Financial Times 14,430 by Mudd

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 28, 2013

This puzzle has a few clues that I found challenging: 7D (TUTTI), 9A (PRUNE) and 24A (OARSMEN). My top clues are 1D (HOPELESS), 2D (SOUR CREAM) and 20D (BRACER).

ACROSS
1 Those on a trip left inn (6)
HOSTEL – anagram of THOSE + L (left)
4 Tiny creatures a great deal east of wood (8)
PLANKTON – PLANK (wood) + TON (a great deal)
9 Dope? One’s stoned! (5)
PRUNE – double definition. I found this difficult because the first definition involves a meaning of PRUNE that I was unaware of (and which I believe is seldom used these days) while the second is a cryptic definition (albeit a good one).
10 Tease about porker’s ultimate fried food (9)
CROQUETTE – [porke]R in COQUETTE (tease)
11 You might say, one’s wanting a coat (7)
LACQUER – homophone (“lacker”)
12 Country where British weather fine in the end (7)
UKRAINE – UK (British) + RAIN (weather) + [fin]E. Clever!
13 Basic building dropped (4)
SHED – double definition
14 Blokes holding tin back – for engagement rings? (8)
MANACLES – CAN (tin) backwards in MALES (blokes)
17 Cooking liquid in a dish, initially, horse eating it? (8)
MARINADE – IN (in) + A (A) + D[ish] all together in MARE (horse)
19 Walk into bunker, tumbling backwards (4)
TREK – reverse hidden word
22 Novel with Manx cat on fiddle (7)
REBECCA – REBEC (fiddle) + CA[t] (Manx cat). I knew rebec as a musical instrument of old; did not know it was a fiddle exactly. Some might object to ‘Manx cat’ being used as it is since a Manx is a cat that does not have a tail in the first place rather than one that has had its tail removed. I am fine with it though.
24 Sign featuring vehicles, not a hundred – but eight, perhaps? (7)
OARSMEN – [c]ARS (vehicles, not a hundred) in OMEN (sign)
25 Nutcase or nuts for paramour (9)
COURTESAN – anagram of NUTCASE OR
26 Five filling single crack (5)
SOLVE – V (five) in SOLE (single)
27 Danger signal altered, switched after end of danger (3,5)
RED ALERT – [dange]R + anagram of ALTERED
28 Hairy in the extreme, woman in front of a train endlessly getting cross (6)
HYBRID – H[air]Y + BRID[e] (woman in front of a train endlessly)

DOWN
1 Futile as a frog in a French kitchen stuffed with first of escargots? (8)
HOPELESS – E[scargots] in HOPLESS (as a frog in a French kitchen!)
2 Smetana has a rum, score appearing disastrous (4,5)
SOUR CREAM – anagram of A RUM SCORE. The cryptic reading has nothing to do the the composer; smetana is a type of sour cream, Russian I believe.
3 You feel loveless, unfortunately, seeing someone beautiful (6)
EYEFUL – anagram of Y[o]U FEEL
5 Examine – or peep cryptically? (4,2,3,4)
LOOK UP AND DOWN – reverse cryptic. (Meaning that PEEP could be clued by “Look up and down”)
6 Gear that’s sensational, including tank-top (7)
NEUTRAL – T[ank] in NEURAL (sensational)
7 Piece together? (5)
TUTTI – cryptic definition. ‘Tutti’ is borrowed from Italian where it means all. (I edited this explanation of the clue after reading comment #1 below. I had originally taken it to be more of a double definition.)
8 Born then died, one lost as required (6)
NEEDED – NEE (born) + D[i]ED
10 Opener carries bat (not bowled), Zimbabwe’s number two run out (7-6)
CURTAIN RAISER – anagram of CARRIES [b]AT [z]I[mbabwe] RUN. Wow, what a brilliantly constructed anagram!
15 Breakfast chef’s bike? (9)
SCRAMBLER – double definition
16 Girl kidnapping family, a daughter proving rebellious type (8)
SKINHEAD – KIN (family) in SHE (girl) + A (a) + D (daughter)
18 Reading, large town not entirely welcomed by one side of Madrid (7)
RECITAL – CIT[y] (large town not entirely) in REAL (one side of Madrid!). Perhaps like many people I spent a while thinking ‘one side of Madrid’ would have to be either MAD or RID!
20 A stiff drink – or two, right? (6)
BRACER – BRACE (two) + R (right)
21 Horrible bear, by the sound of it (6)
GRISLY – homophone (“grizzly”)
23 Sure to make a leap (5)
BOUND – double definition