Cryptic crossword No 283

Lovely stuff, Meles - thanks! Quite a range of difficulty, which stumped me at the tougher end although I thoroughly admire the clueing having seen your annotations. Two minor quibbles in the reply. Some really good PDMs, favourites being 1A, 9A, 24A, 2D (favourite for its simplicity), 5D and 21D.

😂 some lovely funny stuff in this… loved 5a 5d 9a 26a 15d 6d 8a 8d… 24a 13a v clever and some neat straight clues too. I’d like to like this twice. Thanks for the fun

+1 to Guava’s comment - tough but very enjoyable, lots of satisfying penny-dropping moments. Favourites: 2d, 6d and the brilliant 8d. Loved the misleading surface of 4d, all the more so because the “obvious” answer has the right number of letters. Also ticks for 8a (devious!), 9a, 12a, 17a, 26a, 5d, 21d. I couldn’t parse 24a, now kicking myself! Very good. I’ve seen an almost identical clue for 16d elsewhere recently (Nutmeg, I think) but that’s not a criticism, more a case of “great minds…”

Very enjoyable puzzle with lots of great clues. Favourite was 8d. But also liked 13a, great surface and very clever, 24a, very original, 5d funny, and 22d for simplicity. See minor query in reply.

Very nice grid! Loved 8a, 9a, 17a, 20a, 4d, 5d in particular. A few I needed annotations to parse but the solutions made sense. Well done!

Very misleading! Well done Meles, a few tiny quibbles all dealt with by others so I'll just say how much I liked 9A, 13A (definitely COTW) 26A (I agree with Coot's reservations but love the idea) 4D great surface that made me laugh.

Well done on producing this puzzle, Meles. I’m glad to see it’s going down well with other people too. Lots to like. My favourites are 9a, 13a, 25a, 4d, 8d, 21d.

Lots to like here @Meles; I managed to get most out but got tripped up by a couple of the marginal ones, already commented on by other solvers. Very impressed by 5a, 13a, 5d, 6d, 8d, 15d & 21d. Question marks over 17a, 25a, 26a, 2d, 4d, 19d - spoilers in reply.