I have had time to attempt the Monday cryptic, number 24,210. My attempts are clearly paying off - 11/28.
A laird's poet's rewritten poem (8, 4)
Rewritten, A laird's poet's becomes Paradise Lost, a poem. Viola!
Series of soldiers controlled Kansas (5)
Gotta watch those states in cryptic clues - easy way to get pairs of letters into the clue. Kansas becomes KS. 'Series of soldiers'? With the R at the start (from a down clue), controlled could be ran, hence the answer in ranks.
After signal to stop limousine, pretty regularly see VIP on this? (3,6)
What do you see a VIP on that is (3,6)? Red carpet. Does this fit? Signal to stop = red, limousine = car, pretty to pet? Maybe pet as a term of endearment. Good enough.
Connective material soldier put back inside... (8)
From the letters already in and 'connective material' I went for ligament.
Pair encountering dragon move forward (8)
Pair = pr, dragon=monster which can be ogre or, to fit with 'move forward' ogress, making progress. Exactly what I'm making with my cryptic mindset. Getting used to the methods.
Produce document again, in entirety, perhaps (6)
Pretty easy, this one. Produce document again = retype, which appears in entirety, perhaps as highlighted above.
Country girl's study (7)
I liked this one. Country = Peru, girl = Sal, study = perusal. Classic cryptic.
Smallest of family, a male, very thin, allowed to undergo punishment (3,3,8)
This was another good one. Smallest of the family = runt, a male = he, very thin = gaunt, allowed = let. To run the gauntlet is to be punished. The punishment involves being forced to run between two rows of soldiers who proceed to beat you as you pass.
Hurry up! Ale keg has split (5,1,3)
Split here means mix up the letters. 'Ale keg has' becomes shake a leg. This is the first clue to jump out at me today - the number (5,1,3) made this so much easier.
In a cricket match, time to declare (6)
A cricket match is a test. To declare is to attest. The Times are nice enough to throw the occasional easy clue my way.
Louder! State your views firmly (5,2)
Speak up! I don't think I need to explain this one.
The rest are beyond me so I'll go and take a gander at http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times, a splendid site to help learn cryptics. Thank you to petebiddlecombe (petebiddlecombe) for putting me onto the site, instantly improving my cryptic ability. Getting to know the mind of the crossword setter is important. Hopefully I'll soon be filling the entire grid solo, but it'll take practice.
Good observation on SHAKE A LEG - word-lengths quite often make multi-word long answers relatively easy.
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