Not completely convinced. Seems very loose fit
with too much clue left flapping -- other clues are
very precisely constructed. Many thanks for all your
input.
I seem to remember that last weekend Quizmonkey told us that the Indy crossword is not straightforward in that usually an answer has to be adjusted by adding or removing a letter before entry to the grid.
Many thanks ulysses100, you seem to have cracked it. This was definitely an 'ordinary' clue; not one of the clues that required modification. The only thing left to decide is, do they want DAY or DEY (dairy-maid) -- to me it seems to read as if they want the latter?