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A tricky offering from Brockwell which however took less time than I feared and was an enjoyable challenge, with a cleverly varied use of the theme.
FOI 1d, LOI 8a.
COD? A few competitors, including 12, 16 and 22, but I’m going for 27 for the surface.

Thanks to Brockwell. On the gentle side but with a number of embedded tricks.

My FOI and LOI were the same as rog's!
Two clues required GK over my head and the solutions had to be confirmed. I initially chose the wrong second word of 8, which had to be corrected. One sly misdirection, not mentioned to avoid spoiler.

Co-COD 14 and 19 because components of their solutions appeal.
Also enjoyed 27, 13, 24, 12, 20, 13 and 18. So I had fun.

Not too difficult. Which was a blessing after yesterday. North went in easily but south needed more tea-trays than a Tesco cafeteria

The wordplay was thankfully not too difficult but I had a hard time with the theme, several of which had to be solved by guesswork. Being the child of UK parents but born in Australia, my general knowledge of that specific region still needs improvement!

FOI 1a; LOI 7d. Agree with 27a being the COD.

An interesting week, which started off gentle and then really put me through the wringer on Friday [I think that the 225 forum are still puzzling over that one.]

Not too bad. Some parsing issues with 18, 19, 22 remain, but I feel the answers are correct. I'm sure they click later on in the weekend.
Failed to clock the setter's name which held me up far too long on 11a! And after getting that the theme dropped and progress was good.