Solving time: 16 mins

< = reversed   * = anagram

ACROSS

1 Tom SHARPE  “Sharp”

4 B (LACK S) E A   be = live   on the borders = outside

9 RISQUE   hidden

10 IN DOLE NT

16 NEHRU   Alternate letters.    Indian leader

17 D EMIT   time<     Easy wordplay for the unfamiliar word.

21 BACK-SEAT DRIVER    Liked this a lot.

22 POISONER    o (old) for r (first of rights) in prisoner

25 TUN DR A    All reversed.

27 UNCOOL    Very good, but I guess people, like me, needed crossing letters.

DOWN

2 A (IS) LE

3 Nicolas PO (US) SIN    sittin’ = posin’

6 CR (OUT) ON   (Corn)*    Out = square (not fashionable)

12 DISINTER EST(ate)

13 BUTTER BALL

15 SUMM A RISE    “Some”

20 TAR (QUI) N    Qui = who in French

23 SPAS   “Spars” = booms

Well, this wasn’t too difficult at all, much to my surprise. I forgot to set the timer going, but I solved it in around 15 or 16 minutes. There were still some tricky clues, but maybe I’m getting used to Paul’s tricks now…

Across
1 BA,G(GAG)E RECLAIM(miracle*) - and B(ritish) A(irways) + “gag” inside “e.g.” reversed.
8 ALOHA = A HOLA backwards - I’d never noticed that before!
9 DIPS,TICK - a Charlie being a fool…
12 WINESAP (pie was n)* - a variety of deep red winter apple, that I’d never heard of. Pretty obvious once all the checking letters were in though.
15 SCREW,BALL - nice snooker reference.
17 GOOSE STEP (E so gestpo)* - I thought this should be hyphenated, but Chambers says only for the verb.
20 (c)OPTIC
21 ORC,HARD - not that keen on hard=formidable, as there are dozens of more appropriate synonyms that would fit the clue just as well.
23 (o)N(A,CELL)E
25 TIME,TOGO - “Time is the enemy”, becoming a bit of a crossword cliché.
27 C(RADLESN=slander*)ATCHER - I wonder if Mick does the Guardian crossword? Probably not!

Down
1 B(RAINS)URGEON - nice cryptic definition, “Mind one’s work”.
2 G,HOST
4 ENDLESS - the first of two deliberate misspellings, but it’s the Grauniad so how can you tell?
6 LA(T)IN
7 INCESSANT - very sneaky, an anagram of “nine’s cats”, with definition “ENDLESS”.
10 SPELLCHECKER - easy enough if you can spell necessary (and don’t assume it was a typo)!
16 WOO,D(CR)AFT
19 PONTOON - I got this one early, although it took me far too long to work out why it was right. AK is “pontoon”, a winning hand in the game pontoon.
22 AMEN,D