Cryptic crossword No 2,658

Thanks Temple. First of yours I've attempted and it provided an enjoyable evening diversion. I particularly appreciated 8a, 15a, 21a, 3d, 18d, 20d but on the whole found much to like the surfaces and wordplay combined. I was defeated by a couple of the curlier ones, the monster 4d and fiendish 6d. A couple of eyebrow twitches, but nothing worth quibbling over. A clever device in the grid, just for fun. Well done! BTW, I think there's a typo in your explanation for 10a, not too serious though...

That was excellent: a pangram turned up to 11! Loads to enjoy but I particularly liked 1d, 6d, 16d and 18d. I was defeated by 2d (not quite sure why as it is perfectly straightforward in your explanation) and couldn't fully parse 13a, 26a or 14d.

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That's quite an achievement. I liked 8a, 15a, 18d and 23d.

Excellent crossword Temple. It's hard to do an alphabetic without obscurities (though 11a new to me). So many good clues and surfaces that it's hard to pick favourites, but I'm going to go for 1d, 4d and 22a

Very clever device (which helped to get the final holdouts) and some neat surfaces. I especially liked 8a,11a,19a,22a and 3d,7d,17d,18d. Annoyed with myself that I didn't fully parse 6d.

I think this is the most enjoyable of yours that I've done, Temple. Some very tight and clean cluing, super surfaces throughout and, of course, a tremendous grid fill to start with. I enjoyed the ingenuity of penultimate solve, 6d, for which I deffo needed the theme device. Almost too many to pick faves: 8a, 12a, 13a, 15a, 22a, 24a, 1d, 2d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d and 18d! Told you it would be a long list. Super puzzle. Thanks. PM

Thanks Temple. When I saw your SI, I knew I had to solve this. I thought this was an incredible achievement. My top picks were 8a, 13a, 19a, 24a, 2d, and 5d. I couldn't parse 6d but knowing what few letters were missing from the pangram made the solution obvious. Good work overall.

What a fantastic construction - and with so little obscurity too, plus very nice clues - that adds up to quite an achievement, bravo 👏