This took me eleven minutes with a fuzzy head from last evening's festivities. It seems to me that the Quickies are approaching the easier main puzzles in degree of difficulty, with fewer really obvious clues than when I started this malarkey. But maybe that's just because I'm half asleep.
| Across |
| 1 | ABYSMAL - Hidden word, B(ABY SMAL)L, def. 'very poor'. |
| 5 | SLICK - S=second, LICK=blow, def. 'adroit'. I'm still trying to satisfy myself that lick and blow can be syonymous; presumably to do with landing punches? |
| 8 | ROLLER_SKATE - (ROLE STALKER)*, indicated by 'criminal', def. 'move swiftly'. A loose definition, but a straightforward anagram. |
| 10 | SHOO - SHOO(T) cut short. Shoo! = go away. |
| 11 | SERGEANT - SET (firm), with (ANGER)* inserted, SE(RGEAN)T, def. 'army guy'. |
| 12 | GOLDEN - Out of date = OLD, circulated by GEN (information), G(OLD)EN, presumably for the 50th anniversary of WW1, 1914, or celebrating in 2014 a wedding anniversary if you married in 1964? |
| 14 | LAPSES - Remove H from hapless, (APLESS)*, def. 'failings'. |
| 16 | MATTRESS - MA (mum) T (time) TRESS (lock), for what you relax on at night. |
| 18 | TAPE - TAP (exploit) E (European), def. 'measure'. I spent a minute looking for a word meaning exploit, beginning with E. |
| 20 | OLIVER TWIST - (WORST EVIL ITS)*, indicator 'reformable, answer the Dickens novel. |
| 22 | CYCLE - First letters of C(hapters) Y(ou) C(orrelated), followed by LE (the French), def. 'series'. As in song cycle. |
| 23 | LEOTARD - LEO (stars) TARD(Y) (almost late), def. 'tight costume'. |
| Down |
| 2 | BERTH - BERTHA is lacking A, def. 'bed on board'. |
| 3 | SALFORD - SAL (girl) FOR (supporting) D (Democrat), Salford is a city adjoining Manchester, up north. |
| 4 | ACE - AC (bill, account), E, (end of 'the'), def. 'expert'. |
| 6 | LEAVE - Double def., you give someone leave to do something; to leave, for example. |
| 7 | CLEANSE - LEANS (lists, in the sense of leans over), held by CE (church), def. 'purge'. |
| 9 | SURPLUS - SUR(E) (nearly certain) PL (place) US (American), def. 'more than adequate'. |
| 11 | SINCERE - SINCE = during period after, RE = Religious Education, def. 'Open'. Not quite a synonym, IMO. |
| 13 | ORATORY - O (old) RA (artist) TORY, def. 'prayer room'. |
| 15 | PATRIOT - PT = training, A TRIO = threesome, P(A TRIO)T, def. 'country lover'. |
| 17 | TRIAL - L (learner), AIR (attitude), T (truculent at first), all reversed (rising), def. 'test'. |
| 19 | PETER - PET = favourite, ER = royal (Her Majesty), for the name of a Saint. Not the best clue around, as there are over 10,000 to choose from. |
| 21 | TIE - Odd letters of twice, T(W)I(C)E, def. 'draw'. |