Cryptic crossword No 690

Having not posted a puzzle in ages I challenged myself to get the juices flowing again by setting one from start to finish in a day (with a regular life intermingling). All of which is to say - apologies in advance for any glitches! No theme or tricks, aside from those which arose naturally...

That’s seriously good work, Alf, to put that together in (part of) a day. I found it a relatively gentle solve (suits me!) which is even more impressive since accessible puzzles can be harder to set than tricky ones. Amongst lots of great clues, I’ll pick out these for special mention: 12A, 21A, 24A, 5D, 9D, 14D and 23D 18A. Minor spoiler in reply.

Nice one - particularly amused by 9D and 23D/18A. I see you've tweaked 17D, which was the only quibble I had.

Thanks Alf, top stuff ... a great day's work! (You must have had at least one or two of those already in the back of your mind?) Favourites 16a, 25a, 1d (even though I'd prefer "- they're served with..." as definition), 2d, 17d (now it's updated!), 19d and 20d. Thanks again!

Hi Alf. I said it would go on high on my list and it did - but it's taken me two days to comment, for which my apols. Hard to tell it was put together in a day - though it was somewhat more approachable than some of your others. Favourites include: 10a, 13a, 24a, 26a, 9d (lol). Thanks. PM