Do you like clues to ferret out inter-linked words Up and Down? Chances are you hog the newspaper's crossword puzzles page the first thing every morning.

The crossword bug bites smart teenagers too, as the second edition of CBSE Cryptic Crossword Contest (CCCC) at Delhi Public School (DPS) in Ranchi on Wednesday conclusively proved.

As many as 40 schools from all across Jharkhand took part in this contest open to students of Classes IX-XII across all school boards.

After some smart brainstorming, two teams - Spandan Chaturvedi and Chinmay Srivastava of DAV Public School, Gandhinagar; and Anvesha Das and Mrinalini of DPS, Ranchi - were selected for the national round in New Delhi, which will be held towards the end of the year

These students managed to solve the maximum cryptic crossword puzzles within one hour to earn their national berths.

Though chief minister Raghubar Das was supposed to be present at the event, he could not make it.

Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister, came as chief guest. Other VIPS present included Sukhdeo Singh, principal secretary of the state water resource department, Vivek Kumar Singh, principal secretary of environment and forest department, government of Bihar, and M.K. Burman, the pro vice-chairman of hosts DPS, Ranchi.

Ram Singh, principal of DPS, Ranchi, in his welcome address called extracurricular academics fundamental building blocks for holistic personality of students. "That is our forte and this is why we conduct and host these programmes," he said.

CM's principal secretary Kumar said solving crossword puzzles demanded excellent linguistic skills as well as sharp thinking.

Vivek Kumar added that vocabulary building and lateral thinking were integral to the skill.

In 2014, 850 schools from across the country had participated in the inaugural event. The winners were Shalini Srinivasan and Biswarup Burman of Junior Carmel College, Jamshedpur. After the overwhelming response to the 2014 event, the board decided to host it in 2015.