Cryptic crossword No 3,250

Thanks Gennaro for a very pleasant accompaniment to breakfast. Foiled by 3d (tried to exhaust the wrong word and insert the wrong abbreviation in the wrong place) and 16d (but loved the ground breaking instrument when I got it!) The rest of the clues went in nicely and satisfyingly. I particularly liked 8a for its misdirection, 12a for its irony, 1d for being cool and 18d for being so cleverly deliberate. Small query below

Thanks Gennaro. It won't surprise you that I found the second of the key clues very tricky - like the band, I'm afraid, nho for me. (And, no, I did not spot the band). Some tricky assemblies in here but all seemed pretty solid. Faves inc 10a, 23a, 26a, 3d and 13d. Thanks. PM

Thanks Gennaro for a very enjoyable crossword, including the hidden parts. I struggled with 19a and 3d and especially enjoyed 24d, 22d, 18d, 4d, 1d, 26a, 14a (struggled with that one too), and 8a.

I got the clues but didn't spot the band, either. Faves: 10a, 14a, 3d (again NOT my favorite team!!), 5d, 15d (COTD). Thanks!

HI Gennaro - I'm catching up with some puzzles that I missed from last week so nice to find another fun one from you. Everything slotted into place pretty smoothly but I wasn't familiar with 17d and the cunning def/link misdirection in 3d meant I couldn't see this without help. Favourites were 11a, 23a, 4d, 7d, 9d. Also enjoyed 22a although I note PMs comment on the scoping of the indicator. Cheers

Thanks Gennaro, good fun as always. No help from the Nina this time but you did well to keep the difficulty in check, particularly in the top half. The bottom half was a bit more of challenge, not least given 16d! Favourites: 19a, 26a, 3d (COTD), 5d and 24d.