Financial Times 14,460 by Falcon

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 2, 2013

I found most of this puzzle easy going but was stumped for a while by 19 and 26. I think there are four outstanding clues here: 1A (COUNT BASIE), 10A (BURNS NIGHT), 14D (POSTNATAL) and, top of the heap, 7D (WHIP-ROUND).

ACROSS
1 Jazz pianist’s number I introduced to station (5,5)
COUNT BASIE – COUNT (number) + I (I) in BASE (station)
7 Married woman almost taking in a homeless child (4)
WAIF – A (a) in WIF[e] (married woman almost)
9 Corrupt place by underworld river (4)
STYX – STY (corrupt place) + X (by). I originally explained this incorrectly and fixed it thanks to a comment.
10 Is scorching – odd thing for a January evening? (5,5)
BURNS NIGHT – BURNS (is scorching) + anagram of THING
11 Film producer died? Yes, in resort (6)
DISNEY – D (died) + anagram of YES IN. As was pointed out to me by a commenter (see #2 below), this clue could equally well be answered by SIDNEY which also fits the crossing letters.
12 Care about taking part in popular experiment (8)
INTEREST – IN (popular) + RE (about) in TEST (experiment)
13 Messy hit and run (8)
SLAPDASH – SLAP (hit) + DASH (run)
15 American edition, secondhand (4)
USED – US (American) + ED (edition). Americans tend to use the word ‘used’ where Brits would use ‘secondhand’. Of course they also sometimes use the ungodly term ‘pre-owned’.
17 Is clutching large tailless bird (4)
IBIS – BI[g] (large tailless) in IS (is)
19 Novel story about an orphan girl breaking finger (3,5)
THE IDIOT – HEIDI (an orphan girl) in TOT (finger). This was the hardest clue for me. I was well aware that there is a popular Swiss children’s story about a girl named Heidi but I did not know she was an orphan.
22 Run away, go with dog (4,4)
TURN TAIL – TURN (go) + TAIL (dog)
23 Beginning to enjoy flower festival (6)
EASTER – E[njoy] + ASTER (flower)
25 Spell cast by boy at the last possible moment (4,2,4)
JUST IN TIME – JUSTIN (boy) + TIME (spell)
26 Engaged a detective (4)
BUSY – double definition. I did not know that ‘busy’ could refer to a detective.
27 In Tibet, Albania and elsewhere (2,2)
ET AL – hidden term
28 Compelling work produced by foremost of painters, mature English artist (4-6)
PAGE-TURNER – P[ainters] + AGE (mature) + TURNER (English artist)

DOWN
2 Cricket side, ahead of test, being judged (2,5)
ON TRIAL – ON (cricket side) + TRIAL (test)
3 Nothing on disgraced president? (5)
NIXON – NIX (nothing) + ON (on)
4 Singer in boy band worried about lighting, initially (3,5)
BOB DYLAN – L[ightning] in anagram of BOY BAND
5 Takings that girl whipped brings about candid exchanges (8,7)
STRAIGHT TALKING – anagram of TAKINGS THAT GIRL
6 Artificial, some flowers at zoo (6)
ERSATZ – hidden word. Ersatz is a word I did not have a good sense of and had probably never used. I am informed that it comes from German (which sounds right) and its proper meaning is ‘substitute’ rather than ‘artificial’.
7 Collection in crop circle? (4-5)
WHIP-ROUND – WHIP (crop) + ROUND (circle)
8 Fashionable male crossing a street quickly (2,5)
IN HASTE – IN (fashionable) + A ST (a street) in HE (male)
14 After giving birth, plan a tot’s development (9)
POSTNATAL – anagram of PLAN A TOTS
16 Violent tough guys kept in check (8)
VEHEMENT – HE-MEN (tough guys) in VET (check)
18 Smell a bunch of flowers (7)
BOUQUET – double definition
20 Direct extra to spot (7)
OVERSEE – OVER (extra) + SEE (spot)
21 Better to cover worker up having short sleep (6)
CATNAP – ANT (worker) backwards in CAP (better). ‘Cap’ here has the meaning of to do better than.
24 Famous cricketer, mostly restrained (5)
SOBER – SOBER[s] (famous cricketer, mostly). This refers of course to the incomparable Gary Sobers.