Times Saturday Cryptic No 26802 – 12 August 2017. Very relaxing.

So, the blog. I’ve noticed that the new club site releases answers for the Saturday and Sunday Cryptics mid week, but we are staying with the traditional schedule of blogging the following Saturday, at least for now. Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there’s the answer IN BOLD CAPS, followed by the parsing of the wordplay. (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’, {deletions are in curly brackets}.

Across
1 Judges recalled point in court proceedings (8)
TRIBUNAL: NUB backwards, in TRIAL.
9 Celestial energy shown by article of substance (8)
ETHEREAL:E-THE-REAL.
10 Aim SF film — to be set here? (6)
PLANET: PLAN-ET.
11 Hidden, doesn’t knock loud enough, maybe, to be heard (5,5)
UNDER WRAPS: sounds like “under-raps”: not rapping loudly enough. Never true of that music genre, surely.
12 Second pub, perhaps, to get criticism (4)
BARB: bar “B”, as opposed to bar “A”. I liked it.
13 Heard a line twist in tighter corner (5,5)
ACUTE ANGLE: if said quickly, sounds like “a cue tangle”.
16 Male style, say, recalled in a mixed collection (7)
MELANGE: M-ELAN, then EG reversed.
17 Film extracts in middle of week showing solar phenomenon? (7)
ECLIPSE: CLIPS inside {w}E-E{k}.
20 Cunningly fit things around husband’s late working (5-5)
NIGHT SHIFT: (FIT THINGS H*), being H for husband.
22 Finished with recession, US city is in need of development (4)
PUNY: UP backwards, then NY.
23 Become enraptured? Request to join parade, nothing more (4,2,4)
FALL IN LOVE: FALL IN = request (or order?) to join parade, LOVE = nothing.
25 Pub brought in music provider, one delivering spirit (6)
DJINNI: DJ-INN-I. I was surprised to find DJINNI is the singular, DJINN the plural.
26 Toilet staff adopting hot water escape mechanism (8)
LOOPHOLE: LOO-P(H)OLE.
26 Security around display area overlooking fine marine artefact (3-5)
SEA-SHELL: SEAL around SHEL{f}, overlooking the F. I was doubtful whether sea-shells are artefacts, since they aren’t man-made, but the word play is clear enough. Still shells are made by some sea creature so perhaps they sneak into the definition.

Down
2 Put down Republican representative abandoning daughter (8)
RELEGATE: R for republican, then {d}ELEGATE.
3 Connection I start to build with every Australian resort (5,5)
BONDI BEACH: BOND-I-B{uild}-EACH. And there I thought Bondi Beach was just a suburb of Sydney. Clearly a resort not honoured in its own land!
4 US city routine adopted by US astronomer turning up fuel (7,3)
NATURAL GAS: SAGAN is the astronomer, around LA RUT. Reverse it all.
5 Escort petrol comes with these days (4,3)
LEAD OUT: no explanation required.
6 Senior official dismissing one cleaner (4)
CHAR: remove I from CHAIR.
7 Write an introduction to governing Asian state (6)
PENANG: PEN-AN-G{overning}. The Silicon Valley of the East, according to Wikipedia. Memorable to me for the time I spent two hours inside a jetliner on the runway with no aircond running, at midday under the tropical sun!
8 It can’t be seen through, despite being of transparent material (5,3)
GLASS EYE: true enough, and raised a smile.
14 Exact changes heard originally on good authority (2,8)
EX CATHEDRA: (EXACT*) (HEARD*).
15 Nothing from European country involving a cosmetic (4,6)
NAIL POLISH: NIL POLISH, with an A added.
16 Multi-functional staff, though past their best? (8)
MANIFOLD: MAN-IF-OLD. I’m not altogether sure whether “functional” belongs in the definition or not. If I meant multifunctional, I would say “manifold uses”, but there you go.
18 Guardsman told to attack the Spanish (8)
SENTINEL: SENT-IN-EL.
19 Stories about cat in French city (7)
LIMOGES: LIES around MOG.
21 Pace entirely controlled by Republicans? (6)
GALLOP: GOP around ALL.
24 Small space satisfactory? Negative response to the fore (4)
NOOK: OK preceded by NO.