Cryptic crossword No 2,429

Thanks boznut - a fairly challenging workout for me, with a range of clues from gentle to fiendish. I particularly appreciated 9a, 18a, 23a, 3d, 17d among others. There were several where I solved by def & crossers but couldn’t unambiguously parse the wordplay (e.g. 24a, 2d, 4d, 7d, 20d) so without annotated solutions available I can’t tell whether the clue construction is off or it’s just out of my league. Strongly recommend enabling annotated solutions to help us give feedback. Thanks again!

2d I totally WOFfed, and reading the annotation I still don't get how the removal of the D is clued. There are some lovely surfaces here, think my overall fave was 18a though for the sweet charade.