The first prize will be two nights, bed and breakfast with dinner on one evening for two people sharing in Glenlo Abbey, Co Galway. By completing online through the desktop, app, or mobile, there is no need to post the completed entry. The tricky part lies not in learning a long and boring list of acronyms and abbreviations, but rather in deciphering which section of the clue is which, a skill that requires patience, practice and a whole lot of brainstorms. If you wish to enter the competition by completing the print version, you will need to post the completed puzzle.

Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm: Go through each clue with a fine-tooth comb and jot down every acronym, abbreviation, synonym or associated word you can connect to every word or phrase in the clue, no matter how outlandish or tenuous the link.Not only does the wordplay tell us which letters we will need for the solution, but it usually also guides us as to how to arrange these letters; ie which go first, whether they should appear backwards or jumbled up in the solution, and so on. The letters that the indicator “doctor” tells us to unscramble are “had a nice”, and the literal definition of the solution is “big estate in Latin America”. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Each puzzle is different, and each setter will set clues in their own style, tinged with their unique and nuanced take on the cryptic algorithm. Start with a Saturday puzzle and work from the outside in: The Saturday Crosaire is a great confidence builder, as each corner clue shares a word or theme in common.Perfect size,I carry this around in my handbag all the time so I can do a bit of crosswording when I have to wait for someone or when I'm on my lunch break. All prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).

A number” acts as our literal simplex definition of the solution, while “caught up in” tells us that the solution is written backwards (up) and inside (caught in) the phrase fortu ne- telling. Appearing daily in the Irish Times for over forty years, the crossword has attracted a devoted following. Though there is no exhaustive list (despite the pleas of my followers), some recent anagram indicators that I have encountered include “messy”, “scrambled”, “confused”, “ran amok”, “redesigned” and “regrettably”, all of which are instructing us to rearrange or reorganise a word or phrase into its translated, solved format.You could purchase access to our ePaper, a digital replica of the newspaper, as part of our Premium Digital subscription.