Apologies for the tardiness and brevity of this post, but I have been at a full-day seminar in sunny Perth all day, so have not been able to get online until now.
When I did eventually get to the puzzle, I found it fairly easy, but enjoyable as the wordplay was generally fair and some of the words were just challenging enough for you to have to be sure that the wordplay made sense.
ACROSS
1 SYCOPHANT – (stony chap)*
10 TEMPT – (at)TEMPT – good surface
11 PITCHFORK – PITCH-FOR-K(eeper) – PITCH = “wicket”, as in cricket pitch, I assume
12 RHONDDA – (rd had no)* – in Mid Glamorgan
13 BERMUDA – BE(e)R + (maud)*
14 STAFF SERGEANT – Staffs. + ERG + (neat)*
17 REIMBURSEMENT – (members unite r)*
21 REFUGEE – nice cryptic definition
26 YO-YO – cryptic definition, although the surface is a bit forced
DOWN
3 PATE DE FOIE GRAS – lovely grub, unless you have some objection to force-feeding geese until their livers almost burst
4 APPEASE – AP(PE-A)SE
5 TOTE-BAG – TOT + E(BA(t))G
8 DIKTAT – (<=tad) with 1 KT captured
15 AIRY-FAIRY – (if I ray ray)*
23 IMBUE – I’M + B(l)UE
I couldn’t see how the clue to ‘Pate de foie gras’ was cryptic.
Yeah, now you mention it – it isn’t, is it? Missed that in my haste to solve and post!