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' is an anagram indicator (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'behind' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'brunch' with its initial letter removed is 'runch'.
'one' anagrammed gives 'eon'.
'runch'+'eon'='runcheon'
'runcheon' put after 't' is 'TRUNCHEON'.
'mid' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to 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" .)