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.