Sunday Express Skeleton

[RAKnightley]

Stuck on the last two:-
18 across - Disheartened engineer wearing lace - ??R?D
18 down - A letter opener of course pared this - ??I
Thanks

[rayzorless]

18d might be phi

[Toorak]

18d chi - c(ourse) (t)hi(s)

[Downsyboy]

Cored (cord around e)
Chi C cord opener with pared t(hi)s

[rayzorless]

in which case could 18a be cored

[Downsyboy]

C(course opener) I should have said

[dannyk13]

Cored
Chi

[Gill55]

How do you parse the the cored Danny. I can see cord (but is that lace) and disheartened engineer would just be the letter e. ?? I understand the cored as taking the heart out, but just the parsing

[Gill55]

Sorry, forget the my last post. I think I see it now. E for engineer and cord for lace.

[aelmpvw]

disheartened is the definition, synonym for cored