Romantic type drove one bananas at first (14)

I believe the answer is:

sentimentalist

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'romantic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'drove one bananas at first' is the wordplay.
'drove' becomes 'sent' (I've seen this in other clues).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'bananas at' becomes 'mental' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'first' becomes 'ist' (ist resembles mst).
'sent'+'i'+'mental'+'ist'='SENTIMENTALIST'

'type' 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 sentimentalist that I've seen before include "Romantic" , "Soppy person" , "Nostalgic chap" , "One who's sloppy" , "Being overemotional" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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