Times crossword 25715: All you have to do is get all the letters in the right order

Stopped the clock after a smidge over 20 minutes. Probably should have been quicker, but decided still to do this on the night shift after a long day pottering around northern France with my 10 year old granddaughter tracing the last days of her great-great-great-grandfather, finding both his name at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, and the place where he fell at the tiny hamlet of Louverval on the road from Bapaume to Cambrai, which still looks,in the grey and uncertain light, like the sort of place where WW1 clashes were bound to happen. Rest in peace Roger Tom Juggins, outcast from England doing his duty in the guise of an Australian. Perhaps I can be forgiven for being a tad sluggish – there was a lot of driving and a bowlful of emotion, with much of pride in both my ancestor and his young descendant. Anyway, to the puzzle, which announced itself as a probable pangram with a J in top left. Now where did I put all those other letters. Ah yes…

Across

1   JIGSAW  If you served in the (US) military you WAS GI (d-n this pesky grammar). Reverse it to follow that J(udge)
4   EMPIRES  One of Ireland’s identities, EIRE’S looking after MP, the easiest example of a politician. Powers as in Germany,
     Britain and France at the beginning of WW1
9   BATON  Perhaps not particularly familiar as a weapon. In cricket, one of the things you do if you don’t declare is BAT ON
     (if Australian most recently …and on and on and on)
10 EXEMPLARY  Seasoned campaigners see flower and think river, usually Po or the ever useful EXE, in this case given by the
     helpful “Devon”. MARY the girl is set outside of PL(ace) for a model clue.
11 EARNESTLY Seasoned campaigners see “composer” and think ARNE (Rule Britannia and all that) and his claim to fame as a
     useful collection of letters. In STYLE rearranged, this time. Seriously.
12 ROMAN  Today’s hidden fROM ANcona.
13 KIEL  Careful here. A poetic ship is a KEEL, but you need its soundalike famous canal which connected the Baltic to the
     North Sea so that the German Imperial Navy could avoid having to go round Denmark
14 RUN SHORT OF  I read this as “begin to lack” (definition), control=RUN, in a way=SHORT OF if slurred by excess alcohol.
18 RECOMMENCE  I got hung up on the ancient REDE for advise plus some other stuff, but it’s advise=RECOMMEND, D(aughter)
     leaving and being replaced by an empty C(ours)E
20 OPAL  Today’s every other letter Or PeArL.
23 PRANG usually preceded by “wizard” in Bigglespeak. P(arkiing + RANG(e) for the almost-sierra.
24 PENURIOUS “Very poor” for definition. Writer=PEN, the URIOUS comes from a Thesaurus 3 point turn via strange in which
     CURIOUS=novel only to have its C(hapter) removed
25 SICK LEAVE Harvester whimsically=SICKLE, add AVER for claim and remove its R(ight)
26 EQUAL  Queen is not ER, peer is not noble. QU in EA(ch) L(iberal). “A jury of his peers”
27 AIRDRIE  The (British) crossworder’s road to the north is the A1. add an anagram of RIDER. The A1 stops a long way short of
     Airdrie. At least it wasn’t clued with reference to the celebrated Ferguson hAIRDRIEr. Just a thought, setters.
28 CEMENT  I quite liked this smoothie. CT as a traditional abbreviation for court, E(nglish) MEN are contained and act like
     glue.

Down

1   JOBSEEKER‘s Allowance is the jauntier term for unemployment benefit introduced in 1995, intended to distinguish the
     earnest out-of-work-but-looking from the merely idle and indigent scrounger. I’ve been one (shan’t say which). Here
     B(ishop) with his place of work SEE, is the the filler for JOKER (card). An amusing little story of a clue, worthy of a modern
     Trollope.
2   GUTHRIE Stomach=GUT, parcelled with H(ou)r and 1 E(uropean for (one assumes) Woody of that Ilk.
3   ARNHEM  A wild mishmash of military misdirection for A Bridge Too Far. Navy gives RN, add H(igh) E(xplosive) and bed both
      in AM(erican)
4   ELEGY  More familiarly written in a Country Churchyard, this &lit gives L(ines) E(xemplum) G(ratis) in ELY, “ship of the fens”
     more often clued hereabouts by “see”,
5   PAPER BOY (though it doesn’t have to be 5,3 and conventionally isn’t). PROBE anagrammed into wage=PAY
6   READMIT Given by study=READ with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. College? Discuss.
7   SPY ON  “Every Step You Take” Playboy’s two covers are P and Y, lad=SON the container. Mildly disturbing. So’s the song –
     ever listened to the words?
8   TEST TUBE  Another tidy &lit, Container=BUTT (stop sniggering at the back) ready=SET, combined and reversed at
     Experiment’s start.
15  SECONDED Tory=CON(servative) contained within (thank)S and two ED(itor)s.
16 FALLS FLAT “Leaves one cold” the definition, (Victoria) FALLS and apartment=FLAT the wordplay, The ? is there to justify a
     “definition by example”.
17 SMUGGLER  Runner the synonym, SMUGGER contains (indicated by “crossing”) L(ine)
19 CHANCER  Chancery is the section of the legal system that deals with what is equitable rather than what is merely legal,
     such as the interpretation of wills. Jarndyce v Jarndyce its most famous, if fictional case, introduced by Dickens to
     illustrate the wisdom of the aphorism “Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!”  It loses its
     “unknown”  (X, Y and Z the most common examples) for our villain.
21 PROCURE  A simple joining of PRO (expert) and CURE (successful treatment). “Get” the laconic definition
22 BREEZE  Or as almost anyone (except the French) would pronounce Bries. An attempt to discredit L’industrie laitière
     française avec un on dit?
23 PASTA  “A course in Italian”. History=PAST, top academic stream=A (mine was alpha)
24 PEACE  I essayed POISE with no real justification. P(hysical) E(xercise) expert=ACE.