Maybe there’s more gold in the confusion, but, for now, all I’ve got is the following:
25 across: Hip exercises inverted formal wear in recital (3, 2)
Nice sounds-like clue. Formal wear = bow tie so that inverted formal wear in recital = tae bo = hip exercises.
9 down: Have sex, then hit the hay for Spooner’s big breather? (8, 5)
Prurient and Spoonerismatic, it’s as if DA wrote this clue especially for me. Have sex = hump (already deserving of gold), hit the hay = whack bale, hit the hay for Spooner’s = back whale so that have sex, then hit the hay for Spooner’s = humpback whale = big breather.
And did you notice how appropriate hit the hay was? Hay always brings sex to mind, at least to my mind, because of the expression a roll in the hay, and when the clue begins with have sex, hit the hay is perfect. Gold, gold, gold I tells ya!
I’d never heard of Tae Bo, but figured that’s what it must be on analogy with Tae Kwan Do.
I got 9-down very late in the piece when I was almost about to give up. It was one of those that hit me out of left field. I was sure that’s what it must be even before I had figured out how the clue worked – my most satisfying get in this DA. And by now it seems like it wouldn’t be a DA without a sex-related clue :)