The usual mix from Rufus today – some excellent, some not quite so good.
Solving time – a little under 8 minutes
ACROSS
1 MA(CAB)RE
5 STOKER – shame the setter didn’t find a way of linking MACABRE and BRAM STOKER?
10 BOARDS – very good
12 JULIUS CAESAR – an excellent cryptic definition!
15 BIRTH-RIGHT – liked this one too
20 ASTRINGENT – (strain)*-GENT
22 DISAGREEMENT – D-(meetings are)*
26 LEAD ON – another good ‘un
29 INNINGS – I can see what Rufus is trying to do, but this is just too much like a straightforward definition – the first thing that popped into my head was sport, and not the theatre, so INNINGS was the first word that came immediately to mind.
DOWN
2 (<=AC)-IN – nice surface
3 B(OR)OUGHS
4 ENNUI – (nun i.e.)*
6 THOR-A-X
7 KERBSTONES – another example of a good CD
8 RES(TRAIN)TS – one for the grammarians – Can “reserve”=RESTRAINT be pluralised?
11 ESTHER – (there’s)*
13 EBB AND FLOW – like 29ac, I just don’t think this is cryptic enough
14 BRIDESMAID – whereas this one was excellent
18 IN UNISON – IN (unions)* – I’m not sure that “agreement” and “in unison” are synonymous, the former being a noun and the latter an adverb
21 IGNORE – (region)* – a nice, albeit simple, anagram
23 MAORI – (Moira)* – followed by another
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