Page 8 - Issue 67 Online

HOW I BECAME A

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

COMPILER

When I was not quite a teenager, my parents then-girlfriend, now-wife… though that may
introduced me to the world of cryptic have had something to do with it.
crosswords. We would sit together with the Fast-forward just under a decade to June this
Saturday paper and work our way through its year. A musician I follow on YouTube posted a
puzzles. We wouldn’t always finish them, but I video of himself solving a cryptic crossword from
enjoyed learning how they worked. When I went the Sydney Morning Herald. As a fan of both
off to university, my dad bought me a crossword his music and of cryptic crosswords, naturally
book, knowing I wouldn’t be able to solve them I watched the video. He would upload several
with him.
more videos over the next fortnight before

My interest in cryptics dwindled at University, announcing that he would start livestreaming
but I would solve them every so often (and them on Twitch (an online site for watching
attempted to teach some friends, with varying people play games). I decided to drop by (given
degrees of success) whenever the opportunity that I was working from home) and suddenly
arose. The only person I managed to fully my passion for cryptic crosswords had been
convert into solving them regularly was my rekindled.

Jelly snake has idyllic coating (5) 1
Evict the attendance (7) 2
Transfers silver inside vehicles (9) 3

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