Sunday Times 4802 by Jeff Pearce

9:21. This was what I have come to think of as the typical Jeff Pearce puzzle: quite straightforward, but all very neatly clued and fun to solve. I would recommend Jeff’s puzzles for beginners, but then every so often he gives us an absolute stinker.

There was nothing too out of the ordinary in this, although the required meaning of 27ac LIFE PRESERVER is perhaps not universally known. The clue that gave me the most trouble was 7dn: I could see what the answer must be but couldn’t for the life of me work out the wordplay. Eventually I just bunged it in and submitted, at which point I immediately got it. This is a pattern that often leads to a wrong answer, but I got away with it this time.

Definite clue of the day to 8dn today: a real cracker. I sometimes wonder what they would make of our current crop of politicians, but as I heard Armando Ianucci say recently it's difficult to parody people who are ridiculous to begin with.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*, anagram indicators like this.

Across
1	Occasional pharmacist finally accomplished chemist’s work
	PERIODIC TABLE - PERIODIC (occasional), pharmacisT, ABLE (accomplished).
10	After gym start to overexert in a cool fog
	PEA-SOUPER - PE (gym), A S(Overexert)UPER.
11	Messages your compiler rejected are sick
	E-MAIL - reversal of ME (your compiler), AIL. EMAIL can refer to an individual message or the body of messages, for example in the phrase ‘check your email’.
12	Rings dipso about drinking litre after litre
	TOLLS - reversal of SOT (dipso) around LL.
13	Hard-headed about boxer’s movement lacking control
	REALISTIC - RE (about), ALI’S, TIC (movement lacking control).
14	One knight cared for fiancée
	INTENDED - I, N, TENDED. N for ‘knight’ is a counterintuitive (to me at least) chess abbreviation.
16	Deer one leaves loves woody grass
	BAMBOO - BAMBi, OO (loves).
19	Almost new church in the country
	GREECE - GREEn, CE. Anyone else waste time trying to think of a word for ‘new’ beginning FRAN?
20	Old vehicle initially left in a part of America?
	CAROLINA - CAR preceding O, then L, IN, A. Is CAROLINA a place? Surely there are two of them? The northern version is home to glheard of this parish.
22	Drug den at home is busted
	METHADONE - (DEN AT HOME)*.
24	Row about one starting marathon clock
	TIMER - TI(Marathon)ER.
25	Russian author resident in St Petersburg or Kirov
	GORKI - contained in ‘St Petersburg or Kirov’.
26	Cold nurse is horrible and not a very nice person at all!
	SCOUNDREL - (COLD NURSE)*.
27	One with long sentence seizes leader of prison book club
	LIFE PRESERVER - LIFE(Prison, RESERVE)R. I vaguely recognised this term for a club or cosh, much more commonly used for the rings used to keep people afloat.

Down
2	Earl with girl on his shoulder, a sign of his rank
	EPAULETTE - E, PAULETTE. Are EPAULETTES worn particularly by earls? I suppose it doesn’t matter: an earl can also be an admiral or whatever.
3	Religious images prisoner found in Isiah
	ICONS - I(CON)S. The book of Isiah: one of the few I have actually heard of. Edit: Actually it's Isaiah, as pointed out below. I may have heard of it, but that doesn't mean I know how to spell it.
4	Left role during Act
	DEPARTED - DE(PART)ED.
5	Popular breakfast show in instalments on the radio
	CEREAL - sounds like ‘serial’.
6	A chap entertains another by initially ordering a hot drink
	AMERICANO - A M(ERIC)AN, Ordering.
7	Without base shed inclined
	LEANT - LEAN-To.
8	Old showcruelly imitating ghastly politicians and egotistical stars primarily
	SPITTING IMAGE - (IMITATING, Ghastly, Politicians, Egotistical, Stars)*. Great clue!
9	Something upon which you can vote
	ELECTORAL ROLL - because to vote you have to be on it.
15	Exotic entrance with one type of tree
	NECTARINE - (ENTRANCE, I)*.
17	Drunk Iberian carries mum’s pan
	BAIN-MARIE - (IBERIAN)* containing MA. To my mind a BAIN-MARIE is a bit more than just a pan: you need something to hold the water and something else to hold whatever it is you’re cooking. But this is a minor nit and it didn’t cause me a problem.
18	Extremely hungry birds outside old university
	RAVENOUS - RAVEN(O, U)S.
21	Cat’s right under part of PC
	MOUSER - MOUSE, R.
23	Sailor is returning bones
	TARSI - TAR, reversal of IS.
24	Note heard from this singer
	TENOR - sounds like ‘tenner’. Bit of a chestnut.