Business Day coincided with our lunch break, so I started to look at the paper’s crossword,” Ancer recalls. “I became obsessed with trying to be the first person in the country to solve the Business Day crossword because I knew that I would be able to solve it before anybody else could even see it.”

Guided by his colleague, Charles Machanik, a crossword aficionado, Ancer’s skills and passion grew. “I loved the logic of it,” he says. “I loved how you could look at a puzzle, a grid, and when you first read it, it makes absolutely no sense. At first you can’t see a single answer and then you see a solution, and suddenly the grid starts solving itself and you eventually work it all out.”

Ancer still remembers the first clue that he solved in which he had to find “a colour that starts your car”. After thinking and thinking, he had it – a car key that sounds like the colour khaki. “It’s an ‘aha’ moment when you realise this is how it all works,” he says. “Everything comes into focus and it’s like a rush of adrenaline.”

Ancer’s desire to spread his passion came to the fore when he was asked to run a cryptic crosswords workshop at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Summer School, which mainly attracts retirees. Shortly afterwards, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown began, and he was asked to run an online course instead. UCT thought it would be an enjoyable activity people could do during lockdown.

“Teaching the basics of how to solve cryptic crosswords is like teaching a language,” says Ancer. “Once you learn a bit of the vocabulary and the lingo, you can solve it. That’s why it initially seems so difficult – you don’t have the language.

“There’s a lot of research that has shown that doing cryptic crosswords improves your memory and teaches your brain to be agile,” he says. “It’s a bit like taking your brain to the gym. It helps you to think laterally.”

The successful online course led to more requests for tutorials from friends and friends of friends, and Ancer decided to start a WhatsApp group in which he shared a cryptic clue each day and explained how to solve it. As the group grew, the idea of a website that emailed daily cryptic clues to users hit Ancer. He chatted to some friends including Otter, who ultimately built the website, and so Cluedle was born.

Though it’s been around for only about six weeks so far, Cluedle, a free service, already has more than 350 subscribers. It’s mainly grown through word of mouth and social media. Though users are generally older people, some have said that they’re using it to teach their children how to do cryptic crosswords. “It’s for anybody who enjoys playing with words and seeing their power,” says Ancer.

Ancer says that other word games, most notably Wordle, have also contributed to the rising popularity of linguistic hobbies. “With Wordle, you’re trying to guess a word, but with Cluedle, you’re actually solving a word, so you’re solving a puzzle,” he says. “There’s less guesswork and more decoding. It’s what spies do – get a secret code and try to unlock it. That’s why it’s captured people’s imaginations – it’s fun to actually decode something.”

In fact, encrypted crosswords were instrumental in the recruitment of code breakers who decoded enemy messages during World War. II. “The decoders who were recruited for Bletchley Park [the home of code breakers in England during the war] were crossword solvers,” says Ancer. In 1942, The Telegraph held a timed cryptic crossword challenge. The war office was watching, and the five fastest crossword solvers received a letter inviting them to work at Bletchley.

Though it may not be used to crack wartime codes, Cluedle provides users with Ancer’s guide to cryptic clues, explaining exactly how they work. “You sign up, and get an email sent to you at 07:00 each morning,” he says. “We start with an easy clue on Monday, and it gets progressively more difficult as the week progresses.”

Various hints are provided, and users have the entire day to solve it. If they don’t manage to do so, the solution as well as a detailed explanation on how to reach it is shared the following day. “The idea is to teach people how to solve clues, how the clue breaks down,” says Ancer.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People are saying that they’ve always wondered how these things work and it’s suddenly starting to make sense. I’ve been really surprised and thrilled at how much people love it. There isn’t a money incentive for me, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Ancer hopes the website will eventually lead to monthly webinars featuring compilers and chances to collaboratively solve cryptic crosswords.

• Sign up to Cluedle on https://cluedle.theoutlier.co.za/