Solving time, 21 mins * = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 CUPIDS DARTS Got this when I’d some crossing letters – thanks, Wikipedia for telling me where it comes from – a satirical verse ‘Miss Buss and Miss Beale, Cupid’s darts do not feel” with Miss Beale being Miss Dorothea Beale, founder of St Hilda’s College, Oxford.
9 FOR (MATTEr) D
10 ENVOY Hidden
11 E.G. O 1 ST
12 DI STIN(C)T I’d<
13 SO(MB)RE
15 CHA CONNEd
17 RINGSIDE (Residing)*
18 HE (P-C) AT My last entry, whether it would still be fashionable today, I’m not sure. I was quite a while looking for something including Cu = Copper before light dawned.
20 DE (ADLO) CK (load)*
21 C (AN) ARD
24 LATHI Hidden
25 T RAVER SAL
26 GORMANDISER (More is grand)* Good surface
DOWN
1 C OFFERS Tricky – prime requirement = first letter in the cryptic reading
2 PERFORMING ARTS star = (arts)* and ‘performing’ would work as an anagram indicator
3 D RAW S (war)<
4 DATE Double definition
5 RED LIGHT cf led right
6 SPECTACLE Cricket reference – ‘a pair of spectacles’ is when a player makes no score (a duck) in each innings of a match
7 EVENING C LASSES C = 100 (Roman numerals) iron = even
8 MYRTLE (elm try)*
14 R E (last letters in ‘your settee’) SOLVING
16 EDUCATOR (our cadet)*
17 RU DEL(a)Y RU = Rugby Union a = announcement initially (first letter)
19 TI (DD L) ER
22 A HEAD
23 L A MA