Smiffy is on holiday so we will not be seeing his cheerful avatar for a couple of weeks.
Nothing particularly difficult or outstanding in today’s puzzle and I got a feeling of déjà vu whilst solving because there was some repetition both in the type of clue and the wordplay (eg America/American & university). Part of the wordplay in 4d is topical with the start ot the fifth Ashes test today.
Across
1 SUBSTANCES dd
7 PACE P[rofiteroles] ACE (hole in one)
9 TUBE BUT (only) reversed E (east)
10 PLAYGROUND P (softly) LAY (deposit) GROUND (earth)
11 CUCKOO *(U COCK) O (old)
12 AWAKENED A *(WEEK AND)
13 ELEPHANT *(THE PLANE)
15 SETS S[w]E[e]T[e]S[t]
17 FAIR F[l]AIR (aptitude but no zeal ultimately)
19 REMARKED MARK (boy) in REED (grass)
22 PRECIOUS dd
23 RECIPE EC (Ecuador) in RIP (tear) E (European)
25 INDUSTRIAL IND (India) US (America) TRIAL (contest)
26 ARAB A (one) BAR (obstacle) reversed
27 PELE PE (exercise) L[ost] E[nergy]
28 DISHARMONY *(HORNY MAIDS)
Down
2 UNUSUAL US (American) U (university) in *(LUNA)
3 SLEEK KEELS (barges) reversed
4 APPROVAL A PP (parish priest) R (runs) OVAL (cricket ground)
5 CHARACTERISTICS CHAR (tea) *(IS RACIEST C[herry] T[angerine])
6 SIGNAL *(SAIL[i]NG)
7 PROFESSOR *(REFS POOR [basi]S)
8 CONTENT dd
14 PARACHUTE cd
16 UMBRELLA cd
18 ARRANGE A R[age] *(ANGER)
20 EXPLAIN EX (former) L[umbago] in PAIN (suffering)
21 SORTED S[p]ORT (remove pressure from competitive games) ED (education)
24 CLAIM I (island) in CLAM (shellfish)