Cryptic crossword No 1,428

Nice one Coot - mostly fit the bill I thought, with some very nice clues. 9a was my COTD and a super start, but I also particularly liked 24a, 25a, 18d, 23d, and the outrageous 20d

Enjoyed this on the cs stream, Coot. 9a and 12a my favourites. nho 1d but gettable from the WP and crossers. A couple of tricky synonyms but nothing that outrageous ... possibly apart from 20d as Amoeba says. Thanks. PM

Some lovely touches in this one, Coot, well done. I thought 5d was brilliant: the opening part of that clue is a gem! Then 7d was good for a laugh - I had to 6d it for ages before it cracked for me. Also liked 22a. Theme way beyond me. Spoilers........

Very enjoyable Coot! Particularly 2d and 18d. Was it easy? I’m not sure! There were a few easy clues. Some of the defs were tough eg 3d, but fair. Thanks!

Super stuff, thanks Coot. Favourites include 9a, 10a, 25a, 1d, 2d, 5d, 15d, 21d & 26d. Spoilers ...

Great stuff, thanks Coot. I'm in the "more difficult than I was expecting" camp but very enjoyable nonetheless. Lots of flourishes here - "Everyone at bridge" in 5d is superb and I even liked 20d despite not being a fan of partial homophones. Other favourites were 9a (great find), 22a, 28a (nice use of a contronym), 8d and 26d.

Gosh, Coot, I leapt at this with all the enthusiasm of a lamentable solver promised something EVEN HE would be able to do. The first quick pass yielded half a dozen answers and I thought "Eh up, I'm in here!!" And then, phew, it got tougher and tougher, with 14a, 16a, 28a, 1d, 5d, 7d, 20d ultimately defeating me!! Not saying they're unfair, just too tough for me, my only objection being that saying it's easy just makes me feel inadequate! 😃 Question follows.

Thanks Coot, although I too found it on the trickier side – it took me longer than today's Guardian cryptic, anyway! I loved 5d, COTD especially for the first part. Also liked 9a (simple but great), 17a, 22a and 6d. I think the reasons for potential toughness have been adequately covered by other commenters already 😁 Thanks again.

Thanks for the lovely puzzle Coot, though as it may be obvious from the date of my comment that I didn't find it particularly gentle 😅 Lots of delightful clues but I'd say this was one of your hardest I've attempted, I think a combination of being psyched out by expecting a walk in the park and some wavelength issues. I thoroughly enjoyed 10a (neat and fun), 13a (smooth), 17a (likewise), 22a (nice), 4d (subtle), 5d (creative first bit), 21d (fun surface), 26d (very neat) and 28d (nice) thanks:)