Financial Times 16,273 by CRUX

CRUX kicks off the week….

This was, I thought, a bit more effort than the usual Monday fare.
GENTIAN, NAMUR and ATALANTA were new to me. The parsing of COPPER and VERA are a little unsatisfactory.
The combination of BRIDGES and TENNYSON was a nice touch, and it’s always a pleasure to see a SNARK.

Thanks CRUX!

Across

1 Sounds like a company car (6)
ESCORT
“accompany” (“sounds like”)

4 Olympic venue welcomes a legendary female runner (8)
ATALANTA
ATLANTA (olympic venue) welcomes A

10 Flower given by that nice man, Scot (7)
GENTIAN
GENT (nice man) + IAN (Scot)

11 Workers on Telegraph want material about me (7)
LINEMEN
LINEN (material) about ME

12 Wreck of a car in pile-up (4)
HEAP
Double definition

13 Keep going around pub to find Murdoch? (5,5)
PRESS BARON
PRESS ON (keep going) around BAR (pub)

15 Country acquires gold carriage for state occasions (6)
LANDAU
LAND (country) acquires AU (gold)

16 Whiskey supplied by European royal house (7)
BOURBON
Double definition

20 Poet Laureate associated with Waterloo and London, say (7)
BRIDGES
Double definition – Waterloo and London are both bridges.

21 An element of cunning is required (6)
COPPER
“cu”, copper, is an element of cunning

24 Granny used to get one really flummoxed? (3,2,5)
TIE IN KNOTS
Cryptic definition – Granny being a kind of knot

26 Man could be regularly insulted (4)
ISLE
I[n]S[u]L[t]E[d] (regularly)

28 Scores of nights in Spain announced (7)
NOTCHES
“noches” (nights in spanish, “announced”)

29 Ring-master retrains to be a conductor (7)
MAESTRO
(O (ring) + MASTER)* (*retrains)

30 A proper fight to the sound of a bell (4-4)
DING-DONG
Double definition

31 He admits Wally left to cause trouble (6)
HASSLE
HE admits (ASS (wally) + L (left))

Down

1 Kind of porcelain formed in layers (8)
EGGSHELL
Double definition – Layers being birds

2 Holder not in race – but could be! (9)
CONTAINER
(NOT IN RACE)* (*but could be)

3 Bird that was once British (4)
RAIL
Double definition – referring to the now privatised British Rail.

5 Lectures on how to make TV programme (4,4)
TALK SHOW
TALKS (lectures) on HOW

6 Pine rod and line found in old burial site (4,6)
LONG BARROW
LONG (pine) + BAR (rod) and ROW (line)

7 Rugby player turns up in Belgium (5)
NAMUR
(RU MAN (rugby player))< (<turns up)

8 Colourful canvas “Daybreak” goes missing initially (6)
AWNING
[d]AWNING (daybreak, missing initally)

9 Carroll’s Quarry, place name in Channel Island (5)
SNARK
N (name) in SARK (channel island)

14 Darn hedges need trimming! Where are the shears? (6,4)
GARDEN SHED
(DARN HEDGES)* (*trimming)

17 They should attract young and old, for instance (9)
OPPOSITES
Double definition

18 Number Sonny arranged for 20’s predecessor (8)
TENNYSON
TEN (number) + (SONNY)* (*arranged)

19 Awful unfinished porridge needs some (8)
GRUESOME
GRUE[l] (porridge, unfinished) needs SOME

22 Threw rocks very high (6)
STONED
Double definition

23 A cat’s tiny scraps (5)
ATOMS
A + TOMS (cat’s)

25 Pupil in college becomes superstar (5)
ELTON
L (pupil) in ETON (college)

27 Average woman gets taken in (4)
VERA
[a]VERA[ge] (taken in)

*anagram