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Eating colleague’s tea somehow following predicament with maiden (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

messmate

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'eating colleague's' is the definition.
'messmate' can be an answer for 'colleague's' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'eating' bit.

'tea somehow following predicament with maiden' is the wordplay.
'somehow' indicates anagramming the letters.
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'predicament' becomes 'mess' (I've seen this in another clue).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'maiden' becomes 'm' (cricket abbreviation).
'tea' is an anagram of 'ate'.
'mess'+'m'='messm'
'ate' put after 'messm' is 'MESSMATE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for messmate that I've seen before include "Associate on board" , "Military colleague sharing a 4 down" , "He sits down with one" , "Fellow soldier" , "Comrade in the services" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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