Sunday Express Skeleton

[yesterday]

21d River and lake in a little field (4) ???e
23a A drink you and I imbibe hot (4) ???e
Many thanks

[dannyk13]

Nile
Wine

[fiction-factory]

wine is 100% right - IN (hot/fashionable) in WE

NILE is almost certainly right but is much more awkward to parse. Nile is certainly a River (and a lake) but there were several ideas put forward as to the wordplay- none being entirely satisfactory

[dannyk13]

FF, decided that n'(and) + l(lake) inside (f)ie(ld) was the parse.

[fiction-factory]

Thanks. Yes, but I am not sure where the little comes in then (a little bit of the word fIEld?) and why the I and E are set before and after the L.
E is used as the symbol for a field (electromagnetic I recall) but that doesn't fully explain it either

[dannyk13]

FF, in the clue ' lake in a little(bit of) field' =ie

[fiction-factory]

Yes it can be made to work but the whole thing is too convoluted but maybe some cruciverbalists think this is clever clue setting

[dannyk13]

Par for the course in Skeleton crosswords.