The Stickler Weekly 133 Solution

Have you ever wondered why more people aren’t enthralled by cryptic crosswords? I don’t just mean younger generations – why is it your friends and family aren’t hanging out each day for the latest cryptic challenge? I bet many of them enjoy “normal” crosswords, so why is it they don’t naturally migrate to cryptics over time? I remember being taught how to solve The Guardian cryptic in the Sun-Herald in year 10 (at 15 years old) by my English teacher – he not only taught us every school week how to solve but questions on cryptics turned up in term tests and the end-of-year exam. There was a big incentive to learn how do them yet a relatively small number of us actually enjoyed this part of his English curriculum. I think the same goes in the population generally: not everyone thinks the right way necessary to crack cryptics, even though they are quite comfortable with all other kinds of word puzzles. I’ve always believed a maths bent helped me embrace and get good at solving, and I think the fact that English was my worst subject (marks-wise) in senior school bears that out. Recently the results of a study by Kathryn Friedlander and Philip Fine from University of Buckingham confirmed that cryptic solvers and solvers of advanced cryptics in particular are more likely to have a science/maths background. Have a look at the study here. I must warn you that it’s academic in nature and not a relaxing read, but the findings are interesting. The researchers used info from questionnaires filled in by solvers sourced through various crossword-related websites. I’m not sure if the numbers tell us about how many people are actually solving crosswords compared to years gone by, but it does tell us quite a lot about the age-groups of current solvers (who are internet-savvy), and their make-up.
I was thinking of running a small anonymous survey on this website about crossword things – who’d like to participate?