Brain training

And it’s not just completing the puzzle that feels good. While we’re searching for words, fitting jigsaw pieces or doing calculations, our brains are being challenged. “Giving your brain a regular workout builds cognitive reserve, and the more cognitive reserve a person has, the longer it takes for diseases in their brain to cause problems with everyday tasks,” says Tim Beanland, Head of Knowledge and Learning at The Alzheimer’s Society.

In one study, people with mild cognitive impairment maintained or slightly improved cognitive function after doing a daily crossword, while those who didn’t experienced a decline. Those doing the crossword also saw an improvement in daily activities like managing finances and medication, demonstrating the practical value of keeping the brain challenged.

Whether based on words, numbers or shapes, puzzles target different areas of the brain, testing memory and knowledge as well as verbal and numerical skills and the ability to keep multiple things in your mind. You’ve probably got a favourite type of puzzle, but challenging yourself with something different or harder as well as the ones you do regularly will keep challenging the different parts of your brain, advises Tim.

Off grid

While there’s a plethora of digital games sitting on our phones, let’s not forget the value of pen and paper-based puzzles. Analogue activities help to reduce screen fatigue and there’s often a real-life social element, too, whether that’s teams crowding round a table for a pub quiz or a family completing the crossword or placing pieces of a jigsaw over a morning coffee.

Solving problems requires communication and collaboration and encourages bonding and connection, important for our mental wellbeing at any age. “There is no ‘golden’ or ‘right’ age in which to start puzzles, and you can see even young babies ‘solving problems’ as they engage with the world,” says Tim. “The more we actively engage our brains, and the sooner we do so, the better.

The blog above is by Rebecca Frank and is taken from our ‘Wisdom’ feature in our August issue, in which we meet people who create puzzles, including a crossword-setter, a treasure-hunt designer and a quiz queen! And if you’re feeling inspired to do some puzzling yourself, don’t miss our bumper summer Miscellany - with extra puzzles - in our August issue, in shops now.

The world of crossword puzzles is a fascinating one, but if you’re coming to it as a new puzzler, it can feel like a bit of a closed shop, full of tricks and turns to catch out - or leave you defeated. Here are a few types of clues to look out for and hopefully help you on your way to some completed grids.

Anagrams

Will include a definition of the word, the letters that form the new word, and an indicator that you’re looking for an anagram (it might say ‘out of sorts’ or ‘muddled’ or something else that suggests a rearrangement.

Reversals

Similar to an anagram but here you’re looking for a word you simply turn backwards. So ‘Desserts turned hard’ would be ‘stressed’. Desserts is ‘stressed’ backwards and ‘hard’ indicates stress. The word ‘turned’ is a clue that you’re looking for a reversal.

Containers

This is where the answer is hidden inside one or more word in a clue. So the answer to the clue ‘A trAGEDy to have become old’ might be ‘aged’.

Double definitions

These clues use words that have more than one meaning and the clue references both. For example: ‘Carry a large grizzly mammal’ could be ‘bear’.

Homophones

A clue that involves words that sound like each other but have different meanings. So a clue that reads: ‘Sounds like you’re at the tail end of the story’ might have the answer ‘tale’, meaning story but it sounds the same as ‘tail’. Indicators that you're dealing with a homophone clue are phrases such as ‘sounds like’ ‘one hears’, ‘it’s said’ and the like.

Alternating letters

The answer is found taking alternate letters from words in the clue. The Guardian gives this as an example: ‘Young person regularly reading The Beano’. The answer is ‘teen’, a young person, taking alternate letters from The Beano. Look for words that hint at ‘alternating’ such as ‘regular’, ‘periodically’, ‘odd’ or ‘even’.

Spoonerisms

You may have heard Spoonerisms before, where the first letters of two words are switched. The Financial Times offers this example: ‘There’s a hole in the front door; Spooner wants improved Security’. The answer would be ‘letterbox’ (a hole in the front door) and a Spoonerism of ‘better locks’. These sorts of clues are easy to spot as they will almost always reference The Rev WA Spooner, after whom they are named.

Initial letters

As you might expect, you’re looking for an acronym here. ‘Initially, furniture can’t have all its refurbishments’ would be ‘chair’. The word ‘furniture’ gives you a clue to the word and the initial letters of the rest of the clue spell out ‘chair’. Often you’ll get a hint that it’s an acronym with the word ‘initially’ or ‘firstly’.

Deletions

Here, a letter is removed to give the answer so ‘Chicken liver starter, dish left out’ would be ‘paté’. A plate is a dish, and left out indicates a letter has been removed. Chicken liver gives a clue as to the answer.

&Lit

An &Lit clue is shorthand for ‘& literally so’. It’s a very crosswordy thing where different types of clue are employed but also the answer is the whole clue. Here’s an example from The Times: ‘This means getting excited about start of undertaking’. The answer is ‘enthusiasm’, as described by the whole clue, but you get there by putting the words ‘this means’ around the letter ‘u’, the start of undertaking.

In our July issue, we took a look at some of the women who made crosswords a phenomenon. You can read more about it (and try your hand at a few puzzles, too) from page 52.

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe