No 12885, Tuesday 17 Mar 2020, Karaoke

ACROSS
1   Spar with selfless ghost! (5) SPRIT SPiRIT
4   Advantage not to mention. (4,5) PLUS POINT [CD] (Addendum - {PLUS}{.} - See comments)
9   Single murder in a mystery? (9) UNMARRIED*
10 Release by the BBC perhaps excludes Austria (5) UNTIE aUNTIE
11 Spanish wine from port of Jamaica! (5) RIOJA {RIO}{JA}
12 Shoplifter damaged clarinets (9) LARCENIST*
13 Overweight playboy suppresses illegal ties (7) OBESITY {OB{TIES*}Y*}
15 Garden of fruit trees or leaf beet? (7) ORCHARD {OR}{CHARD}
18 Abstains from key heartless Hebrews (7) ESCHEWS {ESC}{HEbreWS}
20 Demolish criminal’s hideout stuffed with money (7) CONDEMN {CON}{DE{M}N}
21 Found growing mammals in troubled isle of Hungary (9) ESTABLISH {ES{BAT<=}LIS*}{H}
23 Batsmen regularly follow United Kingdom or Russian Rule (5) UKASE {UK}{bAtSmEn}
25 Gravedigger’s heart-rending song (5) DIRGE {DIGgER}* Semi&lit
26 Modern art by Paul on stylish canvas (9) TARPAULIN {ART*}{PAUL}{IN}
27 Fool into power pressure to sort out papers (9) PASSPORTS {P}{ASS}{P}{SORT*}
28 Senior comes back during Red Letter Day (5) ELDER [T<=]

DOWN
1   The situation to return when your efforts fail (6,3) SQUARE ONE [CD]
2   Strong punch with peculiar smell? (5) RUMBO {RUM}{BO}
3   Avert ideas (4,5) TURN ASIDE {IDEAS}* [RA]
4   Material partly gutted around corridor (7) PAISLEY {Part{AISLE}lY}

5   One in France/Germany therefore gets experience (7) UNDERGO {UN}{DER}{GO} (Addendum - {UN}{D}{ERGO} - See comments)
6   Training includes jog to get shape (5) PRUNE {P{RUN}E}
7   Loosely interact with some inferiority complex (9) INTRICATE {INTERACT+In...y}*
8   Abstinent swallowed small comment on social network (5) TWEET {T{WEE}T}
14 Ace setter designed additional things (9) ETCETERAS*
16 Commission of clues, not a difficulty (9) CONSULATE*
17 Head of correction centre gone underground! (9) DUNGEONER {GONE+UNDER}*
19 Trick to break into pieces without Proton (7) SLINTER SpLINTER
20 Free chat rooms (not in the morning) for groups (7) COHORTS {CHaT+ROOmS}*
21 Arrive at last state (3,2) END UP {END}{UP}
22 It prevents words in objectionable episodes (5) BLEEP [T] &lit

24 We aren’t allowed to freehold property (5) ALLOD ALLOweD

Reference List
Austria = A, Jamaica = JA, Key = ESC, Money = M, Hungary = H, Power = P, Pressure = P, Smell = BO(Body odour), Training = PE, Germany = D, Proton = P, State = UP(Uttar Pradesh)

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The Battle of Penang

Cmdr. Baron I A  Cherkassov, ELDER was the captain of the Russian ship Zhemchug anchored  in Penang port in 1914. He was UNMARRIED and had gone ashore to the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Georgetown one night to be with his mistress who served his favorite RIOJA and PRUNEs. That night she was decked in a ravishing PAISLEY dress with an INTRICATE pattern, which he was eager to UNTIE. Before they could END UP in bed, there was a BLEEP on his radio. He knew something was wrong with his ship but as he had left his PASSPORT in the ship, he could not return to the port at night. He had to wait for the CONSULATE to open in the day to find a way back to the ship. The PLUS POINT was they were in a seafront suite in the hotel and he could watch his ship from the window. 

He saw a ship that had the ensignia of a British vessel HMS Yarmouth on its SPRIT approach his ship Zhemchug. Since he thought it was a friendly vessel, he did not try and ESTABLISH radio contact with his men on Zhemchug. He TURNed ASIDE from the window, towards his lady love, when he heard a loud cannon fire. The men on  Zhumchug, already high on RUMBO, were taken by surprise. The ship attacking them was actually the German light cruiser SMS Emden. Its captain Lt. Cmdr. Karl von Müller, had resorted to the SLINTER of disguising it to resemble the British vessel. The drunk COHORT on Zhumchug were CONDEMNed to watch helplessly as the German shells ripped the TARPAULIN and the final torpedo sank the Russian vessel. Cherkassov had to UNDERGO a court-martial and would have been left to the mercies of a pitiless DUNGEONER, but for the Tsar, Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov, who issued an UKASE, commuting the sentence to a lowering of rank. Cherkassov once again had to work his way up from SQUARE ONE but he finally distinguished himself in the war and was decorated with the Cross of St. George.

PS: This account is slightly spiced up version of the original, which you can read at 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Penang