Cryptic crossword No 3,810

One clue, starting with the letter I, lacks dictionary support. Thank you.

Hi tpgrammar. This was great some unusual words and some unusual devices but all fairly clued and worth the effort. Big fan of 15d, 13a, 18a and 22d in particular

Glad I tackled this first thing rather than last thing- so much to be awake to! Your ongoing relationship with link words and phrases, for example- nice and new to me examples in 24a and 26a. New too was ‘inaugural’ in 18a. I liked the ‘lead’ in 9a. 19a was very neat, as was 21a. And 5d. Wonderful word in 14d. 15d was value for money. 20d was possibly my favourite. And 25d rounded things off nicely. Plus the alphabetic thing- it’s like having Araucaria back! Probably should have made time to do

Thanks tpg. I prefer to solve this sort of puzzle in the alphabet-jigsaw mode with pencil and paper but I didn't have access to a printer the last few days so I chose the conventional route. I enjoyed it nonetheless with my favourites being 11a, 16a, 1d, 8d, 12d, and 20d.

Thanks tpgrammar. An impressive grid given the constraints of constructing a jigsaw. I ducked the jigsaw as I definitely need crossers to complete most crosswords and this proved challenging enough though I could see a strategy for tackling the jigsaw. I felt quite smug completing 14d as a NHO, thanks to the clear clue. ...

Very enjoyable solve with lots of nice devices. Great to get an alphabetic grid fill with few obscurities. Favourites M, W and especially B! Last ones in C, G, K - partly due to an erroneous placement. (I did the pdf version). Spoilers in reply

I'd like to thank Liari for live-streaming a masterful solve of this puzzle (in harder mode): https://youtu.be/4d2fWJ-QcmU Thank you @Liari.