Though I had done quick crosswords as a kid, I wouldn't value them much as a stepping stone. The first cryptic crosswords I tried my hand at were during Shaastra 2001. Within a few months of regularly attempting The Hindu Daily Crossword, I was irretrievaby addicted to cryptic crosswords. Quick crosswords are clearly fearsome to look at and may be challenging in their own right, but after spelling, crosswords are one area where my loyalties lie with the British!

Here is the content of a page that seems to no longer exist, but was extremely helpful in my early days. It was the first page returned by Google when one typed in "crossword clue conventions" back in 2001 (sometimes, it's this website!). It's the most valuable material a beginner can have access to, and is also really helpful as a reference that one can always return to when in doubt.

Cryptic Crossword Primer  (originally available at http://www.ergodic.org/cryptstuff/primer/primer.htm)

And here is the list of crosswords I've framed :

A word about reading and understanding the solutions. My convention differs slightly from that used for the explanations given in the primer. However, just as in the primer, explanations for clues are in fixed width fonts so that each explanation is properly aligned below the part of the clue that flags it. Unless you have specifically overridden fonts in some funny way, it should look right on all browsers. The definition part of the clue is in red. And the explanation below in blue. Letters that actually contribute to the final word are in uppercase. Flags and comments are within square brackets.

For example:

n. Definition flag1 clue_to_word1 flag2 clue_to_word2 (N)
             [type1]   LETTERS1  [type2]  LETTERS2     [LETTERS1 LETTERS2 somehow give ANSWER]