Monthly Club Special 20,249: Friml Jinx It

ACROSS
1 Lightly touch, holding palm before a sexy dance (4-4)
PATA-PATA – PAT “holding” ATAP, before A. Miriam Makeba did a version of this sexually suggestive South African dance, in which handsiness is encouraged

5 Tiny insect in lettuce with thick sauce dressing that’s sent back (6)
PSOCID – COS “dressed” in DIP, and reversed. Booklouse or barklouse

9 Exhausted again, chesty? Nothing short of bacterial disease (9)
ANTHRACIC – A{gain} + TH{o}RACIC

11 Stoker possibly behind a disused copper (5)
ABRAM – BRAM Stoker the Dracula author, behind A. Shakespearean “auburn”

12 Cornish river skirts capitals and island area of upper Red Lane (7)
FAUCIAL – FAL “skirts” U(pper)C(ase) + I A. Pertaining to the upper part of the throat

13 Soldier only lightly armed: hide or bombard with a stone? (7)
PELTAST – PELT [hide/bombard, take your pick] + A ST. Greek soldier with a “pelta” or light shield

14 After letter, Moody Blues initially support backing tracks involving extremely heavy rock (13)
RHOMBPORPHYRY – after RHO, M{oody} B{lues}; plus reversed PROP [support] + RY [tracks], “involving” H{eav}Y

16 Characters that may be uniquely placed to reveal sinful bastard (6,7)
FILIUS NULLIUS – if you take only the unique characters of the answer, FILUSN, you can anagram those to SINFUL

20 Robespierre’s tied behind the neck to line up for execution (7)
ENQUEUE – EN QUEUE is basically French for “in a ponytail”; double def with the computer science use, enqueuing some tasks

21 Nothing to cover cost of travel to west: coin no longer used (7)
XERAFIN – NIX “covering” FARE, the whole reversed. Formerly currency in Goa

23 Greeting among Canadians, maybe Ontarians primarily? (5)
CHIMO – HI “among” C{anadians} M{aybe} O{ntarians}, &lit, as this is an Eskimo-Aleut greeting

24 Financial centre in period of activity for Brexit, say (9)
SECESSION – EC in SESSION. Most straightforward clue in the puzzle!

25 Wanting love, certain people take advantage of abandoned hole in wall (6)
SMEUSE – S{o}ME USE. Dialect form of meuse or mews

26 Monkey nut? We want to hear about it! (8)
ENTELLUS – EN [nut] + TELL US! The hanuman monkey of India, which apparently resembles Entellus the old Sicilian in Virgil’s Aeneid!

DOWN
1 Passage in place where mix-up keeps Scots away (6)
PIAFFE – PIE keeps AFF. Dressage manoeuvre

2 Overlapping plates protect one serving of ratatouille (5)
TATOU – in {ra}TATOU{ille}. Some kind of large armadillo

3 Cordial individual almost finished eating chip (7)
PERSICO – PERSO{n} “eating” I(ntegrated)C(ircuit), for this peach cordial

4 Past upturns claimed by sources of finance with credit on thin ice (6-7)
TICKLY-BENDERS – reversed BY “claimed” by LENDERS, with TICK on. Who named thin ice this? I want to find them and shake them by the hand

6 Small boat store in which everything must go (7)
SHALLOP – SHOP, in which ALL

7 Something to drive apart from rise of insidious insecticides (9)
CARBARYLS – CAR [something to drive] BAR [apart from] reversed SLY [insidious]

8 Gas money in the US, superior to your old pounds (8)
DIMETHYL – DIME [10c in the US], above THY L. Ethane

10 Antibiotic agents to curb disease, checking how hysterical, cold and hot (13)
CIPROFLOXACIN – CIA “curbing” POX “checking” ROFL! [how hysterical] + C + IN. ROFL, if you’re too old to know, is Rolling On The Floor Laughing. See also “roflcopter”

14 Bloody fluid used as supplement, forgetting every day remains (9)
RELIQUIAE – RE{d} LIQUI{d} A{dd}E{d}, with all D(ay)s removed.

15 More than one slight burn in the end, covered with hot drinks when head is lowered (8)
OFFENCES – {bur}N, “covered with” COFFEES “lowering” its head to become OFFECES

17 Once abundant in America, robe set off uniform (7)
UBEROUS – in US, (ROBE*) + U

18 Aftersales service shows the reverse of such intemperance (7)
IVRESSE – hidden reversed in {aftersal}ES SERVI{ce}

19 Letter from scripture conveying female ancestor’s spiritual insights (6)
JNANAS – JAS. [the Letter of James, in the Bible] “conveying” NAN

22 Operetta composer, he was most productive around periphery (5)
FRIML – FL{oruit} “around” RIM. Rudolf FRIML, Czech composer, not to be confused with ROFL