Cryptic crossword No 3,107

Hi Hecate. Thanks for the puzzle which is the first of yours that I've tried. You set yourself a tricky challenge with the theme but I think you managed to avoid too many unusual words in the process. There are a few construction issues that you may want to work on for next time but I enjoyed 18d, 5d, 13d and 14a.

Hello Hecate! Firstly, congratulations on filling the grid so well with such a potentially constricting theme. That must have been fun🤩. I managed to solve everything without cheating, so I guess I got on your wavelength. I put ticks by 14a, 21a, 12d, 16d, 18d and 23d (after deciding ‘gone’ was ok as an anagrind). More below…

7a indeed, that was fun (you won't believe how long it took me to notice the obvious!) FOI was 14a which I thought was very neatly clued. Other faves 12a,17a,25a and 12d,22d

I enjoyed that! Was helped by the theme once I clocked it, and that must have been a challenge to set (do we have another 25 to come??) I struggled with 12a but got there in the end. Among those I enjoyed, my favourite was (of course) 20a and I thought 12d and 22d were really neat.