No 12443, Wednesday 10 Oct 2018, Gridman

ACROSS
1   Discarded as specified (4,4) LAID DOWN [DD]
5   He bears down hard on behalf of church rector (6) FORCER {FOR}{CE}{R}
9   Good village officer's beat in India is important (7) PIVOTAL {PI}{VO}{TAL}
10 Fullness of a relationship in enclosure (7) SATIETY {S{A}{TIE}TY}
11 Record: "Wicked scion gives up new friend for kind of church" (9) EPISCOPAL {EP}{SCIOn*}{PAL}
12 Spread the word on head dropping compass (5) REACH pREACH
13 Food regimen at first didn't include "eggs, tossed" (4) DIET Acrostic
14 Girl's way to go in conversation (9) DISCOURSE {DI'S}{COURSE}
17 It is significant I am left with a new model (9) IMPORTANT {I'M}{PORT}{A}{N}{T}
19 Somehow save Indian service (4) SEVA*
23 Tie up holding new instrument (5) LANCE {LA{N}CE}
24 Fruit in a centre rotting (9) NECTARINE*
25 Send off detective inspector's girl (7) DISMISS {DI'S}{MISS}
26 Engineer in class is one who gives command (7) ORDERER {ORDE{RE}R}
27 Certain about Trade Union getting tie-up (6) SUTURE {SU{TU}RE}
28 Hopeful partisan will turn straight (8) ASPIRANT*

DOWN
1   Pedlar is out — interprets visually (3-5) LIP-READS*
2   Bill gets one new opinion (7) INVOICE {1}{N}{VOICE}
3   Hate college head standing in place of son to do some sleuthing (6) DETECT DETE(-s+c)CT
4   Still pawning a set of murals (4,9) WALL PAINTINGS*
6   Form of people who are not in (3-5) OUT-GROUP [CD]
7   Army officers take woman in — they are contemporaries (7) COEVALS {CO{EVA}LS}
8   At first, rigorously hard, yet the heavy man gets beat (6) RHYTHM Acrostic
10 Shy, small mischief-maker firm with roguish cousins (4-9) SELF-CONSCIOUS {S}{ELF}{CO}{COUSINS*}
15 Lodge owner is more blessed in accommodating the disheartened (8) HOTELIER {HO{ThE}LIER}
16 Rodent in earth with Asian temple all around (5,3) WATER RAT {WA{TERRA}T}
18 Dins roughly into police's way of thinking (4-3) MINDSET {M{DINS*}ET}
20 Retire abroad — to a foreign nation (7) ERITREA {RETIRE*}{A}

21 Good, cover eases on edges and moves smoothly (6) GLIDES {G}{LID}{EaseS}
22 Two consecutive letters to one revered leader (6) GANDHI {G AND H}{1}

GRID