Financial Times 14,543 / Hamilton

As I often do, I started at the end and worked backwards through the clues which meant that I didn’t see the key 1ac until it was referenced in one of the other clues. However, this didn’t hold me up for too long as virtually all of the bottom half of the grid and a good percentage of the top half was filled during my first pass through the clues. It was then a case of filling in the blanks which became easier when I had solved 1ac.

There are three occasions in this puzzle where I think a word in the clue has to be doing double duty for the parsing to make sense though I am more than happy to be corrected on this.

Across

1 Not everyone is hapless, starting to feel awfully morose? (7,3,4)
UNLUCKY FOR SOME – UNLUCKY (hapless) F[eel] (starting to feel) anagram (awfully) of MOROSE – I cannot see a way of parsing this without ‘hapless’ doing double duty

9 Panicking historians dispatch SOS revealing where they disappeared to (4,3)
THIN AIR – anagram (panicking) of HI[s]T[o]RIAN[s] (historians dispatch SOS)

10 1 part that should not be mentioned (7)
MACBETH – cryptic def.

11 European has fun changing sides with Kelvin (5)
GREEK – GLEE with the L changed to R (fun changing sides) K (Kelvin)

12 Where 11 swims, for example, no charge is initially mentioned (6,3)
AEGEAN SEA – homophone (mentioned) of EG (for example) N[o] C[harge] (no charge is initially)

13 1 in its rightful place! (8)
THIRTEEN – def. & cryptic indicator referring to the clue number

15 Horrible graduate going back in for practical (6)
VIABLE – BA (graduate) reversed (going back) in VILE (horrible)

18 1 short paper on food (6)
MAGPIE – MAG (short paper) PIE (food)

19 Officers such as Lee Jackson? (8)
GENERALS – def. & cryptic indicator

22 On deck, say, time to wrap up again (9)
REPACKAGE – RE (on) PACK (deck, say) AGE (time)

24 Jeremiah hugs good comedian (5)
JOKER – JER (Jeremiah) around (hugs) OK (good)

25 Nothing with diesel to be mixed for grain (7)
OILSEED – O (nothing) anagram (to be mixed) of DIESEL

26 Pump up faulty tyre in the back of Irvine (7)
INFLATE – FLAT (faulty tyre) in [irv]INE (the back of Irvine)

27 She reads Lear slower, heartlessly badly. Next time it’s for real (5,9)
DRESS REHEARSAL – anagram (badly) of SHE READS LEAR S[lowe]R

Down

1 Tense, fed up and sober? No, the opposite! (7)
UPTIGHT – UP TIGHT (sober? No the opposite!) – as with 1ac, ‘up’ appears to be doing double duty otherwise ‘fed’ is superfluous

2 Hanging around with one girl who takes it to school (9)
LOITERING – anagram (to school) of ONE GIRL IT

3 One in 18 may be 1 (5)
CRACK – cryptic def.

4 Charges for using the back garden for years (8)
YARDAGES – YARD (back garden) AGES (years) – “the charge for the use of a railway yard in the transportation of cattle” (Collins)

5 Doh! Ma gets involved in a measure of resistance (6)
OHMAGE – hidden in (involved in) ‘dOH MA GEts’

6 Alice is so inclined to mingle (9)
SOCIALISE – anagram (inclined) of ALICE IS SO

7 Makes contact with Hunts (5)
MEETS – double def.

8 The words of a seraph (6)
PHRASE – anagram (of a) of SERAPH

14 They may go miles for an eagle or an albatross (9)
TWITCHERS – cryptic def. – with a misdirection towards golfers

16 1 is mad to want cold heart (5,4)
BLACK CATS – LACK (to want) C (cold) in (heart) BATS (mad)

17 Cast always in a restless state (8)
FEVERISH – EVER (always) in FISH (cast) – another double duty, this time the ‘in’

18 1 copy of tabloid (6)
MIRROR – triple def.

20 Bizarre girl and boy steal top-end motor (7)
SURREAL – SUE (girl) AL (boy) around (steal) RR (top-end motor)

21 1 young man of the French Right (6)
LADDER – LAD (young man) DE (of the French) R (right)

23 Arctic’s backing some federal operations (5)
POLAR – hidden reversal (backing some) in ‘fedeRAL OPerations’

24 Orange ball of exceptional quality (5)
JAFFA – double def. – “a well-bowled ball that is likely to take a wicket (cricket sl)” (Chambers)