Cryptic crossword No 3,208

Hi Salt, playing catch-up here but it’s always nice to meet new setters. So welcome to a great site! I thought this was a very promising debut with some excellent clues, my faves being 9a, 15a, 18a, 19a (top pick), 27a, 8d (after initially querying the definition), 17d (clever) & 25d. I did miss having any annotations as they might have clarified some issues I had - of which more below…