Weekend Quick Cryptic 158 - 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.

• In 8A the deliveries are balls in cricket.
• Pierre in 14A indicates the answer is a word adopted from the French.
• "Opening cancelled" in 18A indicates removal of the first letter.
• 23A's use of "confronted by" is as a juxtaposition indicator.
• Unusually, in 3D the definition is neither at the front nor back of the clue.
• For 6A you don't need to know that a Chian is someone from the Greek island of Chios.
• "Pants" in the surface reading of 13D implies "pairs of pants".

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 Drive cattle (5)
STEER – Double definition.
4 Frightened by a loud attack (6)
AFRAID – A + F (forte; loud) + RAID (attack).
8 Delay deliveries with break in journey (4,4)
STOP OVER – Double definition, the first a cryptic hint. If you STOP an OVER at cricket, you would be delaying the next delivery (ball).
9 Quietly consumed rich food (4)
PATE – P (piano; quietly) + ATE (consumed).
10 Time everybody realised airstrikes are starting (3)
ERA – Initial letters [are starting] of Everybody Realised Airstrikes.
11 Satyr has scrambled to find smoker's requisites (8)
ASHTRAYS – (Satyr has)* [scrambled].
14 Pierre's sad Italian city centre's destroyed (6)
TRISTE – TRI{e}STE (Italian city) without the middle letter [centre’s destroyed]. Pierre is a French name and TRISTE is SAD in French.
16 Quickly reviewed poster (6)
PRESTO – [Reviewed] (poster)*.
18  "The West" has opening cancelled after a mishap (8)
ACCIDENT – {o}CCIDENT (the west) without the first letter [has opening cancelled], [after] A.
20 Have a meal in the atrium (3)
EAT – Hidden in thE ATrium.
21 Just a small lake (4)
MERE – Double definition.
22 Go all the way round England with reformed idler (8)
ENGIRDLE – ENG (England) + [reformed] (idler)*.
23 Horrified saint is confronted by Turkish chief (6)
AGHAST – ST (saint) after [is confronted by] AGHA (Turkish chief).
24 Maybe footballer can't begin to reach this level (5)
LAYER – {p}LAYER (maybe footballer) without the first letter [can’t begin].
 
Down
1 Is afraid of those thought responsible (8)
SUSPECTS – Double definition.
2 Say nothing to lunatic - he's self-obsessed (9)
EGOMANIAC – E.G. (for example; say) + O (nothing) + MANIAC (lunatic).
3 Brazilian diplomacy should render this measure unnecessary (4,3)
RIOT ACT – RIO (Brazilian) + TACT (diplomacy).
5 To begin with, one's out of bed before everybody else (5,2)
FIRST UP – Double definition.
6 Occasionally call up Chian, a Greek character (5)
ALPHA – Alternate letters, [occasionally], of cAlL u PcHiAn. Chios being a Greek island, a Chian is Greek, but you don’t need to know that to solve the clue.
7 Sees fruit (5)
DATES – Double definition.
12 McCartney wrote this only recently (9)
YESTERDAY – Double definition.
13 Pants are two of items worn at base (8)
FOOTWEAR – [Pants] (are two of)*.
15 Perpetual target reduced (7)
ENDLESS – END (target) + LESS (reduced).
17 Retest of faulty trailer (7)
RETRIAL – [faulty] (trailer)*.
18 Cub leader found in Lakeland (5)
AKELA – Hidden in lAKELAnd.
19 European vet on the radio (5)
CZECH – Sounds like CHECK (vet) [on the radio].