Cryptic crossword No 2,586

Cracking stuff. 5d is superb. i got 16d but still can't see the wordplay bit. 14a is my favourite. Made me smile. Off to delete my search history now after 10a 🤣

Great to have a puzzle from you again! I found it quite a bit harder than some of yours (too clean?) and revealed a few, but plenty of fun and clever clues that I did get. Especially liked 5a,14a, 18a,20a (clicked very nicely), and 5d,8d (COTD),15d. You bested me on 9a and it took me ages to see how it worked, but that's very clever!

Thanks Waxon. This took me a while over a few sessions, and I'm happy to have succeeded in the end. 12d was LOI, likely due to the punctuation; 24a tricked me technique-wise. Some favs include: 14a, 23a, 7d, 15d, 16d, 18a, 22d. Consider enabling annotations if you have them and/or definitions, but then again, it's more challenging without them. Thanks again.