Next in our series of cryptic helping hands – the army abbreviations you need to know
Welcome back to our ongoing effort to demystify cryptic clueing and entice the cautious but curious to crosswords based on wordplay.
A quick reminder that a cryptic clue typically has a definition of the answer (either at its beginning or its end and indicated in bold below), and a little recipe for the letters that spell out that answer. (The names of the setters whose clues are cited generally link to Q&As, if you want to try to get inside the head of each.)
13ac Musical soldiers (4)
[ abbrev. for a soldier, twice ]
19ac Blunt character soldiers follow? (7)
[ synonym for ‘character’, ‘followed’ by abbrev. for some ‘soldiers’ ]
[ TRAIT followed by OR ]
16ac Officer slow to check everything’s in order (7)
[ abbrev. for an ‘officer’ + synonym for ‘late’ ]
[ COL + LATE ]
1ac To fall back, a mistake made by soldiers (7)
[ synonym for ‘mistake’ after (‘by’) abbrev. for ‘Royal Engineers’ (‘soldiers’) ]
[ RE + LAPSE ]
6d Soldier shackling a young rogue, one solving others’ problems? (5,4)
[ what a ‘soldier’ might be, going around (‘shackling’) an anagram (‘rogue’) of AYOUNG ]
[ ANT around GONYAU ]