Sunday Times 4207/Yellow goo

Author   ilancPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
The only thing that I wonder about is why yellow goo is lemon curd (see 14D) – is this along the lines of “yellow matter custard”?

Across

5 LA-D,[a]I-DA – Verdi’s Aida is probably the most common operatic cryptic clue element (followed by Mimi).
9 CHAIR,MAN – Perhaps he’s the CHAIRMAN of the board in 4D. “Castle” is an example of a chessMAN.
10 SUB, PO,ENA – Again the common cryptic two-letter river PO following SUBmarine. And ENA makes a rare cryptic appearance as a TLG (Three-Letter Girl).
11 H(YEN)AS – The Japanese still have a yen for the YEN.
12 WATERSKI – Almost an anag &lit: (wet risk)* where “one” is the definition (it’s hard to stay upright if you’re only on one WATERSKI – hard enough to stay upright when you’re on both).
19 L(ACROSS)E – def is the game of LACROSSE: French word for N. American game. There are fourteen ACROSS clues in this puzzle.
21 RES,IST – abbrev(“research”)=RES followed by sit*. I do wonder about using “down” as an anagrind.
24 CAT,A,COMB – “tunnel for bodies” is a nice literal rendition for CATACOMB.
25 A,B,ROAD – I originally filled in “byroad” here thinking that it wasn’t a bad double definition (noting that you can leave the UK by car through the Chunnel now). This made 20D very hard for me obviously! Definition is simply ABROAD (“out of UK”). I think the clue reads better as “A secondary route out of here?” – the overseas solver (e.g. me) is aware of the fact that “The Sunday Times” is a British paper.
26 B,EVERAGE – B[ar] followed by (“Dame Edna”) EVERAGE. I suppose “The Times” rule about living people doesn’t apply to characters they play or it does, but not to “The Sunday Times”.

Down

1 NATURAL – double meaning: a “white key” is neither sharp nor flat.
3 CARES,S – nice shift of “pet” from noun to verb.
4 OCCASIONAL TABLE – not completely happy with this clue: “Part-time board member?” – I see the charade of “part-time” and “board” but I don’t see how “member” serves the definition? I suppose the setter wants us to think about board members that only show up to meetings once in a while.
5 GRAPH,I,TE – The “note” TE (sometimes, ti) again. Defining GRAPH as “mathematician’s diagram” seems like overkill and certainly slowed me down. Perhaps that was the setter’s intent.
6 NERVE – double meaning: though both seem rather close to me.
14 LEMON CURD – (red column)* — defining LEMON CURD as “yellow goo” is probably accurate but not really sufficiently descriptive. I suppose the setter wanted the red/yellow contrast.
15 PLETHORA – (her Plato)*. I see that Mrs. Plato used to get rather frisky causing Plato to be embarrassed: PLETHORA is literally “a fullness of the blood” which I guess is what happens when you blush with embarrassment.
17 ACE,TATE – a cryptic “gallery” is inevitably TATE – and ACETATE “film” is the stuff they make flimsies from for your “overhead” slideshows. A thing of the past given PowerPoint.
20 CELLAR=”seller” – not happy with this clue. I’m OK with “one gives up for money” describing a “seller”. But “some wine” doesn’t quite convince me as a synonym for CELLAR: “I have some wine” and “I have a cellar” are close – but I had to add the indefinite article.

2 comments on “Sunday Times 4207/Yellow goo”

  1. If you’re prepared to accept Chambers 2003’s definition of CELLAR as “a stock of wine”, then I think 20d is probably sound.
  2. 4a Newspaper is first to educate form = ORGAN IS E. Organ = newspaper in x-word land.
    13a Thrash exhausted pupils = OUT CLASS.
    16a Tree makes (animal go)* mad = MAGNOLIA.
    23a Distribute (tea) with (local)* doctor = ALLOCATE. Doctor is a verb in this case and the anagram indicator.

    2d Fool artless heavyweight = SIMPLE TON.
    7d Beetles terrify short sailor at front of ship = SCAR AB S. It is the terrify that is short – SCAR(E) – and not the sailor – AB.
    18d Smoker’s aid missing outside hospital = AS H TRAY.
    22d One judge is angry = 1 RATE.

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