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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Trask

As jono said, pretty obscure, though she did establish a prize for young writers.

Thanks ChrisE

I'd never have got that one. As usual, I started late and broke off to tie in some of next year's raspberry canes before the week gets too hot. I started well for me, getting five on first read through and a further two possibles I can't parse. I'll have to wait to get some crossers for 2d and17d. Is the definition of 2d an old orator? Is 17d a simple anagram. I can't see a definition. All the other answers that look like anagrams are complicated ones.

I haven't got an idea yet for the 14s, but wait for the penny to drop. Can someone give me a hint for 5d and 16ac to get me going? I thought the former would be an anagram, but can't find one.

It would be very pleasant sitting here in the garden with my laptop apart from all the noise emanating from the other back gardens. What are they doing?

2d contains an old orator. 16a is a nice anagram. 5d builds up 2,4,4, with the last 4 reversed.

I found some of these hard to parse and had to come here to get 22D.

Can't parse 24A (first letter anyway).

24a double definition (first two words) then wordplay 1,4

Ah ok cheers, didn't realise it was also a name of a bird.

Neither did I PDS.

Many thanks to Chris for help especially with 16ac. I'd assumed it was an anagram, but couldn't work out of what. I looked for one with an e in it and solved it with an anagram solver. That made it easier to get 14d and then 14ac. Like Rocky, 7 I finished it, mainly by guessing a word that would fit and then parsing it. I'm still not sure about one or two of my answers, eg 11ac, 12ac, 23d, 3d and 7d, but they'll have to do.

My FOI was 10ac, closely followed by 13ac. My LOI was 7d. My CODs were 13ac and the 14s. I can't say I found it easy, but managed to race through the last lot. I've never heard of that word for a military parade ground in 9ac. Thank goodness there wasn't any football.

Where is Brendan? Thank you to Geeker for starting us off.

11A parses as 3 letter "including" + 3 letter "staff" which has a single letter "with" inside it.

12A: "a foreign" (2) + "bloke" (4) containing "classy" (1)

23D: South + American containing Bishop. This may be related to football ;)

3D: 2 letter "my yacht" (bit weak that though) containing a reversed capital city.

7D: France, once (but missing last letter, think Asterix) containing 3 letter leaves.

I meant "motor yacht" not my yacht obviously ;)

Thank you chrise for 22D. Would never have guessed that.