The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word EARL GREY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
E
A
R
L
G
R
E
Y
More clues leading to the result EARL GREY
- Sort of tea regularly gorged inside ahead of time
- Reg rolling in in good time for tea
- Peer over colourless drink
- Drink lager and rye cocktail
- Work unit comes back in before time for tea
- A lordly brew?
- Leaves in good time, catching up some work
- Queen in cast eagerly leaves
- Too soon to swallow half of greasy brew
- With mounting amount of work getting in in good time for tea
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Noble/leaves much to be desired?" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case noble/leaves much to be desired? = earl grey.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.