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Oh dear, one of those puzzles that makes me feel even more of a dunce as so many are finding it easy. After grinding out the North and SE I am stuck with 21a (I have narrowed it down to a few shapes but cannot get it as am missing a crosser, 22d, 24a and 25d, none of which I even have theories about! Can someone please help put me out of my misery (compounded by year's first bout of hay fever)?

chrise: I’m a cyclist too and hadn’t heard of 11, but it looks as it it’s a motorcyclists’ thing.
3d: re rumours, I was thinking of the phrase ‘I’ve heard ****’ - the last letters are then the plural of ****. But it does feel a bit awkward.

21 is an anag of the first word in the clue, common crossword shape.

JustSolve: I’ll give you a hint for 22dn as it will give you crossers for two of your others: what the Sun emits (singular) 3 letters, around the ‘judge’ in a football match.
For 25dn, also think football for the definition. Parses cryptically as 1,3.

22 parses as 3 (judge) inside 3 (sun's issue), defn. "thin" (vb).

i didn't give my cod. it's 1d, for not doing what qaos usually does!

21a is an anagram
24a is an anagram with a 2 letter word for a hesitation
25d is 1 & 3
22d is a three letter work within another 3 letter word

A pretty tough crossword. I’ve completed the bottom half but have 8 clues left to do in the top half

Thanks for all the help, would never have got there on my own, not on Qaos's wavelength today but no quibbles about any of the cluing.

I'm stuck on 18 and 19 - I may well have 23 wrong as I can't parse it ... can anybody help please?

18 parses 2,1,4
19 is an anagram
which 23?