Alberich is at the hard end of the spectrum for me too. As Gaufrid says getting to understand his style makes a big difference.

About 3d: “receives A” is to put A between COLOR and DO. I had missed that in my original post and Eileen pointed it out. Have fixed it since then.

@Sil van den Hoek: I couldn’t see “OWER = one who’s not settled” either till it was explained in the comments; I should expand its explanation in the blog. As you say, the “?” must be there to indicate that ‘ower’ is not really [really not? ] a word.

Regarding your specific questions, in 3dn I think ‘receive a’ is just a link and it is suspension=springs (as in a car).

In 8d, Dis is another name for Pluto, the Greek god of the underworld.

1a All I could think of was that I was looking for something to do with a law concerning a street
5a Was a bit surprised to see “bum” in the FT -isn’t it a vulgar Americanism? Anyway I assumed I was looking for another word for a layabout.
10a I didn’t make the association of Winchester with gun-all I could think of was the public school.
11a Thought of enormous and ginormous. Never occured to me that note was “n” was thinking of doh, ray etc
12a Had this the wrong way round and was looking for potless, bankrupt etc
13a Never heard of this
22a I wouldn’t have seen ower=one who has not paid up
26a Couldn’t get 100=ton out of my mind
27a I had tm but then tried the even and odd letters of hospital which doesn’t work
28a I think if you had given me the answer and asked me to explain it, you’d still be waiting.
And so to the downs
1d I was looking for a game to remove r from but I was looking for a word meaning neutral or landlocked or mountaineous.
2d I did get as far as ex e mp but that was it.
3d I still can’t see why springs=receives a suspension.
6d I tried every way of writing the letters out in the hope that something would leap out at me but it didn’t.
8d I don’t understand dis=underworld boss.
23d Very good clue but too hard for me.

One day, perhaps.

Well done anyone who solved that -I’m envious and impressed.

This was the puzzle I went to bed with last night, just to have a first look at it.
I was so taken by it and it went so well that in fact I almost finished it before I closed my eyes.
Just had to check a few answers this morning, like RAP SHEET (28ac) and also COWER (22ac) which I still couldn’t parse before I saw Rishi explanation. The “?” in the clue is there to indicate that ‘ower’ is not a word that’s in the dictionary, but more a playful allusion, I guess?

Brilliant crossword, splendid surfaces, ingenious constructions.

As some people might know by now, I feel great affinity with Alberich’s style of clueing, and maybe that’s why I went so smoothly through this puzzle. I knew (almost) exactly what to look for and where. Downside of it all: I didn’t pay much attention to the neatness of the surfaces (I dó find them important, though) while solving. The admiration came later.

I find it very hard to single out any clues as possible highlights, but if I’ll have to … er, I don’t really know [or should I say: I really don't know?].
Great stuff all the way.

Lovely blog, lovely puzzle, as ever from Alberich.

As you say, hard to pick out favourites but, if pushed, I’d choose 24 and 25ac and 3, 16, 20 and 23dn. Some super surfaces!

[There's an A missing in your blog of 3dn.]