GUARDIAN CRYPTIC CROSSWORD NO. 27,972

ACROSS

1 Confident, like retiring American left-winger (7) 5 Perform check, covering county where Homer settled? (7) 9 Shell uncovered beside cape — a crab’s disabled without it (5) 10 Visited area excluded from redraft of final edict (9) 11 Girlfriend installed in Frenchman’s love nest, maybe (4-1-5) 12 Expressed regret for euro, say (3) 14 Priest in country after a spell oddly lost independence (4-8) 18 Keeping quiet, with some little doubt (12) 21 Rubbish article in Times (3) 22 Adequate turnover for Guardian, working well without capital (10) 25 Body of Christians threatening war leader (9) 26 Review of global IT firm in Sky features (5) 27 Release bargain offer for telly addicts? (3,4) 28 Hold back company books and most of inventory (7)

DOWN

1 Agree to clubs participating in expert training (6) 2 One’s endeavouring to spot king and queen (6) 3 Revived a festival introduced by Magritte and Dali, originally (10) 4 Press campaign (5) 5 Furore following elevated journalist’s stay (9) 6 Worthless classical poet promoting his verse (4) 7 Processed grain etc, providing food (8) 8 See through end of telescope in port after it’s set up (4,4) 13 Insular Spaniard working as cathedral junior (5,5) 15 Preferred winding route via south of France (9) 16 Remove clogs, seeing good time ahead (2,6) 17 Put an end to trusted criminal carrying drug (8) 19 Curmudgeon in receipt of Nutmeg’s misdirected delivery? (6) 20 Where you’d expect a barrister from superior chambers? (6) 23 Upset roughly one litre of pharmaceutical acid (5) 24 Damage statuette, knocking head off (4)