Staff mid-morning meal starting late unfortunately, one behind time (9)
I believe the answer is:
truncheon
'staff' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'morning meal starting late unfortunately one behind time' is the wordplay.
'morning meal' becomes 'brunch' (a cross between breakfast and lunch).
'starting late' means to remove the first letter (the word begins later than normal).
'unfortunately' indicates an anagram (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'behind' says to put letters next to each other.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'brunch' with its first letter removed is 'runch'.
'one' with letters rearranged gives 'eon'.
'runch'+'eon'='runcheon'
'runcheon' after 't' is 'TRUNCHEON'.
'mid' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for truncheon that I've seen before include "Police staff" , "Policeman's traditional weapon" , "Police baton" , "Policeman's club" , "Peelers' baton" .)