Financial Times 14,541 by Mudd

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 8, 2014

While it may be a little heavy in the use of ‘first of’ (in 14a, 15a and 19d), I found this a good puzzle. I like the way Mudd twice uses long adjectival phrases to clue nouns used adjectivally (5d and 14d). My top clues are 8d (CHARLOTTE), 16d (CORPOREAL) and 18d (ASQUITH).

ACROSS
1 Government department’s old piece (9)
EXCHEQUER – EX (old) + CHEQUER (piece)
6 City viewed from the east or west (5)
CIVIC – palindrome. I wasted some time thinking this must be the name of a city. With _ _ V _ _ all I could think of was LAVAL which did not seem a likely answer.
9 Jalopy with hole, almost finished (5)
CRATE – CRATE[r] (hole, almost finished)
10 Party entertained by song after opening of Chinese restaurant (9)
CAFETERIA – C[hinese] + FETE (party) in ARIA (song)
11 Figure among names passing statute is game (4,6)
LAWN TENNIS – LAW (statute) + TEN (figure) in NN (names) + IS (is)
12 Audibly filthy bird (4)
FOWL – homophone (“foul”)
14 Rozzer arrests first of miscreants, then whichever two, apparently? (7)
COMPANY – M[iscreant] in COP (rozzer) + ANY (whichever)
15 Bob, say, put on first of clothes in hut (7)
HAIRCUT – AIR (put on) + C[lothes] together in HUT (hut)
17 Plain house astride American borders (7)
VANILLA – A[merica]N in VILLA (house)
19 Couple touring river, that is, finding grassland (7)
PRAIRIE – R (river) in PAIR (couple) + IE (that is)
20 Blue vehicle reversing, touching bonnet of yellow (4)
NAVY – VAN (vehicle) backwards + Y[ellow]. RACY would also work here (meaning blue in the sense of a blue movie) — in fact I got myself stuck in this corner for a while because I wrote in RACY. NAVY fits better.
22 Fair search to find 2 of 4, perhaps? (6,4)
SQUARE ROOT – SQUARE (fair) + ROOT (search)
25 Latest race for cheap paper (9)
NEWSPRINT – NEW (latest) + SPRINT (race)
26 Sound character for orderly people? (5)
QUEUE – homophone (“Q”)
27 Leave for Croatian destination (5)
SPLIT – double definition
28 Going bust early, shop clowning around (9)
HORSEPLAY – anagram of EARLY SHOP

DOWN
1 They say forty do well (5)
EXCEL – homophone (“XL”)
2 Domestic wine originally bottled by a monarch, drunk (9)
CHARWOMAN – W[ine] in anagram of A MONARCH
3 Level score university’s maintained for one day (10)
EVENTUALLY – EVEN (level) + U (university) in TALLY (score)
4 Strange – so prodigal then? (7)
UNCANNY – UN-CANNY (prodigal). ‘Canny’ is used here in the sense of thrifty.
5 Tawdry swimmer in an aeroplane? (7)
RAFFISH – RAF FISH (in an aeroplane? swimmer)
6 Bird’s home, partial to feet occasionally being put up (4)
COTE – reverse hidden word
7 Sign right into Spanish city (5)
VIRGO – R (right) in VIGO (Spanish city)
8 Dessert and so on served up, including tart (9)
CHARLOTTE – HARLOT (tart) in ETC (so on) backwards
13 Outlining concerns, resentment describing roguish novel (10)
PICARESQUE – CARES (concerns) in PIQUE (resentment)
14 Promises from soldiers with black cats and broomsticks? (9)
COVENANTS – COVEN + ANTS (with black cats and broomsticks? soldiers)
16 Material with hole in a shade of pink (9)
CORPOREAL – PORE (hole) in CORAL (a shade of pink)
18 Old PM has gone to pieces, about to resign (7)
ASQUITH – QUIT (resign) in anagram of HAS
19 Pig’s first to get second dish (7)
PLATTER – P[ig] + LATTER (second)
21 Say I promise, it’s extremely essential (5)
VOWEL – VOW (promise) + E[ssentia]L. The definition is “say I”. (I interpreted this wrongly in my original posting and have now corrected it thanks to a commenter.)
23 Minuscule state supporting supporter (5)
TEENY – TEE (supporter) + NY (state)
24 Double cooker (4)
SPIT – double definition. I had not known that ‘spit’ by itself (not spitting image) could mean a double — but that it does.