Quick Cryptic No 623 by Flamande

Apologies for the later posting this morning. For the second alternate Thursday my iPad refused to download today’s edition. Also for the second alternate Thursday I find myself blogging a FLAMANDE grid, so double the pleasure!

A nice crossword with nothing too difficult to answer or parse, although it took me a moment or two to see the Australian accent in 11d.

I’ll get this posted without further prevarication

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated by [square brackets] and deletions with {curly ones}

Across

1 Joke about extremely unusual Russian prison system (5)

GULAG – GAG is the joke, (about) around (extremely, i.e. outside letters) U{nusua}L

4 Ring motoring organisation about group sharing vehicles (7)

CARPOOL – Ring is LOOP and the motoring organisation is RAC (other motoring organisations are available) all reversed indicated by ‘about’. In the first clue, about indicated ‘around’, and in this one it means ‘reverse’

8 Old Asian city controlled by fool (7)

RANGOON – controlled is RAN by fool which is GOON. Rangoon is now known as Yangon, which is in Burma, now known as Myanmar. GOON is defined in Chambers as both a hired thug (possibly more familiar to us from a diet of gangster films) and as a stupid person, or fool

9 Cereal we hate mostly, when cooked (5)

WHEAT – anagram, indicated by ‘when cooked’ of WE HAT{e}. ‘Mostly’ instructs us in this case to drop the final letter

10 Highway in Tennesse’s borders, say, following river (10)

INTERSTATE – in is IN, Tennessee’s borders are TE (first and last letters), river is R and say is STATE. Squeezed them all together for a type of US highway

14 Get one’s own back, coming out of Geneva (6)

AVENGE – Straightforward anagram (indicated by ‘coming out of’) [GENEVA]

15 French cheeses, might one say, for a picnic (6)

BREEZE – French cheeses would be ‘Bries’ which sounds like (might one say) BREEZE, which can be a picnic, as in ‘solving this clue was a breeze / picnic’

17 Milliner comes in to celebrate? Smashing! (10)

SHATTERING – Milliner is a HATTER which is surrounded by (comes in to) SING. Sing, as a transitive verb, can mean to celebrate

20 Writer from Swiss Cottage (5)

SCOTT – The first of today’s hidden clues (from) {swis}S COTT{age}, which as well as being a mountain chalet is an area in North Central London named for a pub

22 Thinking Europeans should link during Scottish dance (7)

FEELING – Two Es for E{uropeans}, linked and inside the highland FLING. I’m feeling / thinking that some people might question feeling as a synonym for thinking!

23 Imply American rejected scrambled eggs and toast for starters (7)

SUGGEST – American equals US, reversed (rejected) with an anagram of [EGGS] clued by ‘scrambled’, and finally T{oast} (for starters)

24 Put foot down: student finally to study (5)

TREAD – {student}T (finally) (to study) READ. On University Challenge, how do contestants decide whether to say “I’m so-and-so, reading whatsit” rather than “I’m thingy studying an ‘ology”?

Down

1 Prickly bush: son’s lost lots of blood (4)

GORE – GOR{s}E loses s for son

2 Wild animal spotted where golfers play, we hear(4)

LYNX – Golfers sometimes play on links, which sounds like LYNX (we hear)

3 Combination of hot dog and gin to make you sleep well (4,5)

GOOD NIGHT – Anagram (combination) of [HOT DOG] and [GIN}

4 Fraudster and match official coming up to talk together (6)

CONFER – A CON is a fraudster, the match official is REF, reversed, which is the same as coming up for a down clue

5 Dispute how to make progress in a boat (3)

ROW – Straightforward double definition

6 Surprised old woman married(8)

OVERAWED – O{ld} plus VERA (woman) and WED (married). Nicely concise surface

7 Boy standing around there, covered in soap (8)

LATHERED – Boy is LAD which contains (stands around) THERE (there).

11 Short Australian fellow, keen on the rules (9)

STRINGENT – Aussies often refer to anything Australian as ‘STRIN{e} (short indicates drop the last letter), followed by GENT (fellow)

12 Band leader helps some orchestra members (8)

BASSISTS – B{and} (leader, first letter) ASSISTS (helps). Bassists could be playing Double Bass or Bass Guitar, but in an orchestra it is probably the former

13 Be friends? You must be joking (3,5)

GET ALONG – Double definition, the first meaning to get along as in be friends, the second as in ‘get away with you’

16 Member of university staff gets it as financial benefit (6)

PROFIT – PROF is the university guy or girl, which gets IT

18 Hardly an attractive place to take the plunge (4)

DIVE – another double definition

19 Old mortgage deal, in part (4)

AGED – Another hidden (in part) in {mortg}AGE D{eal}

21 Striker regularly missing match (3)

TIE – {s}T{r}I{k}E{r} with alternate letters removed (regularly missing) to leave TIE, which is a match as in cup tie.