Clive’s Puzzle

Clive Doig was director of BBC Children’s Programmes from 1971-76. His children’s tv games led him into producing a regular puzzle page for Radio Times. He invented this puzzle for the magazine and called it Trackword. It was first published in the Radio Times in the 30 August - 5 September, 1980 issue. This is the actual very first puzzle.

How to Start

Clive gave these instructions:

How many words can you find in the square? Start anywhere and by going from letter to letter – up, down or diagonally – make words of three letters or more. You may not use the same letter twice in the same word. No plurals or proper nouns. If you track ten words you have done very well. There is a nine-letter word hidden there too.

Clive didn’t make it clear but personal names, trade names, slang words and really archaic words are not counted. The puzzle language is UK English so no bonjour or color or haiku. No abbreviations so you can’t have tum for stomach or barbie for barbeque or anon for anonymous. Sorry.

You will need pencil and paper or just print out this page which has space at the bottom. When you have counted up and you are sure you are done, tap or click on the Answer button to see the answer. Clive was assuming his readers were not so clever if he thought you can only find ten words. Good luck!

There is an amazing 45 total number of words. Here they are:
AMEN DAM DAME DAMN DANE DATING DEAN DEN DUE EAT EATING GAD GAME GAIN GIN GAIT GAINED GNAT MAIN MAGI MAD MAN MAT MATING MADE MANE MEAD MEAN MEAT MEN NAME NAMED NAG NEAT NIT TAD TAG TAN TANG TAME TAMED TIN TINE TING and the nine-letter word is MAGNITUDE

I have another puzzle for you to try if you would like.