If I hadn’t seen the name on this puzzle, I think I’d have been rather hard put to it to guess that it was an Araucaria, let alone a Prize [though the appearance of the long clue at 22 etc might have been a give-away - but see later on that].  Many of the clues, such as 10, 13, 14, 21, 28ac and 1, 2 and 19dn, would not have been out of place in a Monday Rufus crossword. Not that there’s anything wrong with Rufus puzzles on a Monday morning, as I’ve said many times before, but this was not what I call a Saturday challenge. It’s rather like biting into a chocolate that you think is a hard centre only to find that it’s soft – not nasty but not what you’re expecting, therefore not really satisfying.

Read the rest of this entry »

No fancy themes or ninas/Ninas from Bannsider this week (or, at least, none that I could see) – just an enjoyable mental work-out for a Saturday morning – and a bit of Saturday afternoon, eventually finished off late Sunday… although…

Read the rest of this entry »

On a first reading, the preamble doesn’t give one a lot to go on:

Read the rest of this entry »