Club Monthly 20199 April 2017

I found this easier than last month's, round about medium difficulty I would say, though with a couple of quite tricky ones thrown in. And as high class and enjoyable as ever.

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 use the online Oxford English Dictionary occasionally too (OED), for background.

If I have not explained an answer fully enough, do please ask. And do remember that the closing date for this prize crossword was ... yesterday.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev. = reversed, anagrams are *(--), homophones indicated within ""

Across
1. Ops (for Greece) appended to journal otherwise showing verbal incontinence (9)
logorrhea - LOG + OR + RHEA. Rhea was the wife of Cronus and mother of Zeus and Hera, amongst other deities. The Romans called her Ops...
6. Almost tight-lipped about fruit available in winter (5)
nelis - SILEN(t) rev.
9. Single plant removing jack from aircraft engine (5)
ramet - RAM(j)ET
10. Lurking giant with frilly clothing (9)
latitancy - TITAN in LACY
11. Expelling English, following through to perform ceilidh music (7)
planxty - N(e)XT in PLAY. A nice word! Origin unknown, but said by some to have been coined (as Gaelic plancstaí) by the famous harper Carolan.
12. Back half of slimy northern bog in which one goes fermenting (7)
zymosis - (oo)ZY (I guess) + I in MOSS
13. Phlox-related tree planted among prepared taro by company boss in Australia (14)
polemoniaceous - LEMON (tree) in POI (prepared taro) + CEO in AUS .. so, not Oz for once.. which makes: PO(LEMON)I+A(CEO)US. Taro is an interesting plant, in widespread use around the world under a large variety of local names. Surprisingly it is mildly poisonous and has to be steeped in water overnight to render it more or less safe...
17. Discovered Marseillaise and moods in Morningside mashup? (14)
rumbledethumps - RUMBLED (discovered) + ET (French for "and") + HUMPS. More usually rumble-de-thumps, Gordon Brown's favourite dish, according to The Times as quoted by OED
21. American architect builds, having scored more for width (7)
Gropius - GROWS, with PIU instead of W. Più is musical notation for "more"
23. Traveller made a tour of island before retiring (7)
didicoy - DID (made a tour of, as in "last week we did Venice") + I(sland) + COY (retiring). Lots of travellers in my part of Kent, most of whom would punch you if you called them that. Or worse. Romany is safer, whether accurate or not.
25. Commendation for everyone sharing first helping of Eton mess (9)
praiseach - PRAISE EACH, with the E(ton) shared. It's a sort of porridge but also means a mess generally
26. Catch one that’s retrograde like Ganymede (5)
Ilian - NAIL I rev. This took me a long time because I got the Trojan connection but forgot it was also called Ilium (hence the Iliad, I presume?)
27. East London rascal shook hollow tree (5)
skelm - S(hoo)K + ELM
28. Hothead to be just visible across very soft hedge bush (9)
pepperbox - PP (very soft) in PEER + BOX (hedge bush)

Down
1. Old coot, 52, smoker, to entertain Romeo (8)
liripipe - R(omeo) in LII (52) + PIPE (smoker). Mostly a liripipe is defined as the long tail of a graduate's hood.. but Chambers, and the OED, also have "a silly person." The only quotation the OED has for that dates from 1625; and the ever-reliable world wide words says the tailed hood went out of fashion in the 15th century. So this is beyond the outer end of obscure! Lovely word, though..
2. Stop insulting ambassador’s hosts (5)
gamba - hidden in insultinG AMBAssador's. Gamba is short for viola de gamba, but also means an organ stop that sounds like one
3. I DJ and I am in pub getting over arthritis treatment (9)
Rituximab - I + TUX (dj, dinner jacket) + I'M in BAR (pub) rev. One of a vast resource of weird proprietary medicine names drug companies think up ... I see an alternative career opening up here
4. Caught giving way to large, carefree lout (7)
hallyon - HALCYON (carefree) with the C turned to L
5. Arizona, then some old Northern Isles, leaving North Dakota to climb height in Italy (7)
altezza - AZ (Arizona) + ZETLA(ND), both rev. Zetland is an archaic version of Shetland which seems to have found new life as a twee pub name and title .. click on the link which frankly tells you everything you need to know about the so-called "aristocracy"
6. Pre-flight brief in the afternoon only? (5)
notam - ha, no trouble with this one, which strictly would be NOTAM, as my son-in-law is a commercial pilot: a NOtice To AirmeN
7. Set up leader for military routines to support line with wartime levy (9)
landsturm - a rather sneaky wordplay, though it seems to work: M(ilitary) + RUTS (routines) rev., after (supporting) L AND (line with).
8. The Bard’s lofty play’s ending with runner around, not a word (6)
skyish - (pla)Y in SKI + SH
14. Noble cause scuppered when knight leaves compound for change of colours (5,4)
leuco base - *(NOBLE CAUSE) .. without the N. Try googling leuco base, it's interesting ..
15. Snake poison drug criticised before the watershed? (9)
echidnine - E + CHID (criticsed. pp of chide) + NINE, the time when all good little boys and girls are deemed to be asleep, so the grownups can watch violence and porn ..
16. Murdered 26 offspring when duty includes reversing former denial (8)
Astyanax - NAY (former denial) rev. in AS TAX (when duty). He was the infant son of Hector and Andromache, killed after the sacking of Troy for fear of him holding a grudge and seeking revenge when grown up. Interesting to speculate on the current outlook of the offspring of Osama, or Saddam ..
18. Pack down under being in print? (7)
enstamp - ENS (being) + TAMP (pack down). I was aware of "esse," but not ens, of which Collins says: "1. being or existence in the most general abstract sense. 2. a real thing, esp as opposed to an attribute; entity," make of which what you will
19. The woman mostly seen in Somerset hills, out of bounds for ancient village (7)
endship - SH(e) (the woman mostly) in (M)ENDIP(S), Somerset hills out of bounds. Nice, the Mendips
20. Love feasts? Answer is opening wide! (6)
agapes - A GAPES. Religious stuff.
22. Selecting odd bits from 7, I should replace the first, to put it briefly (2,3)
in sum - well it is landsturm, ie 7dn, take odd letters and start with an I not an L
24. Scale, one with no sharp or flat extension (5)
climb - being the opposite of musical I will leave it to others to elaborate but I think the key of C has no sharps or flats? + LIMB, extension