Criticise a clerk, we hear, producing cigar (9)
I believe the answer is:
panatella
'cigar' is the definition.
(type of cigar)
'criticise a clerk we hear' is the wordplay.
'criticise' becomes 'pan' (informal term meaning to criticise heavily).
'clerk' becomes 'teller' (I've seen this before).
'we hear' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'teller' sounds like 'tella'.
'pan'+'a'+'tella'='PANATELLA'
'producing' is the link.
(Other definitions for panatella that I've seen before include "that's smoked" , "Slender cigar" , "Type of cigar" , "Kind of cigar" , "One smoker lights" .)