Cryptic crossword No 3,823

Thanks Podger for an early morning diversion. With only a few clues solved but having 3d and 5d, I guessed the 'bonus ball' from the enumeration, which is a bit of a cheat. That allowed the rest to go in quickly apart from 15a . I knew the character but was foxed by the clue and had to reveal, then it became clear. Favs were 9a, 16a, 24a, Yet another masterful 'bonus ball' grid.

Thanks Podger, I liked this a lot. Chewy but mostly gettable. I especially liked 8a, 16a, 23a, 26a, 2d, 3d and 20d. I hadn't heard of 17d but it was fairly clued so went in ok.

Congratulations Podger on another excellent ‘special!’ Let’s stand for a moment in silence before the bonus ball anagram- I take it on trust, but what an achievement! Like Pentman I got the nina early and felt a bit naughty getting 22d just by looking at the last letter. But still a great clue, like so many others- top picks being 9a, 10a, 13a (very nifty), 23a (also very neat), 4d, 14d, & 17d. Beaten by 15a but I’ll give the facelift a thumbs up for creativity. Cheers!

Thanks Podger and very well clued. Was a fast solve for me because I saw the bonus ball immediately and couldn’t then unsee it. Favourite clues were 15ac 14 d 20d. 7 ac seems to be appearing quite a lot these days.

Fantastic! I love the way you build clues and how left field your definitions often are, as well as how clever your surfaces can be (case in point: 6d, which I experienced decades ago). A few I did not parse, even though I guessed them, and in one case part of the wordplay was totally NHO to me - you keep us on our toes for sure! Very hard to pick faves, but here's a few: 23a,26a, 5d,14d,19d,22d (but really all the down clues). I totally forgot to look for the bonus!