Cryptic crossword No 1,109

This is a reworking of an old one I made a long, long time ago (2008, I think). Only a few of the original clues have survived intact - one of them being 8d. That was one that earned a gold award from Paul in the weekly clueing contest on his old Cryptica website. Being a bit more experienced at this crossword lark now, there are several words in this grid that I would avoid including these days, for the simple reason that they're not very tractable - aka bloody awkward to write clues for!

Thanks Widdersbel, I always admire your clueing, and this is no exception, but I struggled to get on your wavelength here, though I did eventually complete the majority unaided. Unusually for you, I found some surfaces a little forced - eg 21a, 24a, 5d, 15d, 16d. Dont get me wrong - it's good, but I just found it a little hard work, though that could easily just be me. Podium highlights were the LOL 7a, 14a & 12d

I liked this a lot, widders. I was fortunate in finding it a reasonably swift completion (for reasons I will not trouble you with, I was under some time pressure!) but I was helped by the clear and fair cluing throughout. Favourites include 8a, 10a (COTD), 11a, 19a, 24a, 1d (splendid), 3d, 4d, 8d (not surprised that earned you a merit elsewhere), 12d and 15d. Many thanks. PM

Fabulous stuff. 1d is magnificent. 7a is fantastically cheeky. 10a is just cheeky 😁 and I had to back-parse it. 8d and 14a also deserve a mention. Non-quibbly comment in reply -->

Thanks widders, this was mostly a speedy solve, with the exception of 2d, which held me up for blimmin' ages - had to crack it by brute force in the end! Favourites were 1d, 4d, and of course 10a.

Lovely stuff widders. Found it a little trickier than your normal fare but all the usual wit and invention. I'll nominate 17A (parsed the same way as Jaspa), 6D and 8D (of course) for my podium.

Thanks for the delightful challenge widders, I can only echo previous voices in commending a set of interesting and inventive constructions, particularly 7a (fun), 8a (very neat and smooth), 9a (very neat), 10a (very clever), 14a (very neat), 19a (clean), 1d (lovely), 2d (neat), 6d (neat), 8d (clean), 16d (fun) and 18d (clean) - lovely stuff!