Cryptic crossword No 1,948

Theme clue: they all fear a dark night, reportedly

Oops, hadn’t enabled annotated solutions, fixed now

Thanks Layton for an impressively themed crossword. My favourites included 5a, 19a, 2d, and 20d. Spoilers in reply.

Welcome back Layton. Well done on incorporating a theme, although several of the themed entries were a bit lost on me not being a close follower. I was impressed by some of your clues, including 1a, 24a, 2d, 3d & 17d. Gennaro has given some pretty good pointers in reply and rather than add to that list, I’d recommend in your next set applying the principles alluded to in that feedback - crisp, clear unambiguous clues, to surprise and delight your unsuspecting solvers. I look forward to more!

Well done on incorporating a goodly number of themed solutions in your grid, Layton. My podium was 1a, 26a (though I think it needs a QM for cryptic def), 3d (despite Gennaro's observation, I knew what you wanted and it worked for me). Some observations in Reply. Thanks. PM