Weekend Quick Cryptic 164 - Solution

Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce our series of Weekend Quick Cryptic crosswords. We take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's Phil's turn. 

You can find a link to the crossword here and the answers below.  Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as you would do on  TfTT .  You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here. 

Before looking at the answers, if you would like some additional help with the clues click the label below.

Hints and tips...

Here are a few hints and tips.

• The river at 1A is in France.
• In 19A if you take the answer (the fruit) and add a word for "a long time" you get a word meaning "down".
• In 24A you have to spell the bird the way a Cockney might pronounce it.
• The answer in 2D is the Mafia code of honour requiring silence about criminal activities and stressing the disgrace of informing.
• You need to use a Northern accent for the 21D wordplay.

And click on this label to get the solution.

Solution and explanation of the answers...

Definitions  underlined in bold italics, ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc,{deletions} and [] other indicators.

Across
1 River horse we're told (5)
RHONE – Sounds like ROAN (horse) [we’re told].
4 Rose left in the lurch (5,2)
STOOD UP – Double definition.
8 Dog in tea garden straying (5,4)
GREAT DANE – (tea garden)* [straying].
9 Sailor, a traitor in retreat (3)
TAR – RAT (a traitor) reversed [in retreat] -> TAR.
10 Audibly allow old Eastern European... (4)
LETT – Sounds like [audibly] LET (allow).
11 ...a stupid person, to dispose of storage facility (8)
TOOLSHED – TOOL (a stupid person) + SHED (to dispose of).
13 Crazy mules to devour southern shellfish (6)
MUSSEL – S (southern) in [crazy] (mules)*.
14 Overweight jazz fan - he's rolling in it (3,3)
FAT CAT – FAT (overweight) + CAT (jazz fan).
17 He tells us Arran is cycling to rocky hill (8)
NARRATOR – ARRAN starting the word with the N and continuing from the beginning [is cycling] -> NARRA + TOR (rocky hill).
19 This fruit can take a long time to get down (4)
PLUM – PLUM + AGE (a long time) -> PLUMAGE (down).
22 I say love! (3)
EGO – EG (for example; say) + O (0; love).
23 Absolutely wrong - twice! (3-3-3)
OUT-AND-OUT - OUT (wrong) AND OUT (wrong) again.
24 Boxer's Cockney bird? (7)
SPARRER – SPARROW (bird) as pronounced by a Cockney.
25 Suggest it's Dante's masterpiece? No no! (5)
INFER – INFER{no} (Dante’s masterpiece) without the NO.
 
Down
1 Drink up. it's fit for a king! (5)
REGAL – LAGER (drink) going upwards -> REGAL.
2 Vows of silence confused maestro (7)
OMERTAS – [confused] (maestro)*.
3 Food found in time at steakhouse (4)
EATS – [found in] timE AT Steakhouse
4 Closely follow Hank Marvin? (6)
SHADOW – Double definition, the second by example as indicated by the ?
5 Surprisingly love Dora to pile it on (8)
OVERLOAD – [Surprisingly] (love Dora)*.
6 European wife (5)
DUTCH – Double definition, the second the cockney term for a wife (from an abbreviation of duchess)
7 Beautiful fairy to spot gemstone (7)
PERIDOT – PERI (beautiful fairy) + DOT (spot).
12 Make too much of vote for Burnham (8)
BELABOUR – BE LABOUR (vote for Burnham).
13 Terry McCann's bodyguards (7)
MINDERS – Double definition.
15 Postpone visit one fought for at first (4,3)
CALL OFF – CALL (visit) + first letters of One Fought For [at first].
16 Grayson Perry to do small unplanned task (6)
POTTER – Double definition.
18 Running in our jalopy initially before August starts - it's red (5)
RIOJA – First letters of [initially] Running In Our Jalopy + first letter of August [starts].
20 Mother's half-hearted affair (5)
MATER – MAT{t}ER (affair) losing half the middle letters.
21 One not liking Dad's sister reportedly (4)
ANTI – Sounds like AUNTY (Dad’s sister) as pronounced in Northern parts of the country.