This was one of those that I seemed to make heavy weather of, but on reflection can’t really see why. A couple of clues have a lot of moving parts eg SCRUBS and THORAX, but overall I think it’s well-pitched. An off-the-pace 7 minutes for me
| Across | |
| 1 | Difficult restraining rook where animals feed (6) |
| TROUGH – TOUGH with R inserted | |
| 4 | Councillor wears deputy’s clothing in theatre (6) |
| SCRUBS – CR (councillor) with SUB’S (deputy’s) outside | |
| 8 | Drunk person eating last of nice starters? (7) |
| OPENERS – anagram (‘drunk’) of PERSON with E inserted | |
| 10 | Pens used in fusty library (5) |
| STYLI – hidden word | |
| 11 | French friend emptied skips wrongly (5) |
| AMISS – AMI (‘friend’ in french) + S[ |
|
| 12 | “Oceanic expanse unconfined” writes European in middle of boat (4,3) |
| OPEN SEA – PENS + E inside [ |
|
| 13 | Repeatedly unoccupied, Helena read newspaper and novel (4,5) |
| HARD TIMES – H[ |
|
| 17 | Steal the show from leading male artiste at last (7) |
| UPSTAGE – UP (leading) + STAG (male) + E | |
| 19 | Miscreant runs fashion magazine when leader absent (5) |
| ROGUE – R (runs) + [ |
|
| 20 | Leafy vegetable cleaning lady prepared at rear (5) |
| CHARD – CHAR + D (end of ‘prepared’) | |
| 21 | Country retreat with distinctive character (7) |
| DENMARK – DEN (retreat) + MARK | |
| 22 | Tolerate quarrel periodically after goal (6) |
| ENDURE – END + qUaRrEl | |
| 23 | Material with great weight on bed (6) |
| COTTON – TON on COT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Chest x-ray under new rota around hospital (6) |
| THORAX – X (X-ray, NATO alphabet) under anagram (‘new’) of ROTA round H for hospital. | |
| 2 | Fling a certain piece of bedroom furniture (3-5,5) |
| ONE-NIGHT STAND – a night stand is a piece of furniture. | |
| 3 | Greek holiday, after temperature’s dropped, for Hairy Biker? (7) |
| GREASER – GR (Greek) + EASTER minus T for temperature | |
| 5 | Social class of actors in play mentioned (5) |
| CASTE – sounds like CAST | |
| 6 | Legendary adventurer with small allowance for president once (7,1,5) |
| ULYSSES S GRANT – ULYSSES (adventurer) + S + GRANT. 18th president of the US. | |
| 7 | Quiet artist drinking one unknown wine (6) |
| SHIRAZ – SH (quiet) + RA (artist) with I inserted, + Z | |
| 9 | Horse race might be won by this little man on flier perhaps (5,4) |
| SHORT HEAD – SHORT (little) + HE (man) + AD | |
| 14 | Harm English over site of battle (7) |
| MARENGO – MAR (harm) + ENG + O. Battle of Marengo, 1800. Napoleon vs the Austrians. | |
| 15 | Parisian who half chewed flan (6) |
| QUICHE – QUI (‘who’ in French) + CHE[ |
|
| 16 | Idiot wearing jacket (6) |
| JERKIN – JERK (idiot) + IN (wearing) | |
| 18 | Tree more bare, lacking breadth (5) |
| ALDER – BALDER minus B for breadth | |
Far to much use of first letters of words to make up solution. Sign of a poor setter that they have to resort to that.