I have spent most of the Bank Holiday break mulling over daily cryptic crossword clues created by Leo Traynor and posted by him on Twitter @LeosClue.

He has mustered about 1000 people grappling with his crafty clues to the point of submitting answers, the vast majority of which are wrong.

Today was a simple one:

Leo’s Clue‏@LeosClue

Here’s the clue again: (6 ltrs) Good man will travel by foot _ _ _ _ _ _ Guesses via DM or email: answers [at] 

That is a solid effort. The clue has a ‘definition’ part (something pointing pretty much straight at the answer) and elements which together help build the answer up more indirectly. the trick (of course) is working out which words are in which category. It took me about a minute to get it. So far today over 500 people have sent in answers, of which only 8 have been right.

Yesterday’s defeated almost everyone, including #grrrrr me:

Leo’s Clue‏@LeosClue

Today’s clue was: (7 ltrs) Hard line in headlines

The answer was (duh) Jubilee. ‘Hard’ points to diamond, ‘line’ points to a Tube line (Jubilee), and we know what was in all the media headlines: [Diamond] Jubilee.

This one to me was not only vexing but also aesthetically unsatisfying, albeit the answer seems blindingly obvious once revealed. I can’t quite put my finger on why. ‘Hard’ is a bit of a stretch for diamond, and the reference to what’s in the media somehow takes the clue out of its own self-contained logic. Why not go for broke and have only Sparkling line!

Then there was this admirably terse number:

Leo’s Clue‏@LeosClue

Today’s clue was: (8 ltrs) Short the area of mooring place

That one took a while. Was he after a word meaning short, or place, or mooring-place?

Short as a noun (eg a drink), a verb (as in stocks and shares), an adjective (short trousers) or an adverb (taken short)?

Moor as in Saladin? Or boats – jetties, quaysides, bollards, harbours? Something bizarre to do with displaying cows: moo-ring?

Through the fog an idea finally tingles: dock as in short (a docked tail), and dock as in mooring-place. Bingo. Dock + area = dock-yard or dock-land. Dockland got it.

But again I felt dissatisfied. Dock does not quite mean ‘short’, but shorten. Or putting it another way short should be ‘docked’, not dock. Hmm.

Before that horror along came this one:

Leo’s Clue‏@LeosClue

Today’s clue: (10 letters) One carpet I add on to move

Straightforward. As the answers get longer it is more likely that the elements of the clue will each add a tiny part to build the whole.

So I concluded that the word probably meant ‘move’ or ‘to move’ and that it ended in I + on, ie -ion. Add a short synonym for carpet (mat) and you have –mation, which just needs ‘auto’ meaning (loosely!) ‘one’ or oneself and you have automation which (sort of) means ‘move’. Perhaps once again not quite ‘tightly’ enough crafted for maximum aesthetic points. Car carpet – I add on movement is maybe a tad neater and not obviously easier.

The whole process of creating clues and finding answers has been transformed by the Internet and the word’s Scrabblers. Look at this amazing website for synonyms. And this superb thesaurus site. Maybe you think you need a eight letter word word somewhere containing the letters row? Plenty to choose from!

Anyway, well done Leo Traynor for launching this new Twitterish Twimewaster. He is a great expert in all this, and explains some of his phiendish philosophy here.