Weekend Quick Cryptic 127 - 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 my 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, click the label below.

Hints and tips...

The across answers in the grid contain words from the refrain of the song "Climb Every Mountain" from the Sound of Music (shown in red below). Hear it played  here on the mighty Wanamaker organ at Macy's in Philadelphia, which sadly closed down last month (see here).

• "For all to see" in 9A is a reference to a film classification.
• In 11A the "tots" could be of whisky.
• 21A is a 4 part charade.
• In 14D "over" is a reversal indicator.
• 16D starts with an apostrophe.
• The "contrary girl" in 18D has silver shells in her garden.

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 Cup's first leg, perhaps, is an uphill struggle (5)
CLIMB – First letter of Cup, LIMB (leg, perhaps) – the perhaps indicates a definition by example.
4 Each day before joining railway (5)
EVERY – EVE (day before) [joining] RY (railway). You need to split “Each day” to find the definition. “Joining” is a juxtaposition indicator.
7 Ben's horse again not first or second (8)
MOUNTAIN – MOUNT (horse) {ag}AIN without the first and second letters. A Scottish rather than Swiss mountain.
8 River-crossing is for daredevils initially (4)
FORD – FOR and first letter of Daredevils.
9 Piece of art for all to see in Alabama? (6)
STATUE – U (film classification; for all to see) in STATE (Alabama). The question mark indicates “Alabama” is a definition by example. 

10 Hurry after the tailless bird (6)
THRUSH – TH{e} [tailless) RUSH (hurry).
11 Imagines tots consuming hallucinogenic drug (6)
DREAMS – E (hallucinogenic drug) in DRAMS (tots of e.g. whisky).
13 Irrational desire to live (6)
RESIDE – [Irrational] (desire)*.
15 Master rearranged grouping of pupils (6)
STREAM – (Master)* [rearranged].
18 Understand dog (6)
FOLLOW – Double definition.
20 Discover Scandinavian country has no computer network (4)
FIND – FIN{lan}D. LAN = local area network, a type of computer network.
21 Artist in East London suburb starting to search for mythical sources of gold (8)
RAINBOWS -  RA (Royal Academician) IN BOW (East London suburb) [first letter of] S{earch}..
22 Extremely tiddly drinking rum beverage (5)
TODDY – ODD (rum) in outside letters of, [extremely], T{iddl}Y.
23 Cooked tansy is rather unpleasant (5)
NASTY – [cooked] (tansy)*.
 
Down
1 Scottish farmer is part of revolutionary secret force (7)
CROFTER – Reverse hidden, [part of][revolutionary] in secRET FORCe.
2 Tavern has attractive quality, don't you think? (5)
INNIT – INN (tavern) IT (attractive quality).
3 Lacking support for women being central to talent in section of orchestra (7)
BRALESS – Middle letters of [central to] taLEnt, in BRASS (section of orchestra that featured in my previous Weekend QC).
4 German artist is unusually stern (5)
ERNST – [Unusually] (stern)*.
5 Attempts to regenerate primarily fir forest (7)
EFFORTS – [regenerate] (F{ir} forest)*. “Primarily” indicates taking just the first letter of “fir”.
6 Length of ship's spars (5)
YARDS – Double definition.
12 Changed when afternoon began (7)
AMENDED – AM (morning) ENDED. Geddit?
13 Bully disrupted funfair (7)
RUFFIAN – [disrupted] (funfair)*.
14 Cross over road leading to entrance (7)
DOORWAY – ROOD (type of cross) [over] -> DOOR, WAY (road).
16 It's not common for rubbish to collect at home (5)
‘TAINT -  IN (at home) in TAT (rubbish). A vulgar way of saying “it’s not”.
17 Contrary girl accepts, finally, offer to wed (5)
MARRY – Final letter of offeR in MARY (Mary, Mary, quite contrary).
19 The whole world's lacking good places to attach earrings (5)
LOBES – {g}LOBE’S (the whole world’s) without the G (good).