Six and a half minutes for a fairly straightforward one. The answers were sometimes more obvious than the parsing, and there are a couple I'm not entirely happy with. I will be interested to hear what others think. Overall though, an enjoyable solve with some nice surfaces and a couple of anagrams that are nothing short of heroic.
| Across | |
| 1 | Each one consuming steak and kidney? (6) |
| APIECE - 'one' is ACE, which 'consumes' PIE | |
| 4 | Modify, once more, wind instrument with it (2-4) |
| RE-EDIT - REED is wind instrument + IT | |
| 9 | Pass on, or give up, the water container (4,3,6) |
| KICK THE BUCKET - KICK (gIve up as in a habit) + THE BUCKET | |
| 10 | Greek character flops in shows (3) |
| PSI - Hidden word floPS In | |
| 11 | Greetings to Royal Marines in spell of bad weather (9) |
| HAILSTORM - HAILS (greetings) + TO + RM | |
| 12 | Ruleémigré out of order (6) |
| REGIME - anagram ('out of order') of EMIGRE | |
| 13 | Rubbish to put in fancy hollow? (6) |
| GROTTO - Wasn't sure this parsed correctly. Rubbish is GROT, + TO. I don't know what 'put in' is doing here. Of course 'rubbish' is usually ROT so maybe I'm missing something? | |
| 16 | Port and Irish ham cooked with nothing in (9) |
| HIROSHIMA - Anagram ('cooked') of IRISH + HAM + O ('nothing'). | |
| 18 | Wool supplier in Uzbekistan’s capital called out (3) |
| EWE - Homophone. U is Uzbekistan's capital. So is Tashkent. | |
| 19 | DVD insurer, say, makes for motorists occasionally (6,7) |
| SUNDAY DRIVERS - anagram ('makes') of DVD INSURER SAY | |
| 21 | Strip in French appearing in Dandy? (6) |
| DENUDE - 'in French' is EN, 'Dandy' is DUDE | |
| 22 | Small slander, for example, turning to smear (6) |
| SMUDGE - S (small) + MUD (slander) + GE (for example turning) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Request Head should be removed from duty (3) |
| ASK - TASK (duty) with head removed. | |
| 2 | Irritating Cockney’s after a lift? (7) |
| ITCHING - Now this doesn't work either. It's a familiar crossword device that cockneys, e.g. Parker from Thunderbirds, drop their aitches , hence 'Hitching' (after a lift) becomes 'itching. BUT, all self-respecting Cockneys ALSO drop their Gs. So it would be 'itchin'. | |
| 3 | Do a “not so hot” dog please! (3,3,7) |
| CUT THE MUSTARD - jocular double definition. | |
| 5 | Horse-riding in Times Square unusual (13) |
| EQUESTRIANISM - Anagram ('unusual') of IN TIMES SQUARE. Nice | |
| 6 | Look proud, like stock folk hero, last of all (5) |
| DEKKO - last letters of prouD likE stocK folK herO. One of the many words the British brought back from India. 'dekho' in Hindi is the imperative of 'dekhna', to look. | |
| 7 | Allegretto tempo lends covers something symbolic? (5,4) |
| TOTEM POLE - Hidden word: allegretTO TEMPO LEnds. Nice | |
| 8 | Highland peak in W African state (5) |
| BENIN - BEN (highland peak) + IN. | |
| 10 | Nearly all clean gone after getting bought (9) |
| PURCHASED - Nearly all of clean is PUR(e), gone after is CHASED | |
| 14 | Chuckled: “Peg needs attention” (3-4) |
| TEE-HEED - 'Peg' is TEE, HEED is attention | |
| 15 | Unrestrained in speech, getting Oscar? (5) |
| WILDE - Homophone of WILD (unrestrained). Thrown initially because 'Oscar' is red rag to the bull of the NATO Phonetic alphabet. Overthinking it again. | |
| 17 | Quarrel leading to arrest? (3-2) |
| RUN-IN - Double definition. I wondered for a minute if it was a triple, but I can't quite make it work. | |
| 20 | Quiet English female (3) |
| SHE - SH (quiet!) + E | |