Some very good clues here: I enjoyed this a lot. At times they took a bit of working out, but apart from minor quibbles, it all seems to be sound.
Clues underlined, in slategray. Anagram indicators in italics.
When, quite early on, we had BANNS and ENGAGEMENT RING I suspected a Nina along these lines, but unless Filbert is male, has recently become engaged and is sharing some secrets with his beloved, I was wrong. Anyway, his beloved might not be all that happy with his attitude to Lauren Bacall.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CO-HOST | Help to present salmon before tea is announced (2-4) |
| cohos [salmon] “tea” | ||
| 4 | STUMPED | Likely to pass out (7) |
| The definition refers to cricket, a method of dismissal; the wordplay is that someone who is asked a question and is stumped for an answer is likely to say ‘pass’ | ||
| 9 | MILNE | I described ‘Piglet’ as ‘Pit’ containing ‘leg, originally‘ (5) |
| mi(l{eg})ne — the author A.A. Milne described Piglet in Winnie-the-Pooh, so the clue is simple and sound, with a nice added bit of something like wordplay in that Piglet = Pi(leg)*t | ||
| 10 | EXONERATE | Free once, then fixed price (9) |
| ex [once] (one rate) [fixed price] | ||
| 11 | RECTORATE | Caterer to supply clergyman’s office (9) |
| (Caterer to)* — supply is to be read as supple-ly | ||
| 12 | NEEPS | Scottish roots, born outside of Prestonpans (5) |
| née P{restonpan}s — Scottish root vegetables, like turnips or swedes | ||
| 13/14 | DOWN IN THE MOUTH | Unhappy condition of fox after goose narrowly escaped? (4,2,3,5) |
| If the fox has had the goose in its mouth, then has let it escape, it will probably have down left behind in its mouth | ||
| 18/20 | ENGAGEMENT RING | Mean ginger gent gets recycled present for his girlfriend (10,4) |
| (Mean ginger gent)* — rather more than just a present, but still a present I suppose | ||
| 23 | BANNS | Forbid these to stop partners wishing to make contract (5) |
| semi-&lit.: ban [stop] NS [partners wishing to make contract, as in the game of bridge], and also the banns of marriage are a church thing: in some religions the clergyman reads the banns of marriage in a church when people become engaged and if someone forbids the banns of marriage then they stop the wedding from taking place — well that’s what the (otherwise rather good) clue suggests: I’m not sure that someone objecting can actually stop the wedding from taking place | ||
| 24 | CHARABANC | Is missing Saudi boarding stylish coach? (9) |
| ch(Arab{i}an)c — ‘Is’ is the plural of ‘I’, and both occurrences of the letter i are missing — from Arabian and from chic — not a technique I’ve seen before and a good attempt to be pithy. | ||
| 25 | WHITEBAIT | I wait quaking with ‘Beth Fry (9) |
| (I wait Beth)* — Fry in the fishing sense | ||
| 26 | ADIEU | “I’ll be seeing you every so often,” said nice guy (5) |
| {s}a{i}d {n}i{c}e {g}u{y} | ||
| 27 | STELLAR | Sunny maybe found among lost Ella recordings (7) |
| Hidden in loST ELLA Recordings — Sunny maybe = to do with the Sun, which is a star | ||
| 28 | PLANET | Plot alien object in orbit (6) |
| plan [plot] ET | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CAMBRIDGE | A boatful of students at sea read, wanting a Big Mac … (9) |
| *(re{a}d Big Mac) — the boatful of students refers to the annual (until this year?) Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge [thanks Dansar] | ||
| 2 | HOLY COW | … delivered – 100% beef goodness! (4,3) |
| “wholly” cow — ‘delivered’ the homophone indicator | ||
| 3 | STEP ON | Young man attached to second wife has only one small crush (4,2) |
| step{s}on — the young man attached to second wife is a stepson | ||
| 4 | SWORE | King overwhelmed with sadness after son blinded (5) |
| s wo(R)e — effed and blinded | ||
| 5 | USERNAME | Identification of aggressive man resulted in retreat (8) |
| Reverse hidden in aggressivE MAN RESUlted | ||
| 6 | PLATEAU | Stop improving coat with e.g. silver and gold (7) |
| plate [coat with e.g. silver] Au | ||
| 7 | DRESS | Make attractive lady with PhD and energy empty skips (5) |
| Dr [lady with PhD — why particularly a lady?] e s{kip}s | ||
| 8 | PER ANNUM | Woman at university wears hair in curls for a year (3,5) |
| per (Ann U) m | ||
| 15 | HEN PARTY | Without men, girls out dancing aren’t happy, oddly (3,5) |
| 16 | HIGH COURT | Smelly old short trousers where your suit might end up (4,5) |
| high [smelly] c(o)urt — a word for ‘short’ is trousering o — suit in the legal sense | ||
| 17 | EGGSHELL | Tough exterior for one given hard time at grammar school? (8) |
| eg [for one] GS [grammar school] hell [hard time] | ||
| 19 | GENTILE | Independence cherished by kind of pagan tribe (7) |
| gentl(I)le — kind = gentle — I = Independence is in Chambers, but in Collins it isn’t under British English and is only ‘Independent’ in American English | ||
| 21 | ITALIAN | It expanded what was written by Dante, among others (7) |
| ‘It’ expanded is ‘Italian’ and Dante among others wrote Italian — to be picky isn’t it really It. rather than It? Perhaps it’s Italian Vermouth, whose abbreviation doesn’t have a full stop. | ||
| 22 | BACALL | Dead gorgeous actress bleating about calories put on two pounds (6) |
| ba(c)a LL — I suppose Lauren Bacall was a dead gorgeous actress, even a gorgeous actress who is now dead. That’s my view, and evidently also that of Filbert, but shouldn’t we be a bit more objective about it? | ||
| 23 | BOWLS | Couch potato carrying wife around for sociable sport (5) |
| (sl(w)ob)rev. — although quite why bowls in particular is a sociable sport I don’t know: lots of sports are sociable | ||
| 24 | CHAIR | Shock given by cold dentist’s equipment (5) |
| c hair [shock] — the dentist’s chair | ||
Absolutely loved this. Very inventive and the clue for MILNE is exceptional.
Small error in blog for 15d. “Dancing” is the anagram indicator and the anagram is of AREN’T + HPY (happy oddly).
Thanks to Filbert and John.
Very enjoyable, though I struggled in the NW corner and couldn’t parse ‘charabanc’ and ‘high court’, and I didn’t see the ‘boatful’ connection at 1D. Easier for me than Filbert’s previous offering, which I got nowhere near finishing. Thanks Filbert and Radian.
Thanks to Filbert for a wonderful puzzle and to John for the blog.
What a brilliant clue for STUMPED – plenty of other gems too
A welcome return to form.
Thanks Hovis. You are very polite to say that there is a small error in the blog for 15dn. It’s a glaring error and the blog has been amended.
Lovely puzzle full of originality. I can easily understand Filbert’s appreciation of Bacall, lovely clue too. I thought MILNE was brilliant, though it was my LOI. Didn’t parse CHARABANC
Many thanks Filbert & John
We found this ranged from write-ins (13/14 and 18/20) to brainteasers (10ac) with plenty in between, and some “it must be but we can’t parse it” answers (24ac).
Lots to like, though, including STUMPED, CAMBRIDGE and EGGSHELL.
Thanks, Filbert and John.
Thanks to John and Filbert
Some lovely stuff.
I like the little touches such as (Eliza)Beth Fry, and “Sunny”, a great Ella Fitzgerald track.
Slight error in the fodder for 1d – too many as.
Thanks John and everyone else for the nice comments.
I’d forgotten about the boat race, it was supposed to be 29th March. That’d be lots of blue blues. Also sadly missed, Big Macs. And Bacall, what a blow.