Cryptic crossword No 3,032

Hi Chevron! As one newbie to another I wanted to share some encouragement. I enjoyed your crossword, only needing help from your notes twice. My favourite was 16a, with 10a (luckily I’d heard of it!) 14a, 3d & 5d in close pursuit. More thoughts below…

A good clue wraps its cryptic wordplay in an elegant surface, and in some instances (eg 11a, 12a, 25a, 22d) I thought your surfaces didn’t really stand up on their own. Others were great though. I also noted a few slips in the cryptic grammar department which didn’t stop me solving but did feel a little unprofessional. So in 12a I don’t see ‘speculated’ as working here without an ‘about’. (‘Imagined’ or ‘Considered’ as a transitive vb would work…) In the same clue, ‘wrote’ doesn’t correctly…

tell the solver to ‘write’ OD(e) around RISE, or that OD(e) is ‘written’ around RISE. (In this variation - ‘Considered time he composed ode about hike’ - ‘composed’ could mean ‘T and HE get put together; then OD(e) around RISE can stand by itself as a juxtaposition. In 15d ‘run over’ is a singular vb so doesn’t work with ‘flowers’. And in 18a I couldn’t justify the ‘up’ in ‘uphill’. But I’m commenting with my L-plates on so please take only what’s helpful. Good luck!