ilancaron

Seems like the theme might have been words starting with C given the high proportion (CHERISHED, CARPETBAGGERS, CROWN, CHILE PINE, CHESS, CHRISTABEL, CONFIDENT). Quite an accessible puzzle with generally sensible surfaces (except for … Read more >>

Solving time: 20’ Some clever puns and by no means a surfeit of clichés. Quite enjoyable with satisfying surfaces. Across 5 CORPUS – Body of work and physical body. 9 SINECURE – somewhat … Read more >>

Solving time: Bits and pieces in about 1h For the first time in my (limited) Araucarian experience, nary a cross-referenced clue. Not much need for a dictionary either: though 14D, while making some … Read more >>

Solving time: 16’ Mixture of clichéd crossword idioms and some clever wordplay. As usual, not a shaky surface in sight. Apologies for not posting this yesterday – there’s a complicated story involving Geneva, … Read more >>

Solving time: probably 35’ total with lots of interruptions Everyman grew up in the post-war Observer as Ximenes’s relatively easy puzzle. His guidelines (as I just learned in his “Art of the Crossword”) … Read more >>

Solving time: 29’ Rufus puzzles are always fair, fairly straightforward with sensible surface readings and rarely does he use obscure vocabulary. He’s considered at the easy end of the Guardian scale. In this … Read more >>

Solving time: 45’ Rover is on the more rigorous end of the Guardian scale: he (she?) typically has both clean wordplay and sensible surface readings. Today’s puzzle has some good puns (1A, 17A, … Read more >>

Solving time: 1h+ Ah, Araucaria. The most Ximenean of the crowd in terms of wordplay but absolutely a horror when it comes to meaningful surfaces. Today’s theme is putting out fires. As per … Read more >>