Solving time 13 mins. A long quote which might have made all the difference as I knew it and entered it first time round.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
6 CHOR (T L) E
10 T (last letter of hesitant) RE MB LING
12 MISINTERPRETED (Dire temper isn’t)*
14 IN VERT
16 (J)AME (ER)S
18 PERE GR I (NATION) S
20 COMMA Double definition
22 SURE THING Ditto, ref horse racing.
24 LAUNDRY (lady run)*
25 LEN I ENT
DOWN
1 E (C) HT The<
2 VOTE-WINNER (Now it never)*
3/7A/19/11 O TO BE IN ENGLAND NOW THAT APRIL’S THERE * of the whole clue, except for ‘appropriately’. First Quixote puzzle of April. From Robert Browning’s poem “Home Thoughts from Abroad” – the quote has “Oh” rather than “O”, a change surely allowable in the circs.
4 S EXIST
5 SH O E Oxford is a type of shoe, good surface reading suggesting the place.
7 NIGER IA (A1 regin(a))<
8 WATER-RESISTANT (Wine-taster’s art)*
9 TR (END) Y
13 T(YR ANN IS) ED Old rocker = Ted(dy boy) from 1950s.
15 TH (IR ST) Y
17 A P (I C) AL
21 MA (U) D
23 GI T(h)E