I’d the privilege of meeting Nestor briefly at the Listener setters’ dinner on the day this puzzle appeared. I told him I’d struggled with it on the train, but I think he assured me the Nestor puzzles were quite easy!
Solving time: 68 mins. As always with Nestor, perhaps partly reflecting not growing up in the UK, a very different and innovative approach.
Not a fully thought out blog but happy to step in for Neildubya
ACROSS
1 BULL(y)INGDON CLUB
10 EX HUMER(i)
11 NO CAN DO cf Knockand0
13 EL AND Elevated railway in the US. New approach to that crossword regular!
14 E VER SO Verso
15 FORSOOTH (indeed), I think, but not understood “Sooty friend enters so as to be revealed indeed”
20 KIPPER “Cure occupant of bed?” !!!
26 TOUS LES
27 V AMP(I)RE cf ampere
28 YO URE TELL ING ME y o (meringue)* not sure about tell = ‘poker player’s weakness’ it seems
DOWN
2 (l) UN (H IN) GE
4 NER (U) D A
8 BLOODTHIRS TIER (orbits hold)*
16 SPI (DER MA) N
19 SE PP UK U My last entry (appropriately enough)
21 PRE M (I) UM Pre-mum!
22 SNIVEL Levin’s< I think
15ac: Difficult for anyone not growing up in the UK! “Sooty friend” is SOO (panda friend of the bear in the TV children’s series featuring glove puppets); in FORTH this gives FORSOOTH
15 looks like SOO (Sooty the glove puppet’s girlfriend) in adverbial FORTH.
Don’t know whether you’re asking about KIPPER – if so, it’s a dd with vb and ‘one having a kip’.
A poker player’s “tell” is the habit they display, unconsciously, e.g. a nervous twitch, a tapping of the fingers etc., that might give away whether or not they are bluffing.