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XIJ, the first three and the last letter of your answer are the 'mark'. The remaining letters, reading upwards, are the first half of a word, an unusual word (for me) meaning 'exhausted'.

There's always something I can't fathom, even when I've finished the puzzle and checked comments here. This time I'm struggling to see how 'get back' in 28ac contributes PYC to the answer.

ionacarr - ist 3 letters reversed are a synonym for 'get' + cuba (single) + Niger (double reversed)

Thank you crates - and of course my mistake was to transliterate from the English version of the required answer, not paying enough attention to what the preamble says about it. One day I may get the hang of solving these, but it's as well it wasn't one of this year's resoltuions.

I can't see any definition for 15a. Any help welcome!

Hi ethic,

15ac is an “&lit.” clue. The whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay. The answer is basically an old word for a type of poplar.

The penny has dropped. Thanks!

Has anyone noticed the significance of the name in 2ac? Well known in N. Am. Just Google it!

sammina @ 48

And indeed well known in the UK! Almost an &lit. He has recently started publishing his work online.

Feel like I'm making harder work of this than I should be. I have 2 left, 1d and 26a. Have answers I don't understand for 20 and 17 - can someone confirm 20 is a highway and 17 is an old name for 28 and one of the 2 features?

Assuming they are correct, then I need a number somewhere in 1 / 26 and one of them must be a 'device', presumably from 2019 (or possibly 1899). Can someone confirm this last sentence is correct without giving anything else away (still trying to solve (largely) unaided).

Many thanks