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Wow! The archetypal 'game of two halves', with quite a few easier ones in the top half but lots of much more difficult ones in the bottom.

There is a theme, as Geeker and Rog have already said, but it's not an all encompassing one so, as such, didn't really help or hinder.

COD - 23d with 10a and 2d as runner-ups.

Thanks to Kite for an enjoyable and challenging Prize.

Stay safe:-)

One of the few occasions I saw the theme almost straight away and I think it even helped in a couple of places. I'm not sure about the parsing for 12 and 19 though. The latter makes me wonder if I got 5d wrong, which I have as a cringe-worthy homophone. Also, I think I get the meta clue in 8d (if that's the right term), but what happened to the second two letters of the middle word? I know the first letter is a common abbreviation, but does the rest of the answer work without the others? Rather convoluted questions so I don't know if anyone will understand what I'm talking about, but I don't want to give too much away. Otherwise, I thought it was a lot of fun.

I agree with 5d as a dubious homophone. Fits perfectly with 12 and 19: [SPOILER ALERT] seems like both (5,19) and (24,19) are 2-word thematics.
In 8, I think letters 2 and 3 of the solution's middle word are meant to be dropped: the remaining one letter plus the first word of the solution supply an anagrist.

Thanks, Geeker, I missed the idea of combining both 5 and 14 with the answer, although I'm not sure if "interpretation" describes their combination. I agree with your explanation of 8d, but I would have thought that you shouldn't drop letters from an anagram without indicating that they are dropped (which is difficult to do in a self-referential clue).

5d - I wondered if the homophone only referred to "you" (said) but the clue doesn't say which bit of "solvable" needs to be altered so, I don't know?

8d - I read this completely diddrently - isn't this literally what "bankers" do as they...? I can't see an instruction to drop certain letters to for an anagram.

Brendan, that's it on 5! It didn't sink in until I read your post.
"You said for a" indicates the letter substitution in "solvable".

OMG! I completely missed the "a" in the clue - I need help 🤕

Brendan, in 8 I see your point on dropping letters.
But if [the first word of the solution plus a 1-letter abbrev. of the second word] serve as anagrist, and [the third word of the solution] serves as anagrind, we get the mentioned word in the clue.
Can't be a coincidence IMO.

I'm much happier about 5d now - in fact, the letter switch puts it in COD contention. I'm still not happy about 8d for the reasons I stated earlier, although I'm sure Geeker has the right interpretation.