Across
8) Musicians circle French wood on small back street (7)
9) One hears or Spanish God makes sound. (5)
10) Keen to change gear at a point. (5)
11) It's irritating; the spiritual guide book contains a shirt! (7)
12) Put a ring on the stylus; it's not closed. (4)
13) Considers that's crazy! Dug jade at South pole. (8)
16) It's meant to be peaceful, yet I duel...weird. (8)
19) Quite cozy it is, in war mongering! (4)
22) Comical, novel, little woman, in front of you, say, and fifty in a car. (7)
23) Big and regal, but crazy! (5)
24) Two articles on front of bus go for a swim. (5)
25) One of the group is in the apple juice, I hear.(7)
Down
1) Does my B.O. upset a person? (8)
2) Force to go round circle before the French search. (6)
3) Employers upset tricks. (5)
4) Spotted in Marie's pie dish. (6)
5) Silly old bird swallows gold before us, making a lot of noise. (7)
6) Attention Deficit Disorder and mixed gin is a plus?? (6)
7) Boy ends with a note for the melody. (4)
14) Strange mystery about male leader's balance. (8)
15) Walking on sticks, but not very smoothly. (7)
17) Find no Tom among the French. (6)
18) He turned inward, and discovered our roots. (6)
20) Mix, Dear, after the first two letters make it rough. (6)
21) Explosion blew up the stable, missing the point! (5)
22) He was patient before his last chores(4)
The Training Wheels:-
a) Ignore punctuation; it's just there for fun, and to further confuse you.
b) If you see circle, or ring, or even zero and no, it might mean "O", (but circle and ring may also mean a word is wrapped around).
c) There are endless words indicating a possible anagram; if you see crazy, mixed, silly, confused, upset etc. look for awkward phrasing (which we try to avoid) and words adding up to the correct number of letters.
d) You'll often come across abbreviations used to build a word. :- rd; st (saint or street); T (shirt or intersection); various metals such as au (gold) or cu (copper); mo or dr (doctor); e.g. if "a little back road" is part of the clue maybe it means "dr" (little road = rd, little back road = dr).
e) As noted in the last example, "back" may mean reverse the letters or word, also "reverse", "return" and "around" to name a few.
f) The final word may be hidden literally in part of the clue. e.g. In there Edward found material for thatching. (reed)
g) Sometimes it's helpful to think about all the different meanings and pronunciations of a word; for instance desert, present, content.
h) Words like points (N,S,E,W), degrees (BA, MA), notes (A to G) and poles (N, S) usually indicate certain letters.
The cache is at N 48 A B . C D E W 123 F G . H I J
(A, K and U = 1)
A = 9 across (letter 2) + 22 across (letter 4)
B = 8 a (2) + 18 down (4)
C = 24 a (4) - 21 d (5)
D = 1 d (3) - 8a (2)
E = 22 d (2) - 21d (2)
F = 23 a (4) - 12 a (2)
G = 10 a (4) + 19 a (1)
H = 16 a (2) + 20 d (4)
I = 2 d (3) + 13 a (2)
J = 8 a (6) + 13 a (1)
And if you fancy hard copy help The Times "How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords"might be the answer.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.