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Hi Ethereal, if you look again at "ant since" and "an insect" you'll get what one of those 2 possible solutions gives you.

The is a third one too in the clue ....

THERE is.....

19 d still got me stumped. Is there an ‘n’ in it?

Hi Sticker, no - it's an anagram of "A Mess Wet" and is the name of "wartime emergency gear for pilots" and also a famous Hollywood actor and sex symbol.

Wow! What a clever thing to use three words to make one example.
Thanks, you two, so much.

Trying to find the theme here ... (indicated in 2/23 down)

Something biblical/pontifical? Several clues have that sort of air about them..
or
I see several occurrences of a third person plural personal pronoun in the across rows, but that hardly seems like a theme although it seems beyond coincidence too. What's going on?...

Hi Jvector

What theme? I didn't think there was one. But then, I can't get either 2d or 9ac. These are my last ones. Thanks to the forum for 19d and 26d. I thought 21 an excellent clue.

9ac Potential share for peacemaker - that's how this ends (5)
I have S?O?D. The O comes from Barny above.
2d Time inside too cold at first - being kept under wraps (8)
I have ?O?E?T?Y. Once again the O comes from Barny

I think I may have now got 9ac, but am still in doubt about 2d, but I must go to bed now.

Jvector

I think the theme is the word THEME itself, it appears 7 times, I think.

Roof

9a is the last 5 letters of what, for example, the Everyman and Guardian Prize ...... are (it's also a weapon)

2d is a word meaning "doing something secretly" and is the usual abbreviation for 'Cold' followed by a word meaning "too excess" aroung the usual abbreviation for 'Time'.

9a is the last 5 letters of what, for example, the Everyman and Guardian Prize ...... are (it's also a weapon) ... and, biblically, turned into ploughshares by the peacemakere, which explains the clue in 9a.

The use of THEME was very clever, I completely missed it although I did see 'THEM' ! And 2/23 describes the crossword itself.