It’s not immediately obvious how those words should yield a 15-letter word. The only thing making those words seem odd is the (15) on the end. The clue quoted at the start of this piece involves completely rational sentences. In the popular imagination a clue might read, “Don’t shower in spaghetti, a wombat might drive” but that simply isn’t the case. One criticism levelled at cryptics is that the clues are “nonsensical”. (Yes, reader, I was that cool a teenager.) Slowly – very slowly – I started to get it.

What was going on there? I made it my mission to find out, holding on to the paper each day in order to look at the answers and crack the code. I was intrigued that my mum – a woman who loves crosswords – always ignored the cryptic. The fascination started when I was about 13. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been reading that one. It was a crossword clue: “six down” in a Guardian cryptic, written by someone called Tramp. The odd thing is that this wasn’t a news story. So yes, I was working too much and it was the end for my broadcast.

I had loved the show, but I had become a dad along the way, and working 100-plus-hour weeks was no longer viable, so I had called time. I had recently finished making a series called Modern Life Is Goodish. “Performing too much? Is it end for super Dave Gorman broadcast?” But it’s rare to be reading a newspaper and discover myself within it, as I did in February 2018. When that happens, I normally get tipped off and I can tell from the tipster’s tone whether it’ll make my day or spoil my breakfast. I’m not often written about in newspapers.

One might follow a crack crossword clue