Club Monthly 20206 – November 2017

Just over forty minutes for this, in two sessions, so a little easier than average for me. Entertaining as always, and although there is the usual high number of classical and archaic references, there are also a couple of welcome modern ones too, such as 4dn and 15ac.

Dictionaries: The Club Monthly uses several dictionaries. The main ones are the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD), Collins, and Chambers. I use Chambers, the online Collins dictionary, and the ODO. I also use the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

If I have not explained an answer fully enough, do please ask.

Please note that the closing date for entries for this prize crossword is now the last day of each month … also, there is now no way of finding out if my solution is all-correct or not, until after this blog is published

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

Across
1	Favourable review cheers fool when making cake (12)
	PUFFTALOONAS – PUFF (favourable review) + TA (cheers) +LOON (fool) + AS (when)
9	Good luck to Hamish’s boy, and his niece, taking finals (5)
	SONSE – SON (boy) + (hi)S (niec)E. All my knowledge of Scots dialect comes from a wonderful series of books by George Macdonald-Fraser about his time in the Gordon Highlanders, starting with “The General Danced at Dawn”
10	Waited — in shiny coat — years to take part of Romeo (9)
	LACQUEYED – LACQUERED (shiny coat) with the R replaced by Y
11	Bird used to lament audibly (8)
	WOODWALE – homophone: “would wail”
12	Back at home, fine storing gold coins for Balt (6)
	KROONI – IN (at home), + OR (gold) in OK (fine), all rev. Estonian currency, replaced by the Euro in 2011
13	Cured meat swallowed, choking key judge (4-4)
	SALT-JUNK – ALT (key) + J(udge) in SUNK (swallowed)
15	A certain cricket jersey in which yours truly’s batting for the Irish (6)
	JIMINY – JERSEY, with the ERSE (Irish) replaced by I’M IN
17	Eggs to the left on metal leaving unknown hollow part (6)
	INCAVO – (Z)INC + OVA (eggs) rev.
18	Old chemist having vehicle not working on Thursday (4,4)
	VANT HOFF – VAN (vehicle) + TH(ursday) + OFF. Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Jr – a famous chemist, winner of the first ever Nobel Prize for chemistry. The usual convention of ignoring necessary punctuation leads to a rather awkward result here, however.
20	One can put in weight, risking something bouncing? (6)
	KITING – I TIN in KG (weight).
21	Sees body badly, having a squint (4-4)
	BOSS-EYED – *(SEES BODY). These days it would have to be “optically challenged” or similar ..
24	Whale is so out of place in large groups of fish (9)
	SHOALWISE – *(WHALE IS SO)
25	Measure of brightness that would be reversed by degrees (5)
	STILB – well, reversing stilb gives BLITS, or BLits, bachelors of literature. Not my favourite clue, this .. why the conditional?
26	Shoot back across lounge briefly with, say, 2 social workers’ bags (7,5)
	PALAZZO PANTS – LAZ(e) in ZAP (shoot) rev. + OP + ANTS (social workers). And why the OP? Well, 2dn is one. This took me a while to parse!

Down
1	African rhino passes water, raising tail with a shudder at first (7)
	PESEWAS – PEES (passes water), with the S raised, + W(ith) A S(hudder). A pesewa is 1/100 of a Ghanaian cedi. Worth 0.17p, and only that much because in 2007 four noughts were removed.
2	Entertaining party, one leaving politician prepared for gathering in theatre (14)
	FUNDOPLICATION – FUN (entertaining) + DO (party) + *(POLITICIAN), with an i removed. A surgical procedure I’m far too squeamish to explain.
3	Historically, one worked hard as male in drag (5)
	THEOW – HE (as male) in TOW (drag). A slave or thrall
4	Stuttering advice to catch / hit film (2,2,4)
	LA LA LAND – a dd, and a rare excursion into the 21st Century for the club monthly .. only now does it bring home to me, just how old-fashioned many of the other answers are
5	Contact, heading off jet setting once? (4)
	OUCH – (T)OUCH (contact). An ouch once was the setting for a gemstone, hence the “jet setting”
6	Tank owner no longer needing a couple of pints: one is retained (9)
	AQUARIIST – I IS in A QUART (a couple of pints).
7	Nine inspired by Polyhymnia do modulating of medieval scale (14)
	HYPOMIXOLYDIAN – IX (nine) in *(POLYHYMNIA DO). Not an easy anagram!
8	Tips for youthful, intriguing debutante turning up so ill at ease (6)
	EDGILY – Y(outhfu)L I(ntriguin)G D(ebutant)E, all rev,
14	Early works of Caesar cut without a word from him (9)
	JUVENILIA – VENI (Latin for “I came”) in JULIA(N) (of Caesar)
16	Sibling having begonia at last in place of Lorraine’s fern (8)
	BAROMETZ – (begoni)A in BRO (sibling) + METZ, a charming city in Lorraine, NE France
17	S African leader visiting Greek island, then India (6)
	INKOSI – IN KOS (visiting Greek island) + I (India, in NATO alphabet). I would spell it Cos, but Kos seems more usual these days
19	Lighter form of transport got on by two little girls (7)
	FIDIBUS – FI & DI (two little girls) + BUS (form of transport)
22	On the way up, buttonhole second person to help with computer? (5)
	SYSOP – POSY (buttonhole) + S(econd) rev. A sysop is a system operator, as opposed to a programmer or developer. In large IT groups, both categories tend to regard the other with amused condescension and as a useful source of blame when things go wrong
23	Dye producers team up, turning article black on the outside (4)
	BIXA – XI (team) with A B (article, black) outside, all rev.