Araucaria was being nice ?

[joggerjayne]

Crikey. What has come over Araucaria?

He is being nice today (ie, I've managed about half of it!)

But I can't see these:

5d. There's jolly good beer up at the Crown etc (7) R _ G _ L _ A

... (only REGALIA fits, but why??)

4d. Beginning of concession to limited working of the mind (7) T _ O _ G _ T

18d. Artist to draw life as competition (3,4) R _ T, _ A _ E

???

[carrust]

18d. Rat Race?

[askyourgran]

Looks like 18d is Rat Race. 4d Thought.and 5d Regalia The reasoning around this is a bit obscure jj.

[Pete65]

5. It is A1 and lager reversed.

[Touchstone]

4d) Looks like thought?

[carrust]

5d. Regal & ale

[joggerjayne]

Aaaagh ... Duuh me !!

Thanks guys.

I still can't see how he gets THOUGHT or RAT RACE though !

A1 LAGER backwards ... I like that.

=0)

[DocHH]

18d RA=an abbreviation for artist (Royal Academy for Arts) TRACE=draw.

[mike11111]

Though - said when conceding a point + t(o) a limited form of to

[joggerjayne]

Thanks, DocHH and mike11111

They do make sense, now you've explained them.

J x