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Thanks to Vlad, a fairly recent visitor, for another Prize challenge.
On the difficult side but not an outright impalement.
Quite a few "gettable" short clues to provide entry points, but many Prize-worthy tricky constructions.
I found the top half on the easy side but the bottom beastly.

FOI 9, LOI jointly 17 and 27.

Joint COD 11 (I like the word), 12, 17, 20 (naturally), 24a and 25. 24a might have been the winner due to nice wordplay, but the surface is not smooth.

Thanks Vlad.

As can be expected from Vlad.

Likes:13a, 24a, 25a, 8d, 18d, 20d

COD: 24a

Agree with Geeker's assessment - a mixture of Prize clues requiring some out of the box thinking and less taxing contributions.

24a and 25a held me up the most - guessed the solution from the crossing letters alone, but parsing the clues took some work!

COD for me was 1a or 15a.

Looking again at the grid, I have to upgrade 13 to the COD long list. Wrote it in but didn't appreciate the full parsing.

I feel like Vlad is back to his impaling ways. Not even half the grid filled yet. I’m glad you all had a better time with it.

Don't think I'll get around to this until later. A couple in but one question. Is it a typo or is there a significance to the decimal point between the 3 6 in 10a? At least that's how it is in the Android app.

I hadn’t spotted it and it’s the same in the pdf so just a misprint I think. The answer is definitely 3,6.

Despite putting it down and then comiing back to it, I've ground to a halt in the SE, with only 14d and 16d inked in. Could I have a hint for one of the others, please? 27a, for instance.

Like Geeker I got a good start with the top half but the bottom .... that being said, I am not at all sure of my answer for 1D. I had what I thought a really good answer for 16A (an abbreviation for a religious group) but it doesn't fit with the obvious - although unsatisfactory) answer for 1D. Has anyone else had the same experience?

Hi neville
Are we doing the same puzzle? There isn't a 16a in mine!