If you enjoy a puzzle and have been tempted to have a go at a cryptic crossword, you may have been discouraged by the sheer incomprehensibility of the clues. Solving a cryptic crossword is not the same as finding synonyms in your standard crossword. You cannot simply pick up a pen and fill it in (not correctly anyway). It is a skill to be learnt – well, you weren’t doing anything else, were you?

I can’t guarantee that you will be able to complete The Times Crossword in half an hour, but cryptic crosswords do come in various levels of difficulty and our proposed new group will tackle most of them. If you have ever yearned to tackle the esoteric, arcane world of the encoded crossword, then email me at david.vanner@ntlworld.com and together we can crack the cryptic! This group operates mainly via email..

Group Convenor: David Vanner

Email: david.vanner@ntlworld.com