Nothing too obscure, but a bit of general knowledge (literature, movies) needed and a few worthwhile anagrams, making this at the harder end of Quick Cryptic offerings in my view; it took me about 12 minutes.
| Across |
| 1 | WAFFLES - FF (more than one female) inside WALES (part of UK); def. speaks vaguely. |
| 7 | ADAMANT - ADAM (chap in Eden) ANT (worker); def. determined. Nothing to do with the 80s pop star who is still touring. |
| 9 | TERRAIN - (TRAINER)*, def. ground. |
| 10 | DERANGE - (GRANDEE)*, def. confuse. |
| 11 | ROWS - Def. argues; first letters of (kicking off) Regularly Often With Spouse. |
| 12 | SPLASH OUT - Def. pay a lot; to splash could mean to go swimming, and here 'out' means abroad, as in out and about. |
| 14 | GOLDENEYE - GEN (information) around OLD, then EYE sounds like I; the 17th Bond movie, released 1995, the first with Pierce Brosnan, Judy Dench as M, and IMO one of the best.
|
| 16 | BREW - Barmen regularly seen = BaRmEn, or BRE, then W = with; def. drink. |
| 17 | ON PAPER - Cryptic def. |
| 20 | ITALIAN - I (island) TA (soldiers) LIAN = NAIL (secure) reversed; def. European. |
| 21 | EMERSON - EN (in, French) with (MORSE)* inside, E(MERSO)N; def. American who wrote. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, the chap who formulated the philosophy of Transcendentalism, whatever that may be. Cool middle name, though. |
| 22 | GRAVELY - GRAVEL (small stones), Y (last letter ('close') of rockerY); def. seriously, as in 'gravely ill'. |
| Down |
| 1 | WATERING HOLE - Clever anagram time. (THE WRONG ALE I)* ordered, def. pub. |
| 2 | FAREWELL - FARE (food), WE'LL (we shall); def. see you around. |
| 3 | LEAN - Jack Sprat ate no fat and Mrs S ate no lean. Sir David Lean, voted 9th best film director of all time in a 2002 BFI poll; IMO better than that. |
| 4 | SANDAL - LADS (boys) upset about AN, S(AN)DAL, def. item of footwear. |
| 5 | LACROSSE - sport, hidden in al(L ACROSS E)urope. |
| 6 | PAIN - PA (personal assistant), IN, def. bother. |
| 8 | TWENTY-TWENTY - A score is twenty; 20/20 vision is 'normal' acuity although many people have better than that and mine is worse. |
| 12 | SHEEPISH - Witty double def'; rather embarrassed, and like a sheep. |
| 13 | OVERTIME - OVERT (evident), I'M, E(energy); def. extra working hours. |
| 15 | ERRING - HERRING loses its H, def. going astray. |
| 18 | PEEP - To peep means to look, and is a palindrome, it goes up and down. |
| 19 | LAMA - A Buddist priest, hidden in Is(LAM A)pparently. |