Quickie regulars may want to have a go at this. Not too much in the way of obscurities, if you know your religions, your Zulus, your plants and your carpentry.
ACROSS
1 Die crossing source of Irish river, blooming thing! (13)
PASSIONFLOWER – I (source of I[rish]) in PASS ON (die) FLOWER (river in Crosswordland)
8 Work in church, wearing this? (4)
COPE – OP in CE; a liturgical cloak-like vestment that comes in a variety of natty colours
9 Musician’s assistant’s gripping novel (4-6)
PAGE-TURNER – double definition (DD)
10 One getting rid of retired male model (8)
DISPOSER – SID (random male) reversed POSER (model)
11 Fashionable woman seen with duke? Quite so (6)
INDEED – IN (fashionable) DEE (random woman – the one I knew was actually christened Dolores) D (duke)
13 Waver like an ass, swapping new for very old moggy (10)
EQUIVOCATE – EQUINE (with V – very – for N – new) containing O (old) CAT (moggy); strangely, I have always called dogs ‘moggy’. There again, I am what Malcolm Gladwell would call (in that prosaic, if well paid, way of his) a bit of an outlier…
16 Island politician primarily investigating old African warriors (4)
IMPI – I (island) MP (politician) I[nvestigating]; a Zulu body of men gathered for war, now decommissioned everywhere except in Crosswordland
17 Duck, possibly, served inside (4)
BIRD – DD; a jail sentence may be called bird
18 Failing old firm in security almost unknown (10)
DEFICIENCY – ICI in DEFENC[e] Y
20 Sound made by small seal or young 17 (6)
CYGNET – a signet is, typically, a small seal, and a cygnet is of course a young swan. They are of course differentiated among other things by their calls: the adult giving a swansong while the young prefer signature tunes
22 Sick Damascene, say, beheaded like some ancient countrymen (8)
ILLYRIAN – ILL (sick) [s]YRIAN; Illyria is an ancient Adriatic region roughly corresponding to modern-day Albania and Montenegro
24 Family position offering cash with it, keeping you and me (10)
COUSINSHIP – US (you and me) in COINS (cash) HIP (with it)
26 Shady type important people recalled (4)
SPIV – reversal of VIPS; Private Walker in Dad’s Army is perhaps the best known (and best loved) spiv of popular culture
27 Doubting Scotsman, perhaps, following female medical expert (13)
DIAGNOSTICIAN – DI (random female) AGNOSTIC (doubting) IAN (slightly less random than customary Scotsman; even if a pukka Scot might insist on the Iain format)
DOWN
1 Closeness of rugby forward, one abandoning sin (11)
PROPINQUITY – PROP (rugby player of massive bulk with a large set of skills, predominant of which is the ability to pull the scrum down while convincing the ref that it was the other bloke) IN[i]QUITY. No ref to my knowledge has ever played prop, so, in terms of absence of guesswork, it’s a bit like the Hong Kong Jockey Club stewards’ room, where people who have never sat on a horse pass judgement on jockey’s rides and the possible nefariousness thereof
2 Possibly Jacob’s novel record (5)
SHEEP – SHE (Rider Haggard’s book that is to the biblio cruciverbal arena what ET is to the filmic) EP (record)
3 Stop media representation — it’s laid on thick (9)
IMPASTOED – anagram* of STOP MEDIA
4 African country raising river spirit (7)
NIGERIA – reversal of AIRE (the setter is probably referring to the river in Yorkshire, which flows into the Ouse) GIN (spirit)
5 Note about husband supporting US city club (5)
LATHI – H (husband) in TI (note) on LA (sprawling metropolis in California); Indian policemen used to use these, I believe
6 General’s promise to fence in lake with fish (9)
WORLDWIDE – L (lake) in WORD (promise) W (with) IDE (fish which is abundant in crosswords)
7 Spiky plant found in country estates (3)
RYE – hidden in countRY Estates
12 Nice poet involved with tax? That’s the assumption (11)
EXPECTATION – NICE POET TAX*
14 Popular lecturer on French art originally in Asian country (9)
INDONESIA – IN DON ES (French word for are [singular], AKA ‘art’) initial letters of I[n] A[sian]
15 Typical reforms suppressed by Brussels oil producers (9)
EUCALYPTI – TYPICAL* under EU; I like the imagery and the connotation
19 Struggles to capture large groups of birds in the air (7)
FLIGHTS – L (large) in FIGHTS (struggles)
21 Part of joint music group going north (5)
TENON – reversal of NONET gives the carpentry term
23 Teacher turned up, greeting Hindu sage (5)
RISHI – SIR (teacher) reversed HI; perhaps – or perhaps not – Rajneesh, AKA Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Osho, immortalised in the Netflix series Wild Wild Country. If someone gives themselves a lot of names, it can generally be taken to mean they are pretty dodgy.
25 Former Labour leader dipping into overdraft (3)
OLD – L (initial letter of L[abour]) in OD
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