The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 1 plus 6 plus 2 plus 4 letter word A MATTER OF TIME
A
M
A
T
T
E
R
O
F
T
I
M
E
Buddy explains!
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.