Times 25537 - A Welcome Relief

Following events since last weekend it was with some relief that I solved a long answer (12ac) as the puzzle was printing off and realised that I was probably in for an easy time of it today. In the event I took 35 minutes whilst not setting out to break any records, but the last 10 of these were spent on 9dn where I had indicated 10, 4 in the grid instead of 9, 5. 16dn also caused a slight delay with its misleading use of "boxes" and unhelpful reference to "Daniel". In all it was a pleasant solve and probably about as hard as I needed after a trying week.

* = anagram; " " = sounds like

Across
1	FUSE - US (our side) inside FE (strong metal - iron)
3	GANG OF FOUR - (RUN OFF AGOG)*  Lots of possible references here with Chinese communists and UK Social Democrats probably the leading contenders
10	REGARDS - RE (once again), GuARDS (defends)
11	THE PITS - Double definition
12	ONE OVER THE EIGHT - OVER (finished) + THE (article) inside ONE EIGHT (lunch and dinner times)
13	GLADYS - G, LADYS (woman's)
14	PASTILLE - ILL (problem) inside PASTE (gum)
17	UNEARNED - U, NEAR (mean), DEN (study) reversed
18	CRACOW - A + C, inside CROW (black bird)
21	GRASSHOPPER MIND - SHOP (store) inside GRASPER (greedy type), MIND (take care)
23	EVASIVE - SAVE (but) reversed, I'VE
24	DISAVOW - (OVID WAS)*
25	TAKE TO TASK - TAKE TO (start to enjoy), TASK (job)
26	PROD - R inside POD (school)
Down
1	FURLONG - FUR (marten), LONG (pine)
2	SEGREGATE - (EASTER EGG)*
4	ABSURD - A + B (upper classes), "SIRRED" (addressed as knights)
5	GET AHEAD - GET A HEAD (fill vacancy at school)
6	FREE ENTERPRISE - (PEERS INTERFERE)*
7	OK'ING - 0, KING. Hard luck, Republicans, we now have three in direct line of succession!
8	ROSETTE - SETT (earth - for badgers) inside ROE (a deer, a small Eurasian deer…)
9	GRAVEYARD SHIFT - GRAVE (serious), YARD (distance), SHIFT (travel - at speed). I think of this as early rather than late.
15	LOCHINVAR - LO (see), CHIN (feature), VARy (change). The young one appears in Walter Scott's "Marmion".
16	DEFOREST - DEFOe (Daniel), REST (the others). Boxes are trees here.
17	UNGUENT - GNU (wild animal) reversed, TUNE*
19	WIDOWED - W,I, DO,WED (get married)
20	SPADES - Speak, PADrES (chaplains)
22	ALACK - A, LAC (member of RAF - Leading Aircraftman), K (thousand)