Scholarly chap of no practical help (8)
I believe the answer is:
academic
This clue is a double definition.
'scholarly chap' is the first definition.
'of no practical help' is the second definition.
(Other definitions for academic that I've seen before include "Scholar - of no practical relevance" , "Scholarly; irrelevant" , "Irrelevant; teacher" , "Scholar - of no practical importance" , "Professor possibly" .)