Cryptic crossword No 551

Another lovely puzzle, Drummond - thanks. Super surfaces and invention. I rattled through the top half, slowed down in the SE and for some reason ground to a sticky halt in the SW - but that’s just for info, nothing to grumble about. Very hard to narrow down a list of favourites, but I’ll settle on 1A, 9A (although needed notes for parse), 18A, 20A, 2D (COTD), 5D, 6D, 12D, and 22D.

Drummond, another very nice puzzle. 20a was worth the price of admission (or perhaps rather more), and other faves were 3d, 12d and 22d. Most clues were crisp and clever. I don't quite see that "unexpectedly" is synonymous with the solution of 5a, but matching the solution with "in last place" is nice. And does 11a include a definition of the term that becomes the solution? I read it as having two elements that correspond to the two elements in the solution, but no term for the solution. Thanks!

Fantastic. 14a, 17a, 20a (!), 26a (never seen runner before - nice), 2d, 5d (!), 6d, 8d particularly, but just about everything really. (Not yet convinced by 11a. Don't like 21d.)

Another splendid puzzle, Drummond. It took less time to get onto your wavelength on this occasion. Perhaps the previous one introduced me to the tricks I should be anticipating. And tricks there were aplenty. Favourites included: 1a, 10a, 14a, 17a, 23a, 2d-6d (all of 'em) with the beautiful 20a taking top spot. Thanks. PM

Hi Drummond, welcome to MyC and thanks for the puzzle! I've not tried your first, but this was a lovely set of clues for a second attempt, well done. I particularly liked 1a, 9a (had to cheat a little but once I could see the answer I loved the wordplay), 13a (a wonderfully crisp clue), 14a (clean), 17a (trickyish for me during the solve but lovely surface), 18a (nicely misleading def and lovely surface), 20a (great construction), 2d (lol), 3d (clever), 4d (always appreciate...

Great puzzle, thanks Drummond. Quite tricky for me in places but everything yielded in the end which is how you want it. Favourite clues were 14a, 20a (excellent), 26a, 5d, 12d ("killer of Buzz" took me ages to see, but well worth it!) and 22d.

Big thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment, the feedback is invaluable for gauging future efforts.

Thanks Drummond, very enjoyable. Looked at this (& your previous) as recommended by PostMark and enjoyed both immensely. Favourites 12d and 20a (which seems to be consensus) Only minor quibble for me was the vague female in 16d. Overall this and your previous were fabulous, thanks again!