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Hello, Elle!
If your Scottish cousin gives you pass marks on your pronunciation that will do fine!
Now, the Long Drop is a book by Robin Odell and Christopher Berry-Dee.
PC George Gutteridge was murdered by Browne and Kennedy, near Billericay..
The infamy part is, there is a school of thought that thought that the policeman's eyes were deliberately shot through, after he was dead, in case there was an image retained on them of the last thing he saw (his murderer(s).
Pretty barbaric if true. It was barbaric enough, anyway!
Browne and Kennedy were hanged, though the authors believe one of them was innocent.
If there are any grammatical problems in the puzzle I'll be no help whatsoever!

Hi, Rusty!
I had not heard of the murder of PC Gutteridge, although it sounds to have been very gruesome.
I have, however, heard of Billericay!
It is near Basildon, I think, in Essex?
The Scottish cousin to whom I referred is dead now, but I spent most of my life failing to understand a word he was saying!
He lived in Kirkintilloch near Glasgow, and had a very strong accent.
I often only realised that he was addressing me, when the sentence ended with my name! (which is, of course , also Scottish!)
He appeared on "15 to 1" once......William G. Stewart seemed a tad confused , too!
He was a lovely man (my cousin , not WG!) and used to call me "lassie"!
I haven't had much time to spend on the xword........
But wondered about 2d: Author of Brewer's simple guide in two languages? (7)
I thought of Boileau ( a French poet ) = author (definition)
Would that be brewer - boiler
Sounds like boil eau?
Or am I on the wrong track?

Hello, Elle!
Yes, it was a vicious murder carried out on a country lane.
I always associated Billericay as being the first to declare in a General Election!
Elle, I have just finished the crossword, in between keeping an eye on Lexi and Ha Na Jang at the golf!
Ha Na is Miss Personality Plus and does great interviews!
It's a wee bit chilly for her, in Fife!
It is a toughie, for me, the puzzle.
Hard work to complete.
There is an Asian state I did not know
I have Boil eau, too, though I had not heard of him.
Your parsing is accurate, Elle, well done!

Yes, I remember Billericay from election nights, when I could still be bothered to stay up.

Now I associate it with Ian Dury's "Billericay Dickie", who's "doing very well"!

Elle, I forgot to mention Lexi's antic.
She was standing over the ball lining up her birdie putt when all of sudden she took a big jump back and scampered around the green.
A Scottish bee had came to say "hello" to her and was almost tangled in her hair.
Poor Lexi got a fright!
But, she calmed down, refocused, and sank her putt!

Good afternoon, Rusty!
I have every sympathy with Lexi!
I am not bothered by bees...but I should have been out of there like a shot had a wasp come near me!
Now.....I finished the puzzle - bar two clues - eventually, too.....coming back to it, in between doing other things!
It was definite harder today!
I have two to do ..and one to parse.....
1a ; Reserve a bike, mostly for certain type of sport (7)
S?B???A
3d: Survives the heat, perhaps, but also weakens (9)
??A?I?I?S
The one I cannot (fully) parse is 23a: from right and left, cheers popular hit
Attain = hit (def)
ta - cheers
in - popular
I'm left with "at" to account for "from right and left"?
Obviously my reasoning is at fault somewhere?

Elle do you want a couple of hints, or rather wait for rusty ?

No matter....I have to go out now.

Hello, Elle!
It did Lexi no harm!
She is joint leader, for now, anyway.
A tricky puzzle today!
1a a reserve can be a sub(stitute) in a football team, say.
There are things called qua(d) bikes, Elle.
Giving "sub a qua"
Probably underwater sports, I think?
3, if you survive a heat (in a track race, say) you "qualify" (for the final)
So, it is "qualifies".
I am not too sure about the weakens bit, but I can just about see it.
An argument with a qualifying part could possibly weaken the argument?
Not with the setter on that one!
You are correct with attain.
Ta both ways. To the right, and to the left. At + ta + in.
OK?

Cerasus, by all means join in.
I am not the best parser (or solver!) going about!