Cryptic crossword No 535

Blimey Drummond. That is one of the best crosswords I have done in a very long time. I think the standard wager out there is 50p that a debut setter has done this before. This cannot be your first. Frankly I'd be proud to have half a dozen of those, let alone a puzzle full. You are very welcome here if that's going to be your typical fare. Hard to pick favourites from such a bunch: 1a, 12a, 27a, 28a, 3d, 4d, 5d, 17d, 23d. Spoilers in Reply. Thanks enormously. PM

Nice one Drummond, welcome to MyCrossword, looking forward to your next one.

Thank you. I’ve just discovered the site via Alan Connor’s Guardian article. This is a great crossword.

Very well done, Drummond. This is seriously good - perfectly at home in a national daily, imho. The puzzle has a real style, serious and sober throughout, although 22a and 5d bring nice touches of humour. Some solvers might like to have Annotated Solutions available.

Very enjoyable puzzle! Thanks, Drummond. Plenty of favourites to choose from, as others have said, but I'll go for 9a, 1d, 6d and 24d. I look forward to the next one!

Welcome Drummond (and Vicaloria)! It’s already been said by others, but that was excellent. Certainly back-page-worthy in my opinion. I tried to list my favourites but found it too difficult so I’ll just nominate a COTD: 2D. Thanks!

Lovely work Drummond. Welcome to the site! I really enjoyed this: lovely surfaces, precise wordplay, the care in disguising some of the definitions and some very clever constructions. Like others, had lots of favourites. I really liked 22a and 5d, had good fun with 17d 1a 9a and 21a among many others. Thanks for the puzzle!

Another visitor courtesy of Alan Connor. Really enjoyable puzzle.

Great stuff, thanks Drummond. Wordplay is very precise and interesting but the surfaces stand out for me, excellent work. Of a strong line-up, I'll pick out 1a, 21a and 2d as favourites.

Welcome aboard, Drummond - a very impressive puzzle with which to introduce yourself here. Well polished and tightly clued throughout, nice variety of clue types, and lots of inventive wordplay. Particularly liked 1a, 11a, 12a, 18a, 22a, 2d, 16d, 19d, but could give several others favourable mention too.

Enjoyable and quite a challenge (for me). Finished and ticked correct.

Well, that was chewy. Took me a while and I confess to resorting to an online helper app once or twice. As ever for me, I got some answers through isolating the definition part and getting crossers but missing the wordplay. Your annotated notes led pennies to drop like a one-armed bandit. Some excellent clues including 3d, 17d, 21a, 22a and many others. Very good work!