Cryptic crossword No 2,294

Very nice Lutra! Just been to look at your first offering (which I didn’t do, admittedly) and its comments, and this feels like a good improvement! Lots of lovely clues - in particular I liked 14a, 31a, 15d (raised a chuckle!), 24a (very clever and made me laugh), 13d, 19d and 23d. Some clues are a bit clunky though, 10a and 6d especially (though I did like the use of ‘mode’ in 6d, which I haven’t seen before in a clue but I think works ok!). More in reply…

Thank you, Lutra. I enjoyed that; favourites were 9a, 28a, 31a (really good), 13d, 17d and 20d (once I had read the explanation). The wordplay for 15d is neat, but the surface makes no sense. But getting good concise surface readings is something a lot of experienced professional setters struggle with. In general, I would suggest beware of the clue that is more fun for the setter than the solver; which is how I would view 14d and one or two others.