The clock code is pretty universal.
Up to 15 degrees off the runway - quarter way around the clock, a quarter of the wind is crosswind.
Up to 30 degrees - half
Up to 45 degrees three quarters
Up to 60 degrees, or over 60 degrees, treat all the wind as crosswind.
As for CV's airbus. - well either the Captain was equally incompetent, or was a complete @rse making an extremely expensive point to his f/o. You can use the same clock code to estimate tailwind. Within 15 degrees of the runway heading count a quarter of the total wind as tailwind, and so on.
Check with a calculator and this is as accurate as you need for most purposes.
Of course maybe the Airbus f/o was struggling to get the numbers into the FMS and determine landing distance? That sounds perhaps a bit more likely.
G