Toughie No 243 by Kcit
Balance and elegance
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A small handful of slightly clumsy surface readings do little to spoil this masterpiece of cryptic clueing technique and clever misdirection. The NE corner was the last section filled as I had to work out 10a from wordplay, and I needed that to get the – eventually very obvious – answers at 5d and 7d.
This is cryptic crossword writing at its best; challenging and imaginative, with plenty of very satisfying penny-drop moments, and a perfect balance of easy and harder clues. Thank you setter!