Cryptic crossword No 643

Many thanks Leucine, enjoyed this a lot - some fairly unusual/unfamiliar words and a couple of tricky parsings made it pleasingly challenging and lots of fun to solve Lots of ticks throughout, but particular favourites 10a (see spoilers), 26a, 15d (hehe) and 20d. Spoilers follow ....

Hey, Leucine. This was a lot of fun to do and as clearly clued as usual. Favourites today included: 12a (succinct and nice surface), 16a (neatly done), 22a (see below), 3d (made me smile), 4d (super), 6d (I think), 14d (no reason at all!), 18d (neat). Spoilers in Reply. Thanks. PM

Hi Leucine, a very enjoyable puzzle that had me scratching my head a bit towards the end (in a good way!) with some very clever clues, a few of which I didn’t fully parse until I read your notes (par for the course with me). I liked 22a (so well constructed), 4a, 5a, 25a (all relatively simple yet clever wordplay) and 11a (excellent spot!). More spoilery stuff to follow…

I ran through this late last night; flew through the top half, slightly held up by 10a (see below). Much tougher further down and had to give way to sleep before I could unravel a few. Looking again this morning 22a is a great find, though a slightly awkward surface ("flatness" would make more sense). I didn't realise 20d could be a noun and had to do a lot of googling to get to grips with the definition. 26a I certainly wouldn't have parsed without your notes - great wordplay though.

10a - I looked for something involving MA(y) as his immediate predecessor. I'd have put "a predecessor" in just to be absolutely sure. Liked the cunning in 19d where both ends had the right number of letters to be the fodder. I spent ages looking for an anagram of "slasher".... One or two surfaces were a bit contrived. Favourite clues 10a despite the quibble, 2d, 19d, 15d (great surface too), and of course 3d where you nobly avoided any temptation to Bobbit him.

Thanks Leucine this was a fun one to solve. Some good misdirection on display which had me fooled at various points (e.g. 16a, 26a). Particular favourites were 11a, 16a, 3d, 19d and 20d.

Thanks, Leucine, an enjoyable solve with a nice mix of easier and trickier clues. Particular favourites were 9a, 19a, 2d, 4d (nice one for a subeditor, ie me), 14d

A bit late to this Leucine (struggling to keep up at the moment) but lovely stuff when I eventually found the time. A mix of relatively gentle and very tricky for me but nothing wrong with that. Favourites were 11A, 12A, 16A (the disguise did me good and proper!), 4D, 5D, 15D (interesting to read PM’s comments and your reasoning) and 18D (my COTD). Thanks!