Financial Times 12,766 / Armonie

I took 30-45 minutes for this crossword. I got 4ac to begin with, but botttom-right quadrant was the first to be completed. When I began  writing the draft for this blog, I had not solved three clues – 1, 25, 27, all acrosses. Of these, I got two as I returned to the grid. 25 ac remains elusive (anyone may reveal the answer).

Across

1 ASHORE – a,shore

4 PROPOUND – pro,pound

10 HEARTLESS – heart(les)s – Very neat clue.

11  EXERT – ex(-p)ert – I am not sure if ’employ’ is an apt def. for the word.

12 LESS – (-b)less

13 FIRE WARDEN – f(i,reward)en

15 ERASURE – era (rev. of ‘are’),sure – Can we write such a sentence outside of the crossword? Subjects are sometimes understood, yet… While on the topic: The local newspaper often has the headline “Commits suicide” where the subject ‘one’ is taken as understood. But when I see the headline “Commit suicide” I am annoyed because, first, I could do without any such suggestion and, secondly, how am I to know whether it was two or more than two who killed themselves?

16 TRIFLE – t,rifle

19 STUPID – stu(pi)d

21 BOUNCER – b(ounce)r

23 CONVERSION – con,version  Again, it seems to me that ‘metamorphosis’ does not seem to be quite a fitting definition/synonym for the required word. Are we to accepts this kind of latitude in crossword clues?

25 Not solved – ?R?D – The clue is: You put lights somewhere in here (4) (On edit) GRID See comment below for explanation.

27 RIDGE – rid(g)e

28 BADMINTON – b, adminton (anag. of ‘dominant’)

29 BREATHER – b(RE)ather

Down

1 ACHILLES –  ac(hill)es

2 HEAD-START – (A hard test)*
 
3 RUTH – rut,h

5 RESPECT – two def. I didn’t get this too quickly. 

6 PRECARIOUS – prec(a r)ious ‘Favourite’ is a way-out synonym for ‘precious’.

8 DOTING – dot,in,g

14 SUPPLEMENT – supple,men,t

17 LACERATED – (Act leader)* Nice clue.
 
18 PRUDENCE – (endure PC)*

20 DISABLE – b in ‘disale’ (Ladies)* Shouldn’t we have ‘the Ladies’? Should definite articles be dispensed with for the sake of conciseness in clue-writing? 

21 BROODY – b,rood,y

22 SCARAB – scar,a b

28 BADMINTON – b, adminton (anag. of ‘dominant’)

29 BREATHER – b(RE)ather