A painstaking 16.12 for this likeable if not terribly demanding number, which contrives to be my second running with no "hidden" clue (other than 9d, of course - see comments below) , no soundalike clue, dodgy or otherwise, and no discernable theme. However, you'll have to excuse me for a moment while I go off into a brief reverie inspired by one of the great sights of the sixties and its associated sounds...
That's better! My last 4 were, perhaps surprisingly, the quartet around the central square, whose letters counterclockwise spell out PARAMUNU. Google tells me this is a) part of the title of a song in Telugu and b) means "though". I don't think this constitutes a NINA, but who knows? On with the show...
Across
1 DEADBEAT One too lazy to...
After watching the latest incarnation of the England cricket teams, I'd almost forgotten what a DEAD BAT looked like, but you need one here to absorb E(nergy) and bore the pants off the spectators. Stonewalling in cricket is batting with a preoccupation for not getting out.
2 PRÉCIS Summary
No points lost for missing the accent, so not very PRECISE on the part of our editor. When you run out of spaces, stop as idicated.
10 CEPHEID VARIABLE star
One of those entry-as-wordplay variations: the answer suggests looking for the anagram EPIC HE'D. Cepheid Variables are very useful yellow giant stars with a highly regular pulsation pattern, first observed in 1784 (though I suspect the Chinese spotted them much earlier - they usually did)
11 DORMICE rodents!
Not necessarily named for their sleepy behaviour, pace Rev Dodgson. A combination of DORM/bedroom and (n)ICE/pleasant without its first.
12 DAB HAND expert
If you barely washed, you might just dab at your hand, causing your mother to reach for the dreaded hanky and spit remedy.
13 FINE-SPUN (Being) delicate
A non-hyphenated version is also available for delicate fabric or thread. Punishes: FINES, feeble wit: PUN. Since a great deal of our noble exercise relies on wordplay, seems a bit self deprecating, but hay hoe.
15 WIDOW single woman
I had abbreviates to I'D, bedded into WOW. "There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful propects"
18 BINGO undemanding entertainment
Not if you're running a dozen cards at once it isn't. A precise clue which requires you to leave out one of the I's in INIGO Jones (architect/general/meteorologist according to preference) once you've written B for book.
20 RAMPAGED Went wild
A straight translation of "force" and "called for".
23 VIKINGS Sea raiders
One for the Bible scholars: see provides the V(ide), and 1 Kings is the good book sandwiched between 2 Samuel and -um- 2 Kings.
25 MATISSEArtist
"Almost failed" gives you MISSE(d), and all that's left to do is insert A and the end of (sunse)T
26 ANY PORT IN A STORM emergency destination
If it looks like an anagram... MANY POOR TRAINS plus (star)T "diverted"
27 LIKELY probably
The odd letters of KnEw thrown into the embrace of the (hopefully) delightful LILY.
28 PENNINES Range
One for the mathematicians. "Enclosures" provides the PENS into which NINE (3X3) is inserted.
Down
1 DECADE some years
Repeated DEC(ember) the second not complete, with an A included. Credit to the compiler for eschewing the "random notes" ploy
2 ASPERSION slur
Poisoner first, so that's ASP (cf Cleopatra), then R(uns) into NOISE (rumour) backwards.
3 BEEHIVE heaps of natural growth
This might go down as a double definition, though I took it as BEE (it swarms) plus HIVE (a place of) industry. For the hairdo (heaps of natural growth), see Helen Schapiro, Dusty Springfield, The Ronettes, the Crystals and Yeoman Janice Rand, who somehow managed to incorporate a chessboard into hers.
4 ADDLE Get muddled
A propellor is a PADDLE. Lose the P(ower)
6 RAINBOW A sign from God?
Another one for the Bible scholars, from the Noah story, where the rainbow appears after the flood as a promise that God would never flood the Earth (or at least, not all of it eh, Jim?) again. RAIN from fall, BOW from show submission.
7 COBRA ...that can be deadly in attack
COB is one of the many horses, RA the (Royal) Artillery. Kudos and respect to the compiler for giving up lady's underwear.
8 STEP DOWN to resign
A sweet little anagram of SET, plus P for quietly and DOWN for depressed.
9 LAUDANUM ...including this one (scilicet number)
The drug of choice for Victoria when she wasn't knocking back the cocaine in Elixir Mariani.PraiseAs I should have saidApplaud gives LAUD (and does it very directly, of course), follow it with A NUM(ber). Number (sort of) does double duty with double meanings.
14 PARASITE ...that needs a host
A drop zone for an airbourne soldier would be a PARA SITE, then. No feeble wit (vide supra) in this crossword, dear me, no.
16 DRESS DOWN Take to task
...or wear jeans on Friday, perhaps. DRESS for get straight caused a certain level of bewilderment a couple of days ago. Don't say you haven't been educated. To the floor is DOWN in most circumstances.
17 ABOVE ALL more than anything
A lovable rogue isn't Till Eulenspiegel again today, but rather a well disguised anagram and its indicator.
19 OWN GOAL an expensive mistake
Constructed thus: admit: OWN, delay LAG, reversed and with an O ball inserted.
21 ARTISAN Skilled worker
Another that looks suspiciously like an anagram and is, of A STRAIN
22 HERMES messenger
...of the gods. Rather an amusing clue, "the confusion she caused" being HER MES(s), with the last letter dismissed (Hermes couldn't read the address, perhaps).
24 KAYAK Canoe
Reads the same either way up. Not aware of any other canoes that do that.
25 MINCE possible contents of pie
The edge of C(asserole) dig out gives MINE, insert one into the other.
That's better! My last 4 were, perhaps surprisingly, the quartet around the central square, whose letters counterclockwise spell out PARAMUNU. Google tells me this is a) part of the title of a song in Telugu and b) means "though". I don't think this constitutes a NINA, but who knows? On with the show...
Across
1 DEADBEAT One too lazy to...
After watching the latest incarnation of the England cricket teams, I'd almost forgotten what a DEAD BAT looked like, but you need one here to absorb E(nergy) and bore the pants off the spectators. Stonewalling in cricket is batting with a preoccupation for not getting out.
2 PRÉCIS Summary
No points lost for missing the accent, so not very PRECISE on the part of our editor. When you run out of spaces, stop as idicated.
10 CEPHEID VARIABLE star
One of those entry-as-wordplay variations: the answer suggests looking for the anagram EPIC HE'D. Cepheid Variables are very useful yellow giant stars with a highly regular pulsation pattern, first observed in 1784 (though I suspect the Chinese spotted them much earlier - they usually did)
11 DORMICE rodents!
Not necessarily named for their sleepy behaviour, pace Rev Dodgson. A combination of DORM/bedroom and (n)ICE/pleasant without its first.
12 DAB HAND expert
If you barely washed, you might just dab at your hand, causing your mother to reach for the dreaded hanky and spit remedy.
13 FINE-SPUN (Being) delicate
A non-hyphenated version is also available for delicate fabric or thread. Punishes: FINES, feeble wit: PUN. Since a great deal of our noble exercise relies on wordplay, seems a bit self deprecating, but hay hoe.
15 WIDOW single woman
I had abbreviates to I'D, bedded into WOW. "There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful propects"
18 BINGO undemanding entertainment
Not if you're running a dozen cards at once it isn't. A precise clue which requires you to leave out one of the I's in INIGO Jones (architect/general/meteorologist according to preference) once you've written B for book.
20 RAMPAGED Went wild
A straight translation of "force" and "called for".
23 VIKINGS Sea raiders
One for the Bible scholars: see provides the V(ide), and 1 Kings is the good book sandwiched between 2 Samuel and -um- 2 Kings.
25 MATISSEArtist
"Almost failed" gives you MISSE(d), and all that's left to do is insert A and the end of (sunse)T
26 ANY PORT IN A STORM emergency destination
If it looks like an anagram... MANY POOR TRAINS plus (star)T "diverted"
27 LIKELY probably
The odd letters of KnEw thrown into the embrace of the (hopefully) delightful LILY.
28 PENNINES Range
One for the mathematicians. "Enclosures" provides the PENS into which NINE (3X3) is inserted.
Down
1 DECADE some years
Repeated DEC(ember) the second not complete, with an A included. Credit to the compiler for eschewing the "random notes" ploy
2 ASPERSION slur
Poisoner first, so that's ASP (cf Cleopatra), then R(uns) into NOISE (rumour) backwards.
3 BEEHIVE heaps of natural growth
This might go down as a double definition, though I took it as BEE (it swarms) plus HIVE (a place of) industry. For the hairdo (heaps of natural growth), see Helen Schapiro, Dusty Springfield, The Ronettes, the Crystals and Yeoman Janice Rand, who somehow managed to incorporate a chessboard into hers.
4 ADDLE Get muddled
A propellor is a PADDLE. Lose the P(ower)
6 RAINBOW A sign from God?
Another one for the Bible scholars, from the Noah story, where the rainbow appears after the flood as a promise that God would never flood the Earth (or at least, not all of it eh, Jim?) again. RAIN from fall, BOW from show submission.
7 COBRA ...that can be deadly in attack
COB is one of the many horses, RA the (Royal) Artillery. Kudos and respect to the compiler for giving up lady's underwear.
8 STEP DOWN to resign
A sweet little anagram of SET, plus P for quietly and DOWN for depressed.
9 LAUDANUM ...including this one (scilicet number)
The drug of choice for Victoria when she wasn't knocking back the cocaine in Elixir Mariani.
14 PARASITE ...that needs a host
A drop zone for an airbourne soldier would be a PARA SITE, then. No feeble wit (vide supra) in this crossword, dear me, no.
16 DRESS DOWN Take to task
...or wear jeans on Friday, perhaps. DRESS for get straight caused a certain level of bewilderment a couple of days ago. Don't say you haven't been educated. To the floor is DOWN in most circumstances.
17 ABOVE ALL more than anything
A lovable rogue isn't Till Eulenspiegel again today, but rather a well disguised anagram and its indicator.
19 OWN GOAL an expensive mistake
Constructed thus: admit: OWN, delay LAG, reversed and with an O ball inserted.
21 ARTISAN Skilled worker
Another that looks suspiciously like an anagram and is, of A STRAIN
22 HERMES messenger
...of the gods. Rather an amusing clue, "the confusion she caused" being HER MES(s), with the last letter dismissed (Hermes couldn't read the address, perhaps).
24 KAYAK Canoe
Reads the same either way up. Not aware of any other canoes that do that.
25 MINCE possible contents of pie
The edge of C(asserole) dig out gives MINE, insert one into the other.