Financial Times 14,885 by Mudd

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 21, 2015

I found the bottom right quadrant of this puzzle rather hard and was also challenged by two terms I did not know, 11 (SUPERTONIC) and 13 (LOCAL DERBY). My clue of the week is 19d (WESTERN) with honourable mentions to 1d (PARIS), 10a (IMPRECISE) and 22a (CROSS-DRESS).

ACROSS
1 Defeat by narrow margin for the twerp (9)
PIPSQUEAK – PIP (defeat) + SQUEAK (narrow margin)
6 Nag beginning to shiver, then in need of a blanket? (5)
SCOLD – S[hiver] + COLD (in need of a blanket?)
9 Film from Japan on port wine (5)
RIOJA – RIO (port) + JA[pan] (film from Japan, i.e. Japan with pan removed)
10 Rough price, semi-wrong? (9)
IMPRECISE – anagram of PRICE SEMI
11 Second note scrawled on pictures (10)
SUPERTONIC – anagram of ON PICTURES. The supertonic is the second note of the diatonic scale of any key; the note above the tonic.
12 Teaching time during winter months (4)
TERM – hidden word
14 Those cheering for pixies taken aback a bit (7)
SNAFFLE – ELF FANS (those cheering for pixies) backwards
15 Good womaniser entertaining good, keen follower (7)
GROUPIE – G (good) + PI (good) in ROUE (womaniser)
17 Chance for first performance (7)
OPENING – double definition
19 Name evidently forgotten, write “Dolly Vardens” in card (7)
WHATSIT – HATS (Dolly Vardens) in WIT (card). Dolly Varden was a character in Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge but the term can refer to several other things as well including a style of women’s clothing and, as here, a type of hat.
20 Duck joint (4)
DIVE – double definition. I once lived in an apartment above a restaurant called “The Duck Joint”. (It was not a dive!)
22 Adopt the habits of one’s wife or husband? (5-5)
CROSS-DRESS – cryptic definition
25 Cook is anyone going beyond starter of lentils with onions (9)
LYONNAISE – L[entils] + anagram of IS ANYONE. ‘Lyonnaise’ (and I have also seen ‘lyonnese’) is a term used to denote a dish cooked with onions.
26 Boy’s name? Got it! (5)
ROGER – double definition. I initially hit on BINGO for the solution; I think it works but ROGER is much better.
27 Country needing soldiers behind you (5)
YEMEN – YE (you) + MEN (soldiers)
28 Alluring snare, perfect celebration backfiring (5,4)
HONEY TRAP – HONE (perfect) + PARTY (celebration) backwards

DOWN
1 French city is substandard? (5)
PARIS – PAR (standard) + IS (is)
2 Shop ordered pepper primarily, with extreme loathing for salt (9)
PHOSPHATE – anagram of SHOP + P[epper] + HATE (extreme loathing)
3 Shot of tequila about right – this supposedly lucky? (10)
QUATREFOIL – R (right) in anagram of OF TEQUILA
4 Event is confined to school in case of earthquake (7)
EPISODE – IS (is) in POD (school, as of fish) in E[arthquak]E
5 A half and a whole fish for author (7)
KIPLING – KIP[per] (a half…) + LiNG (a whole fish)
6 Basic construction abandoned (4)
SHED – double definition
7 In abeyance – everything nasty then? (2,3)
ON ICE – O (nothing) + NICE (everything nasty then)
8 Diameters in circles, most beautiful (9)
DREAMIEST – anagram of DIAMETERS
13 A close game? (5,5)
LOCAL DERBY – crytic definition. A local derby refers to a match between local teams. I had not known this term.
14 Promise head of parliamentarian in slaughter, fighting with blades (9)
SWORDPLAY – WORD (promise) + P[arliamentarian] in SLAY (slaughter)
16 Someone driven to succeed in exam on difficult genre (9)
PASSENGER – PASS (to succeed in exam) + anagram of GENRE
18 Tastelessly showy houses nauseating at first – so decorate! (7)
GARNISH – N[auseating] in GARISH (tastelessly showy)
19 Film wife, if not the rear! (7)
WESTERN – W[if]E + STERN (the rear)
21 Roar from engine, as low revs regularly turned up (5)
VROOM – MOO (low) + R[e]V[s] all backwards. I figured out the wordplay when I solved the clue but then forgot how it worked when I originally wrote the blog! (Hence comment #1.)
23 Fight a bit (5)
SCRAP – double definition
24 Latin year’s ending coming up – so soon? (4)
ANON – ANNO (Latin year) with last letter moved ahead one place