Slightly late, slightly rushed post this week, but a quality puzzle as always.

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*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
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A characteristically straightforward yet stylish offering from Rufus, with the ingenious anagrams and seamless, story-telling surfaces that we know to expect, with not too many cryptic clues for those who dislike them. [Unfortunately, two of the clues appeared consecutively in Rufus' 'Dante' puzzle in the FT only two weeks ago.]

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After last week’s triple “percent” wordplay, this week we have “awful” used as an anagrind in three different clues. So I’m afraid it walked into that blog title. Blam!
But it was quite a nice crossword. In fact, to paraphrase Niles from Frasier, better than perfect: What’s better than perfect? Something with one small failing that you can enjoy picking over, saying “Oh! awful again”.
It must’ve been quite simple because I did it on the train within that 30 mins on the Friday after the Sloggers & Betters, after a triple leaving do and didn’t fall asleep – it was close – it kept me interested and awake so I didn’t miss my stop, and when I looked later it was finished. As usual, some of the wordplay did not get fully untangled till blogging. Read the rest of this entry »