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A lovely offering from Philistine, but over too quickly for me.
FOI 5d, LOI (and competitor for COD) 27. 17d possibly wins the day by a nose for me, but the competition is stiff. Unlike last week, lots of smooth surfaces.

On reflection (as Sunak would say), I think I made a mistake. The elegant 10a has to be COD.

Thanks to Philistine.
Many good clues and smooth surfaces, but very much on the gentle side, perhaps more than expected from a Prize.
Two or three short solutions extremely straightforward.

FOI 1d, LOI 23.
Agreed 10 is a nice clue, and 17 was on my short list.
I'll say 3, 5d, and 27 are co-CODs because of clever subtleties (IMO) in wordplay.

Picaroon aka Buccaneer is in the FT tonight, so I'll try that after the quickie Prize.

Thanks for the heads-up, geeker. Currently ploughing through the Independent’s offering but will check out Buccaneer later.

Eccles in the Independent today is an enjoyable and fairly quick solve if you still find yourself at a loose end after Buccaneer, geeker.
https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent

And back to Philistine: I’m trying to work out if there’s anything going on with 1, 21 and 28, but my eyes are glazing over and I need to sleep.

I'd heard a theory that the bottom right of a crossword was often easier than the rest of it, as the setter is trying to finish filling out the grid, so I decided to forgo my sequential approach, and try starting there. To my delight the clues started slotting in, and I worked myself, clue by clue up the grid until it was all done.
Feeling pretty smug I headed over here, only to find that everyone had found it easy. Dang.
Can't quite parse 2d, but maybe that will resolve itself after a coffee. Have a good weekend, all.

All sorted but perplexed by 4d parsing. Got answer from definition and existing letters but where does the wheel come in. Pray tell. Ta.

Lucertola
Reversed uncluded word