Cryptic crossword No 2,671

Thanks to (a patient) Amoeba. Anything iffy is mine.

Thanks Ruskin. Started like a train in NE then slowed quickly. FOI 10a, LOI 27a, Didn't get 20d! Some great surfaces, my favs were 16d and 17d.

Well, once again you've written something I found jolly difficult in places. Like RN, 20d was my LOI and got only from a wordlist ... couldn't see the parse. I'd not heard of the dessert in 22a - though I had heard of the glass that it uses; heigh ho! I personally don't think the homophone of 1d works ... but then homophone clues are always contentious. 2d was nice. 27a was dark!

Tricky but fun. Good job.

Quite a work-out, thanks Ruskin. I liked 2D. Some, good misdirections (eg 9A, 27A, 13D). I struggled with 20D and couldn't parse 5D, but clueing was all perfectly fair.

Thanks Ruskin - lots to enjoy in this albeit I was defeated in the end. Couldn’t unravel the SW without some reveals: the combination of 16d, 25a and 27a (NHO thankfully) in particular. I really liked the trick in 9a and 26a, and the inside baseball surface theme. Other favourites: 5a, 19d and 20d. Spoilers …

Thanks Ruskin, I found the top half much easier than the bottom (where 19d was my only answer for quite a while - and that was only thanks to 14a!) Faves include the 9a/26a combo, 1d (though I can understand why that mightn't work for some), 4d, 7d, 16d & 23d. As for the difficulties ...