Had a lovely time in Fujian, China attending the consecration of an ancestral temple, together with thousands of people from all over the world whose surname is Yap and whose forebears originated from this part of China in the last 600 years or so.
Back to the grind :-) I assume that George and I are doing a mini-shuffle in this Thursday blogging duty. Nice to come back to a par-for-the-course Times puzzle with some nice surfaces and entertaining clues which regulars should have no problems with. It is pleasantly fortuitous that there are some connection to Malaysia, where I live.
ACROSS
1 MANNISH M (married) ANN (name of woman) IS H (hard)
5 PALACE PAL (friend, China from Cockney rhyming slang, China plate for mate) ACE (very good) presumably for Crystal Palace, a football team in the English Championship League
8 SITUATION Ins of I (one) and U (university) respectively in STATION (office)
9 TAPED TAP (strike) ED (editor, journalist)
11 RAINY BRAINY (clever) minus B (bishop)
12 MINNEHAHA Sounds like mini ha ha (a bit of a laugh) for the fictional Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.
13 NUGATORY NUGA (rev of A GUN, a piece) + TORY (politician)
15 BORNEO BORNE (carried) O (round) for an island aka Kalimantan in South-East Asia which holds Sarawak and Sabah, two Malaysian states
17 LOCKETLOCKE (1632–1704), English philosopher + T (time)
19 BEVERAGE B (first letter of bar) EVER (always) AGE (time)
22 TOP FLIGHT Ins of OP (opus. work) & F (female) & L (learner driver, new person in driving seat) in TIGHT (firm)
23 PERCH dd
24 SAUDI S (first letter of spring) A UDI (unilateral declaration of independence)
25 DEBENTURE DEB (rev of B Ed, Bachelor of Education) + *(TENURE)
26 SENSOR sounds like CENSOR (official controller)
27 DECIDES DEC (December month) IDES (of March, when Julius Caesar was murdered in Rome)
DOWN
1 MISTRANSLATES *(LATIN MASTER'S School)
2 NOTHING Ins of H (husband) in NOTING (being aware)
3 ITALY VITAL (full of life) minus V (very) + Y (last letter of wealthy)
4 HAIL MARY Spooner's Male (man) Hairy (risky)
5 PENANG PENANCE (religious observance) with G (good) substituted for CE (Church of England) for another Malaysian state
6 LITHESOME *(HOME IS LET)
7 CAPTAIN CAP (top) TA (Territorial Army, fighting force? :-)) IN (fashionable)
10 DRAG ONE'S HEELS Ins of SHE (the woman) in DRAGON (monster) & EELS (fish)
14 THE ALLIES Ins of HE (high explosive) in TALLIES (agrees)
16 DEATHBED *(THE BAD DEed)
18 CAPTURE Ins of APT (suitable) in CURE (remedy)
20 AGROUND *(ON GUARD)
21 AGADIR AGE (commander) DIRE (terrible) minus E for a major city in southwest Morocco, capital of the Agadir province and the Souss-Massa-Drâa economic region.
23 PANIC *(PAIN) + C (first letter of cause) for my COD, an &lit
++++++++++++++
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram