Very clever and again I “nearly” got them all. Honest. :)

That was a headscratcher

So the only connections are the first letters. I don't mind the idea behind it but it needed better connections than that.

Agreed Frog it was tricky to spot but there are very few homographs to choose from that could make effective clues- having additional similar meanings or commonalities was something I couldn't find, I'm afraid. Why don't you have a go? It's a lot of fun

You are so very clever