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That is clever, but the first two and final letters of the actual (plural) answer don't seem accounted for by the wordplay. Is that right?

Sorry jono, penny not dropping. Do you mean that the first two letters are a homophone for “or”?

Castafiore, yes that’s the way I read it, unless anyone else has a better idea.

OK, thanks. That feels unsatisfactory, though. But I can't see any other possibility.

Difficult enough but a reasonable workout from Brendan. I'm not seeing the parsing of the writing part in 13a. I also think the definition is a bit loose in 10a. If anything the answer means the opposite no?

FOI 10a. LOI 5d. COD 18a because the parsing made me laugh.

Thanks to Brendan. Not sure about next week as I solved it already over the bank holiday before they took it down.

Hi rocky
I think the writing part in 13 is the first and fourth letters, reversed.
I was puzzled by the definition for 10 too, so it was only pencilled in for some time.

Hi rocky
10 is a footballing tactic, which can result in a yellow card.

My version has a P already present as second letter of 24A!!

Nearly there have four more to go. With 1d my last 2 crossers are W & Y is that right.

I think that 5a is a mountain but I can’t parse it

Hi birder: yes you have the right crossers (def is last 3 words) and you’re right about 5a. It’s a whole clue cryptic definition.