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Last 2 - and this has been the most difficult Everyman for many years.
23D "At the outset, straining posterior muscle produces an amusing noise."
I have s...t

25A "White lie, mostly tall story ultimately."
I have ..l.

23d SPLAT - S(training) P(osterior) + LAT (Muscle)

25a LILY - LI(e) + (tal)L + (stor)Y

brendan
I struggled with LILY too. May I ask whether you got the hint from "white"?
I checked "white" in Chambers, dictionary and thesaurus, but there was no mention of "lily", yet on looking up "lily" there was "white".
It seems to be back-to-front to me.
I've just checked my print copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, after blowing the dust off, and "lily" is included in a list of whites.

Hi Pedagogue, I did sort of 'backward engineer it. There were already a whole host of clues that relied on either initial or last letters and, as this one had 'tall story' ultimately, I guessed this was another. In addition, I already had the first L from the 'Splat answer', another clue relying on initial letters. That gave me L?LY so it became clear that the definition was 'White' - that said, I have a feeling that much of this crossword wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny.

"most abstruse", "least clever", rather than "most difficult".
Come back Everyman, all is forgiven ...