Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Good evening,

I have solved 4 clues all day. Pathetic.

5a, 23a, 25a, 4d.

Can I ask for some guidance as to how how to solve some others please?

1a - Delivered book draft on time? (7)

I think ‘T’ is involved from ‘time’, but other than that I’m goosed.

Quite tricky for a Monday I thought.

1a. B for book and, yes, T for time. The bit in the middle means draft. Def is delivered.

23a is an anagram.

16d is an anagram less one letter (“not a”).

15a. is an anagram of word in the clue + two final letters.

that's a poor clue druh, i think. abbreviation for "book", then a loose synonym for "draft", then T for time, as you say, to make a loose synonym for "delivered".

I tend to agree a Chris. A while ago we had a discussion about the use of “on”.

In a down clue it’s clear that ”on” means “on top of”. So A on B would be AB.

But in an across clue “on” to me implies coming after. So “A on B” would be BA.

That’s not the case here.

Does ON not mean “working” sometimes?

I appreciate your time guys.

Druh, absolutely - it often means 'working'.

It's probably worth you trying the new Guardian Quick Cryptics which are set by regular Guardian setters but seem to be on the 'gentler' side. They'll help you with some of the techniques that they use in the main Cryptics.