Cryptic crossword No 1,678

Spoilers ...

Mo chreach 's a thàinig! I got through this by the skin of my teeth, the unclued entried being my last entry after a sudden memory struck me. Honestly, a lot of these were only half-parsed and put in with a hope and a prayer, what with the intricacies -- Byzantine, in some cases -- of many of the constructions. My favourite was 5A for the chutzpah of the construction. It's also a very fine piece of grid design, flowing and connected, especially given what you were working with.

Despite a NHO theme I really enjoyed this! A mixed bag of difficulty with a surprising number of quick write-ins before a steady middle section and a noticeably chewier finish. Some understandably odd surfaces but also some really lovely ones too, like the run of 15a, 17a, 18a and 20a. As ever, I'm impressed with your thematic wizardry! 👍 thanks

Brilliant construction Fez! Very chewy but remarkably I managed the solve with occasional doses of guess work, bung and back-parse, and Googling. NHO theme but it wasn’t too much of an impediment. Favourites: 11a, 18a, 28a, 2d (albeit needed your notes for the parse), 3d (LOI), 13d and 19d. Thanks!

Thanks Fez. My very peripheral knowledge of the theme allowed me to suss out the solutions to the undefined clues but I certainly needed your notes to appreciate its depth. Nonetheless I liked this a lot with my top picks being 12a (oddly forgotten people !), 28a, 4d, 7d, 13d (great surface), and 19d. I totally failed with 20a and I couldn't parse 16d. Nice work overall.

Well this was certainly a take-no-prisoners Fez. Byzantine is the right word. Though labyrinthine would also do. I failed to parse 16d or the first part of 21a and elsewhere the odd bit escaped me but I had a rough idea of what you were asking. And plenty of classic Fez 'use twenty words to define a three letter answer' techniques! 17a, 24a, 26a, 7d and 22d my favourites. Thanks. PM

Enjoyed this, Fez. Thanks! I needed a couple of reveals and some of the parsing is beyond me - I'll have to check the annotations. Favourites 5a, 10a, 18a, 2d (parsing took me a long time!), 7d, 13d, 22d (needed reveal then kicked myself), 25d. Cheers!

Wow, Fez. Much of this I could only stand back and admire after checking your annotations, but then, as always with your work, I end up kicking myself because everything is meticulously, brilliantly and most deviously laid out in front of me. Such clever touches like Linnaean Society in 20a are to marvel at and, though it beat me, 17a is fab! Of what I could solve 5a, 11a, 12a, 24a, 3d (enumeration helped greatly here!), 5d, 8d were faves. Bravo!