Financial Times 14833 Sayang

I’ve been extremely busy today, so sorry for the late posting, which, due to the time constraint, is barer than usual. Thanks to Sayang. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1    Clean stroke of a violin (6)

SCRAPE : Double defn: 1st: To clean a surface with a sharp or rough instrument; and 2nd: … producing an unmusical and grating sound.

4    Herbal samples containing ointment (6)

BALSAM : Hidden in(… containing) “Herbal samples “.

8    Left out of entire contest (7)

COMPETE : “complete”(entire) minus(… out of) “l”(abbrev. for “left”).

9    Germs making Bianca ill without an aperient (7)

BACILLI : Anagram of(making) [“Bianca ill ” minus(… aperient;like a laxative;purging) “an ” ]. I thought it should have been “with” rather than “without”, as the latter and “aperient” both have the same sense of exclusion.

11    Top mention reserved for The Almighty (10)

OMNIPOTENT : Anagram of(… reserved) TOP MENTION.

12    Acquire benefit (4)

GAIN : Double defn.

13    Barber to utter aloud (5)

SHEAR : Homophone of(… aloud) “sheer”(utter;complete, as in “utter stupidity”).

Defn: As a verb.

14    PS: mend a dud explosive (8)

ADDENDUM : Anagram of(… explosive) MEND A DUD.

Defn: A postscript;something added at the end.

16    Network starts to glow up and is hard to fade away (8)

LANGUISH : LAN(acronym for “Local Area Network” connecting computers) + the 1st letters, respectively, of(starts to) “glow up ” plus(and) IS + H(abbrev. for “hard”).

18    Go up the hierarchy (5)

SCALE : Double defn: 1st: To climb up; and 2nd: A hierarchical grading of items from the lowest to the highest.

20    Dope in tin foil (4)

INFO : Hidden in(in) “tin foil “.

21    Indoctrination for unbeliever deserves attention initially (10)

PROPAGANDA : PRO(for;in favour of) + PAGAN(an unbeliever;one not belonging to any religion) + the 1st letters, respectively, of(… initially) “deserves attention “.

23    Infant could be Rob’n, cryptically speaking (7)

NEWBORN : Reverse anagram(…, cryptically speaking): Anagram of(NEW…) …BORN = ROB’N.

24    Vehicles circling a convoy (7)

CARAVAN : CAR,VAN(two vehicles) containing(circling) A.

25    One is looking for a member of pop group down under . . . . (6)

SEEKER : A member of the Australian pop group, the Seekers.

26    . . . . a car for Paul McCartney, say (6)

BEETLE : Homophone of(…, say) “Beatle”(one of whom;say, was Paul McCartney).

Down

1    Charge Gale . . . . (5)

STORM : Double defn: 1st: Such as the Storming of the Bastille.

2    . . . . to split current stretch of turbulent water (7)

RIPTIDE : RIP(to split;to tear apart) + TIDE(the current;the flow of water resulting from tidal fluctuations).

3    Leak in container initially resulted in a hodgepodge (9)

POTPOURRI : POUR(to flow forth in a stream, as when there is a leak) contained in(in) [ POT(a container) + the 1st letters, respectivel, of(initially) “resulted in “.

5    Air defence starts with appropriate match (5)

ADAPT : The 1st letters, respectively, of(… starts) “Air defence ” plus(with) APT(appropriate;suitable).

6    Very small amount for very small person between the poles (7)

SMIDGEN : MIDGE(a very small person) contained in(between) S,N(abbrevs. for the north and south poles).

7    Songbird extremely unnerved in cross crowd (9)

MULTITUDE : [ TIT(a songbird) + the 1st and last letters of(extremely) “unnerved ” ] contained in(in) MULE(a hybrid animal;a cross).

10    Daley Thompson latched on sportingly to this event (9)

DECATHLON : Anagram of(… sportingly) LATCHED ON. And Daley Thompson was an English decathlon champion.

13    Student in Surrey town’s totally innocent (9)

STAINLESS : L(indicating a learner driver) contained in(in) STAINES(-upon-Thames in full, the Surrey town)‘S .

15    Belittle aged pairs at work (9)

DISPARAGE : Anagram of(… at work) AGED PAIRS.

17    Cheers to a sound astute purchase (7)

GOODBYE : Homophone of(sound) “good buy”(an astute purchase).

19    First male soldier is uncompromising (7)

ADAMANT : ADAM(the biblical first male) + ANT(one of the social insects, one of whose castes are the soldiers).

21    Almost 3.26 light-years to analyse this, for instance (5)

PARSE : “parsec”(in astronomy, a unit of distance, about 3.26 light-years) minus its last letter(Almost …).

Defn: …, “this” being this clue.

22    Ship flyer (5)

DRAKE : Double defn: 1st: A class of armoured cruisers built around 1900 for the Royal Navy. I’m not sure if this is what the setter intended.