Probably should be fiendish... my bad. It's my first grid.

Pretty decent grid! My biggest issue is the verb category; it might be a bit too broad, but that could just be me. For a first grid, this is pretty good.

Hmmmm. You're saying Palm-Palm sounds like xxx-xxx? Here in the UK it doesn't. Note to self - take author's location into account before starting. You've just added a new dimension to my puzzgridding!

Thanks for the grid. The "Dough" group connection feels unconvincing, and the "Butter" connection too broad. Also, you could swap "Chest" with two of the answers from the "Butter" group and still fit the stated correct answers, which means the grid actually has more than one way to correctly solve it which is frustrating. Very challenging though - I look forward to seeing future grids from you! :-)

@Lebamski: I don't see the "chest" problem, because it doesn't fit in the "butter" group. Or is there another UK meaning of "Chest" I'm missing?

To Chest: verb - to propel off the chest in football. My issue was that there are 8 that could fit into the Chest group... and seven into the Rubber group which made it a matter of luck getting the right combinations. Palm and P** is a stretch! Thanks for setting!

@JonBob: Exactly what FirstGofer said. The problem is really with the connection of the "Butter" group - with a connection that broad you run the risk of other clues fitting into it without even realising. I agree with FirstGofer's feedback that there are simply too many red herrings for a couple of groups - something of which I've definitely been guilty in my own grids in the past. Getting the balance between an enjoyable hard/fiendish grid and three minutes of hitting and hoping is certainly tricky.

Thanks for the suggestions. "Chest" as a verb seemed uncommon enough that I was happy with the groupings, but I now agree that "verbs" is too vague of a theme in the first place.

Palm as "päm" seems to be the far more common pronunciation of the word, but it may be a bit unfair.

The palm/pom homophone is perfectly ok. In Standard American English the vowel sound in eg "god" is similar to that in the English pronunciation of "guard". Still a fiendish link though.