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Hi Rickye, for 27, what do people often call their home hi-fi-systems? For 28, it's a pre-metric Russian measure of distance minus the V of velocity giving an old English word meaning "former".

Huge thanks.

Annoyingly I had miscoded start of 22d so my instincts for 27 were correct.
Good view from the top of Everest thanks yo the Sherpas.

Thanks Keepatit

I thought I'd add my two-penneth regarding this one. The Playfair system is entirely new to me, and I found this a very difficult puzzle. However, 4 days in I had 90% of the clue answers which was enough, with a lot of trial and error to work out the contents of the coding square. 41 and 23a were essential. I found some clues very difficult, but fun to do. Personally I like the challenge of being forced to solve each clue independently. My only query with the clues was the word 'up' in 12d. Overall, very enjoyable, very tough, but not impossible. The 4 unclued answers needs just a lightbulb moment

In my ancient, falling-apart, edition of Chambers "up" can mean "on horseback" so I think the clue is OK.

Barretter,

Quite right! Thanks for that - should've looked shouldn't I?

Saddleworthian, we all do that. It's not clear from your post if you have solved the 4 unclued entries. If you haven't, the theme is the second part of the Playfair phrase.

Barretter

Thanks once again. I had in fact got the 4 unclued entries but hadn't made that clear...all in all a thoroughly good puzzle.

meursault, was it really necessary to post the whole of the key when no-one was asking you to? If you want to be helpful, why go against what people are requesting?

I have never seen any solver on here ask for more than a nudge towards the next step, or parsing of the last few clues. I would have been very annoyed if I'd read to the end of your post without realising what you were about to say. Working out the Playfair key (which was possible 'progressively') was the only real PDM in what was otherwise a tough slog.

This site is much more encouraging than AB towards new solvers and I am grateful for your and others' expertise. But perhaps you should stop worrying about the self-imposed rules of that other site. This seems to be your motivation for giving unsolicited spoilers. Surely there's a middle ground for just the hints people ask for?