Cryptic crossword No 173

Aside from (i) fun, the aim here was (ii) not too complex, and (iii) more concise clues. Let's see if that was achieved...

Thanks Alf, lovely surfaces! Ticks for 10a, 21a, 14a, and 20d. I hadn’t heard of 12a, but fairly clued.

38% completed on first pass. Favourite clue so far is 20d - good misdirection. I’ll come back later.

Gold star for 11a. Ticks for 1a, 21a (succinct and smooth), 20d, 19d (very concise), 24d (made me laugh). I can’t fully parse 14a though…

Lovely! 4d, 8d and 10a are my favourites.

Lovely stuff, Alf. Plenty of clues where the wordplay got me to the solution before the definition, which I always think is a good sign. Hard to pick favourites but I’ll go for 5A, 11A, 21A, 1D, 7D and 17D. Thanks!

See

Excellent, thank you! Favourites: 10a, 15d, 24d, 9a, and 1a the perfect "aha!" when I got it.

6d is very clear, but is the definition at either end in accordance with convention? 16d is very neat but some would say expected too much GK. But generally, a lovely puzzle, not too difficult, with some excellent surfaces. Stand-out clues for me are 1a, 10a, 14a (where you cleverly avoid duplicating 5a even though the wordplay is actually similar), 26a, 3d, 8d, 20d; but there really isn't a weak one in here. A fine piece of work.