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I have an answer to 13a that means “more lean” but apart from the common abbreviation for student I don’t understand where the rest of it comes from.

15a similarly, a word meaning boasting fits in but looking for an explanation pls.

5d what is the pet part?

Some pleasing clues today but no real standouts for me. A nice quick solve, helped by the rhyming pair in the Everymans that I would never have known about if it was not for this forum.

Hi FemmeNoire,

13a - I'm sure your answer is correct. As you say, it's the single letter abbr. for "student" followed by a 7 letter slang/dialect word meaning "not so clean" minus it's first letter, an abbr. of "money" .

15a - 5 letter "character from Nato (alphabet)" around a 2 letter abbr. meaning "nowadays" - definition is "boasting".

5d - Is a homophone/"noisily" "Pet" as in 'sulk' - definition is "bellowed".

Not too difficult i feel. FOI 1A, LOI 16D. My COD is 10A. Enjoyed the rhyming pair and liked 23A a lot. Need to stay calm now for the North London derby, hope the finishing is as smooth as appears to be the case in this forum and that we are 24D at the end.

Hi Yevrah,

My gang managed to lose from a winning position today, again! Still, we're 7th in the table and if we manage to stay there or thereabouts I'll more than happy:-)

Thanks for the help Brendan. I have never come across that meaning for pet - regional maybe?

i'm not seeing how the heroin and cocaine fit in to 7d, or increasingly warped in 27

favourite also 23

off to golf now - ugh, it's pouring - so response will be delayed!

Chrise, increasingly warped is a rather loose comparative word.
Also, usual one letter abbreviation for heroin inside slang term for cocaine beginning with t.

All done, I think. Just can’t parse 25ac. My low quality answer would come quite a long way down the order, I just can’t find the Spanish wine, or even the staff surrounding it.

Hi Richard,

25a - First 4 letters are "Spanish wine" + 3 letters for "consumed" around a 2 letter abbr. for "personnel" - definition is "low-quality".

25a - I put in the answer that fitted the definition 'low quality', then saw the last 3 letters meant 'consumed', the previous 2 were a personnel department, so the remaining 4 had to be a Spanish wine - and Google confirmed it