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Much like last week, I found this this to be pretty impenetrable in places, so no doubt everyone else will find it an absolute doddle!

Some of the definitions were quite opaque, but that's not to say that they weren't fair.

I still haven't completely parsed 6,3d but the answer is clear. Also, I did get hung up on 13d for a while but, once I'd changed the last letter, all became clear.

My COD is 25,23a, which I think is just excellent.

Thanks to Paul for a very good workout:-)

Just figured out the last bit of parsing for 6,3d.

I found it hard but was at least able to finish. I found last week's totally intractable and gave up! As an American, (6,3) and especially (15,2) were extremely tough, and I had to Google to confirm my guess for the latter. Over the years I've usually been able to get on Paul's wavelength, but recently he seems to have massively upped the level of difficulty.

Hi Geeker,

I can see how an American would have trouble with 6,3. For 15,2 I was lucky that I did the Jac..... reb.. at school in history class.

Agree some of the definitions here are rather tangential. Rather liked 20 though and always happy to find a cricketing reference.

Hi Jonjo,

Agree 20a is good and the cricketing reference clue was my LOI - I just couldn't see it. I also really liked 26a, which did make me smile:-)

26a Ha! Yes I totally fell for the camel trap

Re 26a - ditto:-)

Yeah, this was a slog. I got 8a right off the bat and started chasing for Gilbert and Sullivan references. That didn't last long!

I'm not from the UK, so I had no clue what to do with 15 2 or 6 3. I liked 20, 23 25, and 26 made me groan (as intended?).

I'm still not 100% sure how to parse 17. I'm currently seeing evergreens "fenced" by three letters, but I don't see how that relates to spruce.

gwello - your three letters are the middle of a five-letter word for spruce (not the tree).