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I’d say that this was an absolute tour de force from Brockwell. Too many clever devices and great surfaces to choose from. Not easy, but a delight to solve.
FOI 3
LOI 18 - it could only be one thing, but I didn’t enter it until the penny finally dropped about what was going on.
COD? Too many to choose from, but the simplicity and surface of 18 pleased me greatly.

Thanks to Brockwell.
Got off to a very slow start and was only progressing via "low-hanging fruit" 4-letter solutions, but gradually got on the wavelength and finished in slightly under median Prize time.
Deceptive puzzle: smooth surfaces, non-ostentatious and seemingly simple clues that had many wrinkles and subtleties. For instance 18, as pointed out by rog.

FOI 3, LOI 8.
COD 12 over 6, 23, 24 and 30 (I liked the simple ones).
Didn't notice a theme or bonus features, but a few adjacent across solutions seemed to go together in some sense.

geeker: 18 unlocked the theme/feature for me, which does indeed relate to the across solutions.

Sorry - in my initial post I meant to say the simplicity etc of 28, not 18, pleased me greatly. But 18 is an excellent device too.

Hmm, too many unparsed clues, and one or two which made absolutely no sense to me at all, to make a _satisfying_ solve.
(13,14,19, I'm looking at you)
I daresay some of the parsings will clear up when I check back in here tomorrow, but now I'm going to go for a walk to clear away the flu that's been lingering for the last week.

I started a little late, so I've only just finished, but I needed rog's hint to realize what a tour de force this is. The fact that they are all "fellow travellers" is truly impressive. It's worthy of a Prize crossword.

I particularly liked 26a, which I'd never heard of before on its own, but as part of the theme, it was pleasantly nostalgic.

Go through it ok, or maybe not - I'm not sure about my answer to 13d at all. Probably at the right level for a Prize. FOI 1d, LOI 24d, COD 14d

Good fun and not too tricky I thought, though the theme only became apparent when going back to the initially unparsed 18.

I’m reminded of the origin of 18,26a which is an interesting bit of trivia that we’ve discussed here before I recall.

Tricky one to get into. Not a problem really as I think the storm is going to prevent me going anywhere. Slow progress so far.

Just one question. Is the parsing of 11a straightforward? Because i have an obvious answer from the first word that fits my crossers but no idea how it parses if it is right.