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D'oh - many thanks for putting me out of my misery, rogissimo!

Last one 22dn
I have T?E?T? and I can put in a word that sort of means surprises. However, I cannot parse it.
Any hints?

Griffin
The E is wrong, I’m afraid.

Griffin
You need the plural form for 23ac, which will give you the correct crosser.

I made that exact same mistake!

Thanks Rogissimo.
I missed the plural in 23ac and the answer is now obvious.
Have a good weekend.

Thanks, griffin: you too.

26a is another irritating lift and separate clue.
A word for "kind" as in "two of a", plus a synonym for ness.

Judging by the comments so far it does seem like this crossword is harder than usual.

Hi Brendan, I had a brief exchange with Boatman on Twitter in which he confirmed the Spenser reference we were deliberating earlier was his intent. I’ll link it if anyone’s interested. I think though hard it’s all been fair ;-)