Quite an enjoyable accompaniment to the tennis this morning. Have managed to complete it during end changes so it can’t have been too hard! I agree that the first word of clue 16 needed to be a synonym of ‘most’ (but can understand this is tricky and may end up as something like ‘ultimate professorialness’ which is rather horrid). My COD was 15d as it has reminded me I need to do our big garden birdwatch as soon as the tennis has finished!
By 'ec, this was a struggle while the (very tricky) 1A remained unsolved. Once that was in, another six or seven fell into place in no time. I'm still mystified by 25A. Are we talking Humpty Dumpty? If so, that's one hell of a tenuous clue.
I may be being v stupid (which would not be unusual) but, although 16 was my last one in, I can't see a problem with its parsing. First 2 words = definition; then one letter for tenor and the rest meaning most insipid ....
It’s just that the first two words don’t really lead to the …est form. Extremely ….y isn’t really the same as …iest. It’s nit picking but that what we do!
I'm up for nit picking! What I had a concern about was trying to remember if I have ever used or seen the adjective, it's comparative and here it's superlative. Without the first letter yes, but with it, I don't think so.