Solving time - approx. 35 mins.

I managed to find some time at lunchtime to have a look at this, and was pleased to finish it without resorting to a dictionary (with three or four guesses that all turned out to be right).
No time to blog it until now though, as I didn’t get back from work till 8:30.

Across
7 TASH(hats*),KENT - capital of Uzbekistan.
9 ENODAL - “lad one” rev. My first guess, a while before I knew what 10ac was. I was pretty confident from the wordplay though.
10 STUD(ents) - surely a class is singular (or does it break up into individuals when halved).
11 TRAM(PO)LINE - the ever-POpular Italian river makes an appearance.
12 B(EACH)Y - Beachy Head is a feature on the south coast.
15 SHAM,BA - another guess, but again the wordplay was easy. It’s an African farm or smallholding though - I couldn’t find any reference to it as a culture.
20 TRI(BUN)AL
23 CHARL(A,DI)ES - how nice to see Charles and Di back together again ;-)
24 (sin)CERE - righteous = “without sin”. Nice clue.
25 AN(GI)NA
26 TIME-BOMB - for once “the setter” doesn’t refer to the setter (or the dog)!

Down
1 FASTNESS - this one took me a long time, as I wanted it to end with ….RATE
2 CHAD - another guess. The clue is “Maybe hanging country (4).” Obviously it’s a country, but I don’t understand the rest. Other definitions in Chambers are the graffiti character Mr Chad, a fish, or the bit of paper punched out of a card or tape in ancient computers. Any ideas? [ AlanR has reminded me of the controversial "hanging chads" in Florida from the 2000 US presidential election. ]
3 G,ENTRY
4 BEL PAESE (please be)* - an Italian cheese, whose name literally means “beautiful country”.
5 COL(LATER,A)L
6 TANNER - a bob was a shilling, a tanner was a sixpence. I’m just about old enough for this to be a straight clue for me!
13 CHAMBER,TIN - a dry red Burgundy wine. I take issue with the definition of “plonk”, which is a corruption of “vin blanc”.
16 BAN(D)ANAS
18 S(urger)Y,NDROME(modern*)
21 REHANG - yet another guess, but what is this? A cryptic definition, or is there more going on here?
22 SESAME (seems a)* - tahini is a paste made of crushed sesame seeds.

Themed as almost always from Virgilius: this time fairly clear when looking at clues: 4 (6,3,6) phrases, connected by “and”. Very fast solve for me, 11 mins.

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 SENATORSHIP (i.e. Sharpton’s)*

7 DAR (LEN) E Not in Chambers, but common US name - US influences sometimes seen in Virgilius puzzles.

8 RONDEAU “Rondo”

10 SUPPLY (in a supple = flexible manner) AND DEMAND  (damned)*

16 RADI (C) AL

18 BRIGHT AND BREEZY

19 EXI (GEN)T

20 ENTERED

21 MEDLEY RELAY

DOWN

2 NEED LE AND THREAD (a ladder then)*

3 THE WASH

4 RE (REDO) S

5 HANSEL AND GRETEL (A shelter England)*

7 DISPENSABLE Double definition

9 t(UN)e D IS PLAYED

14 ANIMISM Hidden

15 PRATTLE “Prat’ll”