Cryptic crossword No 505

Very nice Conto, thanks - still haven't entirely worked out the trick, but I'm probably 75% of the way there. At least, I've got a theory that works for most of the ...s! 8D continues to elude me even after seeing the anno. Favourites inlcuded 16A, 4D, 15D and 26D.

Oh gosh, this is fantastic. I've not seen this done before, but once I figured out why 10A *was* 10A, it fired up all the good brain chemicals. Bravo!

Excellent Conto! I ended up defeated in the NE, and like Amoeba I don’t follow 8D, although the surface is wonderful so I hope the explanation is good! But so many ingenious clues and devices, not least .... (which I twigged from 14A). Hard to pick favourites but I’ll nominate 5A (even though it beat me), 9A, 17A, 22A (a child’s play again!), 1D, 7D and 14D. Minor spoiler(s) in reply.

I'm feeling rather smug, having spotted what was happening early enough for it to enable me to solve all and parse nearly all. A setter clearly in his ... Favourites include: 13a, 14a, 17a, 20a, 25a, 3d (COTD - though not sure what a geometrist would say), 7d, 19d. Thanks, Conto. PM

.... . .... .! .. ... . . -!

Even before I'd got to the trick, the defs in both 1A & 1D had me cackling, along with the "caged animal" in 4D. The impressive thing about the trick is how many different roles you've managed to make it play througout the clues; I thought 14A was gonna be my favourite example, if only for the serendipity, but 22A clinched it at the very end for the penny-drop. The way 8D worked was what got me to appreciate why 18A did too, so it deserves a mention. Your "experiment" appears to have worked!

Very nice, thanks Conto. As with others I spotted the trick fairly early, but didn't fully understand everything until the end (cross-reference to a solution that is a number is particularly devious :) ). Alongside the overall conceit, I particularly liked 1a (nice def), 9a, 24a, 5d, 19d and 23d.

Brilliant! Stared for a long time at the complete grid before I twigged!

Nice one, Conto. Took me a long time to figure out what was going on here, but it certainly made me smile when I twigged. Very clever.

My goodness, that was rather smart! And equally satisfying I might add, even though some of the tricker, more complex special clues bested me or required the annotations to fully appreciate - bravo :) I particularly liked 5a, 11a, 14a, 25a, 27a, 3d, 5d, 6d, 7d, and 21d was my favourite surface

Excellent puzzle. Playful and clever, with some neat misdirection. Found it quite tricky in places and had to come back to it a few times. Favourites were 1a 14a 4d and 7d. Thought the experiment and grid really fun and a good challenge. Thanks

Kudos!

Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to do this puzzle and to comment - it’s much appreciated.

Nice quirk in 11a etc! An enjoyable solve. Thanks