Club Monthly 20182 – November 2015

This was much harder than last month’s! I did have most of it done after an hour, but mopping up the odd bits might have taken nearly as long again. I had trouble pinning down 2dn, partly because there are so many variant spellings, and 25ac which is not in Collins or Chambers, though it is in the ODO. Solvers need to be aware that there is no single reference source for this crossword, as there is for the Mephisto. Quite right too imo, the thrill of the chase is half the fun..
Once again I observe that what took me the best part of two hours has taken Magoo 17mins 25 seconds, that is just an awesome time.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online, OED = Oxford English Dictionary, etc.

Across
1. Tree has sort of perch in black and gold (7)
BABASSU – BASS (sort of perch) in B(lack) + AU (gold, abbreviation of the latin “aurum”) …aurum still turns up from time to time in other places, besides the periodic table: eg James Bond famously battled Auric Goldfinger
5. You initially should wear pants, boy in Highlands argued (7)
NYAFFED – Y(ou) in NAFF + ED (boy). Not personally a huge fan of boy = any short, male, christian name, but too handy a device for setters to forswear, I think
9. Roll amazes, prepared with unknown cheeses (11)
MOZZARELLAS – *(ROLL AMAZES + Z)  .. z being one of the three standard unknowns
10. Scottish join in brief admission of carelessness (3)
OOP – OOP(s), a word that is in Chambers as an alternative spelling of OUP, but not, remarkably, in the ODO, in Collins or even in the OED
11. Church close to rectory on field subject to drainage (6)
LEACHY – LEA (field) + CH + (rector)Y
12. Old reservists see inside method — and also vote against (4,4)
WAVY NAVY – V (see) in WAY (method) + V again, inside NAY (vote against). The Royal Naval Reserve, maritime equivalent of the TA, had (have?) the same stripes as the regular navy but wavy, hence the term. Some very famous members of the RNR and RNVR, eg Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier, Ian Fleming, Ben Fogle…
14. Girl so represented in art of Eastern religion (13)
ZARATHUSTRIAN – ZARA (girl: “cheap Spanish clothes shop” more difficult to clue) + THUS (so) + *(IN ART). Zarathustra, more commonly Zoroaster, was a precursor by about 2500 years of L Ron Hubbard
17. Recalled stain covering old hospital photos capturing plant with sword-shaped leaves (13)
XIPHOPHYLLOUS – all rev (except the plant): O(ld) in SULLY (stain) + H(ospital) + HOP (plant) + PIX (photos)
21. Ready in good time once the right pair assembled (8)
RATHRIPE – *(THE R(ight) PAIR)
23. Cross after brasserie emptied by gong and loud buzzer (6)
BEMBEX – B(rasseri)E + MBE (gong) + X (cross)
25. Journalists brought about change in N Korea (3)
JUN – NUJ (National Union of Journalists) rev. An easy clue but hard to confirm as Jun is not in Chambers (which has chon) or in Wikipedia or Collins or the OED… but it is in ODO and, I’m told, in the Concise Oxford too. Not just hard to find but of vanishingly small value.. roughly one millionth of a Euro! Or about 0.00000072p
26. Plant in medium Yorkshire town mostly not that great ultimately (4,7)
MILK THISTLE – THIS (not that) in M(edium) + ILKLE(Y) (Yorkshire town mostly)
27. Dare perhaps to enter joint after flipping frenzied females! (7)
MAENADS – DAN (Dare, perhaps) in SEAM (joint), all rev. Ahh, Dan Dare.. and Digby.. and the Mekon.. happy days!
28. One knight holding sword back, trapping another in cone-shaped mesh (7)
KEEPNET – so.. N (knight, chess notation) in EPEE (sword) rev., all in KT (another knight, also chess notation from an earlier era). One of my last in, partly because I couldn’t work out what the “cone-shaped” was doing there. Collins says: “a cylindrical net…” ODO and OED make no comment about shape. But Chambers does say “cone-shaped.” So, not like any of these, then

Down
1. Fish from seat ace watch (6)
BUMALO – BUM (seat) + A(ce) + LO (watch). My first in, eyebrow raisd a millimetre over the rude word but hey, it’s the 21stC
2. Dealing informally with sound of snoring stifling a flamboyant vigour (7)
BIZZAZZ – BIZ (dealing, informally) + A in ZZZ, the sound of snoring. This ought to have been an easy clue but I got a bit caught up in the many and varied alternative spellings for this word.. Chambers lists 10 of them. And how many Zs make a snore? More than three, at least when my wife does them
3. Some scepticism as hero overcomes supreme being (9)
SMASHEROO – hidden in scepticiSM AS HERO Overcomes
4. Pulp stripped out of prickly shrub (4)
ULEX – (p)UL(p) + EX (out of, as in deus ex machina perhaps)
5. Repeated invalid answer, getting stick Down Under (5-5)
NULLA-NULLA – NULL (invalid) + A(nswer), twice. A waddy.
6. Rabbis very regularly giving the basics (5)
ABSEY – every other letter of rAbBiS vErY. A variant spelling of ABC presumably designed to confuse children
7. Rug elevated floor area in lift fantastically (7)
FLOKATI – A(rea) + KO (floor) rev. in *(LIFT). A Greek rug, they were all the rage in the late ’60s, I seem to recall. Around when Habitat opened.
8. Perjury by Ulster politicians coming back again in Caledonian court (8)
DUPLYING – DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) + LYING (perjury)
13. Dodgy lymphatics possessed by grasping person? (5,5)
ITCHY PALMS – *(LYMPHATICS), a very neat anagram
15. A rock or two held by pin, note (9)
THOLEIITE – THOLE (pin) + TE (note), a drink with jam and bread according to Julie Andrews
16. Preserve following regulation old public transport to convey a judge (5,3)
EXTRA JAM – EX (old) + A J(udge) in TRAM (public transport)
18. Stroke, but not repeatedly, having arms expanding out (7)
PATONCE – ie pat once, ha ha
19. When climbing, stick protection on foot (7)
SABATON – AS (when) rev. + BATON (stick)
20. Cut out and tick uninitiated message boxes (6)
EXSECT – SEC (tick, ie moment) in (T)EXT (uninitiated message)
22. Game business graduate makes dance (5)
RUMBA – RU (game, ie rugby union) + MBA (business graduate)
24. Fur-coated creature visiting fair (4)
ATOK – AT (visiting) OK (fair). A type of skunk, apparently