Cryptic crossword No 2,641

Strange grid, this, with lots of 3 letter words, which i often find annoyingly hard to get, and some words with 3 unchecked letters in a row - is this one of the standard templates? I thought 5a and 11d were clever and I enjoyed the topicality of 21a (while it had some GK requirement it was right in my wheelhouse!). A couple of observations in the reply.

More jumps to the left here and a lot of fun they are! A fair amount of UK gen knowledge needed, so I'm pretty pleased to have solved it, as a non-Brit. Standouts: 5a,13a,17a,29a and 2d,5d,11d

Very enjoyable. Thank you. Favourites were 20d and 21d. Undercurrent of rule-bending running throughout which may divide opinion.

Some great clues such as 13a, 29a, 6d and others which could do with a bit of a tweak. I'll give some further spoilery thoughts in a reply.

Horrible grid. Plenty of left field cluing. Some of it a bit rich for me - I'd agree with Chameleon that some of the defs don't really work. I guessed you were just being allusive. 13a is very nice.

Thanks Phaedrus, great fun ... certainly some left-field stuff, not all of which quite comes off imho. The grid *is* terrible though! Unless there's some strong thematic reason, avoid 'triple unches' (3 consecutive unchecked letters) and preferably 'double unches' too (esp. at the beginning/end of words, or with more than one 2xunch in an answer. Chameleon has highlighted a few issues to consider, the 'parts of speech' in particular ...