Cryptic crossword No 2,254

Nice one :-)

Thanks Guinevere for a very accessible and enjoyable puzzle. Grammatically this seemed a big step up from previous puzzles of yours, with only a few niggles that I'm sure more accomplished solvers will do a better job than me to offer guidance for. Enthusiastic spoilers...

Very good Guinevere, thanks. I agree with Iguess's comment about the improvement from your previous puzzles. See reply for the odd minor quibblet! Favourites: 14a (not sure you need the capitals), 27a, 4d, 19d, 20d and 22d (COTD). Spoilers ...

Thanks Guinevere, a fun thematic crossword, FOI 3d, LOI 26a. My favourite was 22d.

Nice job, Guinevere, and having done all three of yours, I'd agree with those who maintain this is the best. And with the overall view that your shorter clues tend to be the better ones. As others have already mentioned the theme, I guess it's no spoiler to refer to it: I saw it about 2/3 of the way through and it helped me with the first word in 6d. Faves inc 8a, 26a, 27a, 20d (COTD) and 25d. Thanks. PM

Haha I only realised there was a theme right at the end, LOI was 6d -- how you feel about them? My memory for the items in question left me stumped a couple of times. 23d made me laugh -- nice one!

Enjoyed this, cheers. Faves 11a, 12a, 14a, 26a, 5d, 23d. Needed the annotations to parse 20d, must remember that particular qualification!

I agree with the other comments on here. Very enjoyable puzzle, with the theme not distorting things. Favourites 8a and 21a, and the slightly Bottom-esque 23d.

A fun solve, made easier when I twigged the theme about half-way through. I had to look up the parsing for 27A and 20D, and then kicked myself for not having worked them out for myself! (I wanted 'box cut' to be CAS(e) but then got stuck with HES). 26A took a while to parse, but was pleasing when I worked it out. Thanks Guinevere!