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ukridge - for that 9 letter answer it's 3 letters for 'florid' one of the usual gold abbrevs then the initial letters (one of them surplus) all reversed - it's a slang version of the last word.

brendan - I think there might be a typo in dsc's capitals (and the other rave reviews are coming from the spreadsheet + excel set, I think) I hope you're not as disappointed as I was when I finished this load of...

Yes, murky - the missing archaism indicator irked me too, as did the jigsaw arrangement (how is that necessary other than to make the process even more of a grind?) and some of the defs made me wince - and as for the end result...

On a positive note, the 3 letter words help (especially the middle letters).

Thank you drxx. Got it.
I've shared your assessment of previous puzzles so your opinion of this one doesn't bode well.

Thanks Drxx, the middle letters you refer to in the 3's is exactly the reason I chose them, that and the fact that the number of 3 letter clues exactly matches the number of 3 letter spaces .

Not sure how a spreadsheet would help massively. Anyway, I didn’t use one and for me this is my POTY.

Clearly a marmite puzzle as quisling said but, drxx, did you not even admire the construction just a tiny bit?

For what it's worth...
I've cold solved 21 of the clues and would dearly love to carry on and our something in the grid. I don't wish to depart from the etiquette of this third but hope it is fair to ask the following. Is the three letter word at the start of the third column the answer to the clue beginning 'If in Hawaii" ? If not I'll go back to the sandbank and have a good cry.

Well, I am persevering (I have to - I’m a Leither) and after a couple of days of cold solving I think I may just have made my first grid entry….🙄

ws, yes it is, hold your tears!

thx Dsc
Tomorrow is another day!

candledave, yes - the clues are cleverly constructed and read well and that mitigates my comment regarding some of the defs (but the setter still had a fair bit of room to manoeuvre overall).
That's about it for me - I'd have been less critical if I'd enjoyed even a fraction of the time it took me to cold-solve the 'chewy' clues and fill the grid (and clues in the normal order would certainly have helped there).