Need some exercise for the new year – Nestor’s puzzle is certainly a good work out! As you would expect.

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Looking back through the archives, I see that, lately, I [and others] in blogs of Araucaria Prize puzzles have commented  that they were over rather too quickly. I remember a time when an Araucaria Prize crossword would occupy a good part of Saturday, with perhaps a couple of clues taking a day or two longer to decipher. I really don’t think that it’s a case of me getting so much better at solving! Many of the clues here are very straightforward charades and / or insertions, with just a couple of more obscure clues that took a bit longer to think about. I can’t even find any outrageous liberties to defend, which, as a fully paid-up Araucaria fan of several decades, I’m quite used to doing! A pleasant enough solve, nonetheless.

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‘All Change’ seems appropriate for a puzzle published on 1st January. Will the theme at least be more apt than last week’s war-based Christmas offering?

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