No 14235, Wednesday 24 Jul 2024, Hypatia

Solution to 8A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.

ACROSS

8   Discovering love, jail criminal's happy (6) ?O?I?L (Addendum - JOVIAL {lOVe+JAIL}* - See comments)

9   Money, government pockets for every training (8) TEACHING {T{EACH}IN}{G}

10 Ripest expert on a topic (4,6) HIGH PRIEST {RIPEST}* [RA]

11 Regularly sent letters back from Kirkuk to West Asian (4) TURK {KiRkUk+To}<=

12 Reverend's mature subject for therapy sessions (3,5) MUD BATHS (bud maths to mud baths) Mature or Immature?

14 Rarely do bonds held return zero (6) NOBODY [T<=]

15 Snake's nasty and angry, on reflection (7) MEANDER {MEAN}{RED<=}

17 Natural firm's about to import fresh grain (7) ORGANIC {CO<=} over {GRAIN}*

20 Everyone secured work around old space mission (6) APOLLO {A{OP<=}LL}{O}

22 Former president mostly modified press (8) EXPEDITE {EX}{P}{EDITEd}

24 Poet starts to blog about rhymes daily (4) BARD Acrostic

25 Stress from a late teen, for one? (10) UNDERSCORE {UNDER SCORE}

27 Pest recognized smells in the air (8) NUISANCE (~knew sense)

28 Republican left bruised and frightened (6) SCARED SCArRED

DOWN

1   Very drunk, impolite leader driven out in loneliness (8) SOLITUDE {SO}{LIT}{rUDE}

2   Affluent royal is crowned here, basically (4) RICH Acrostic

3   Real nervous in court, becoming red (6) CLARET {C{REALE}T}

4   He doesn't believe in hate it's spreading (7) ATHEIST*

5   One joins players quicker outside (8) FASTENER {FAST{E}{N}ER}

6   Engineer bored with a discussion panel? (10) WHITEBOARD*

7   After sabbath, neither partner exercised on vacation and slept soundly (6) SNORED {S}{NOR}{Ex...eD}

13 Country boy and girl cycling crash ahead (10) BANGLADESH {LAD}{(+e)ESH(-e)}<=>{BANG}

16 Articulate look into Queen changing with time (8) ELOQUENT {E{LO}QUEN*}{T}

18 Trainee essentially gets web connection (8) INTERNET {INTERN}{gETs}

19 Most redundant parts of a compass (7) NEEDLES NEEDLESs

21 Say dog eating a posh snack (6) PEANUT {PE{AN}{U}T}

23 Study each consumption (6) PERUSE {PER}{USE}

26 Mogul seen periodically in Jacob Zuma's army (4) CZAR {jaCob+ZumAs+aRmy}

Reference List

Money = TIN, Government = G, Work = OP, Old = O, President = P, Republican = R, Drunk = LIT, Court = CT, Players = E,N, Sabbath = S, Time = T, Posh = U