Crossword Genius

Town sad, I suspect, about old tree (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

satinwood

'tree' is the definition.
(satinwood is a kind of tree)

'town sad i suspect about old' is the wordplay.
'suspect' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'town'+'sad'+'i'='townsadi'
'townsadi' with letters rearranged gives 'satinwod'.
'satinwod' placed around 'o' is 'SATINWOOD'.

(Other definitions for satinwood that I've seen before include "Cabinetmaker's raw material" , "Hard material" , "tropical tree" , "Indian tree" , "exotic tree?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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