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Just finished. I recently learned Home Counties from another puzzle so that was not a problem for me, but someone will have to explain 11 for me. Just the definition; the parsing is clear enough.

I’m fine with 1d. I took it as “frequently” hiding in “sneaky”. The one I have a quibble with is 19d. That is not the correct usage for “judo practitioner”. The word in question doesn’t stand alone without a preceding ordinal. I also really didn’t care for the homophone in 27, but on the other hand greatly appreciated 25, as you might expect.

11a: two letter abbreviation for say, two letters for George Cross abbreviated, then three letters for happy times.

Mathprof, I stand corrected, 1d is sound and your parsing perfect. Senior moment on my part.

Thanks Mystogre for the parsing of 21a. I had forgotten that "tiny, little" word. That's a very broad/generic description for Home Counties. I guess it's currently the all-inclusive way to describe it.

11a: Sorry I didn’t read your comment clearly. I Googled this term. I see that ‘boiled eggs with soldiers’ is a type of breakfast. So, I guess 11a goes along with the word soldiers

Chambers supports the judo term as relating to an individual who has attained a certain level and also has the requisite definition for soldiers I was pleasantly surprised to see ;-)

Amaryllidacaea (sic) should be spelled ‘eae’ at the end though I think, (gardeners may correct me)

Like others, found this on the harder side for Everyman, but that’s no bad thing and nice to see all the Everyman hallmarks in play (including a bit of unnecessary punctuation ;-)

No one else got a problem with 9D? I can't believe there's any other answer than the one I've got. And it surely must be an anagram. But of what? No matter which combinations of words I use, I can't get all the letters to fit. Can anyone help?

Scratch that. After staring at it for an hour, it came to me a second after posting. As ever!

Yes, quite tricky. Last two were the 1s - I agree that 1a was difficult because it was so easy!
I wouldn't ever have got 18 without electronic help.
Favourite 3d - do they still exist?

A definite step up in both difficulty and quality - excellent:-)