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Richard, totally agree with you on 9d. Reading up on that event I see it was inspired by the sermons of a particular cleric so could indeed be described as pastoral.

I found this very difficult, and a bit loose in places. In contrast to Brendan, I don't like clues like 25a - guess the answer, then parse.

I agree about 9d.

There is a homophone indicator in 24, jono - "for audience".

Oh of course, thanks Chris!

Struggled for ages then they seemed to fall into place with no logic or explanation. I wonder if emulate in 3d also helps understanding 1a. But that could be stretching things a bit far. Did not like 7d. Liked 24a. Wish you all a good day.

Agree with comments about 9D ... terrific clue and what this setter does best - witty and apposite anagrams. '3 down' is a common cricketing term, and an ingenious red herring in a crossword, so no problem with that, but I still couldn't parse 1A hours after finishing the whole puzzle, so thanks for the explanation Mathi (it was 'second' that threw me). Agree with Chrise re 25A: undoubtedly an 'Ahhh' moment once the (guessed) answer is in place, but almost impossible to work out from the clue alone, so not really fair imo.
PS Re 4D, has the setter got a holiday home in SE France? I'm sure that place cropped up a few weeks ago, too!

Hi all, new to this so sorry if I'm not replying the right way. Enjoyed today's but can't get 20d have -i-l-t. Any help welcome! Thanks, Lucy

welcome lucy
20 is also the name of a flower. one of the loose clues i referred to earlier

Chris, if you take tone to mean colour or shade, becomes less loose

it was more the "aggressive" that i thought loose

Ah! Got it thanks Chris and Lupus. Could the abandoned knight be a missing "n" from the answer, giving a synonym for aggressive? Tricky with the K-night...