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Pellet is wrong Bcc...17D and 26A are "traces"

Thanks ixion.

Have the theme, phrase, & all the rest.
Those two crossing unclued are the enigma.
Removing PELLET (seemed reasonable) leaves:
26A: S??N & 17D: ?EL??T
Those letters are from clued entries, except for N (18D) & that is a "trace".

Only idea is that it is SI?N.
One possible answer for that, but ?ELI?T doesn't give me a plausible word.

Never mind. Chambers to the rescue!

Got it now. Thanks for the nudge.

Re 12A: you Brits have such colourful phrases.