No 12940, Wednesday 20 May 2020, KrisKross

Day 57 of 68 Stay safe at home

(I am maintaining lockdown till 31 May)

Solution to 23D has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Ghosts crept around, a bit eerily, in ship (8) SPECTRES {S{CREPT*}{Es...y}S}
5   Cheats prison guards (6) SCREWS [DD]
9   Sports fans around the boundary making demonstrations (8) PROTESTS {PRO{ThE}STS*}
10 University student’s leave rejected last month (6) ULTIMO {U}{L}{OMIT<=}
12 It could be cold or hot saline compound (9) HAILSTONE*
13 Blackbird or swallow (5) BROOK {B}{ROOK}
14 Just playing “Empty” song (4) ONLY {ON}{LaY}
16 Speech describing victory, after killing resistance, gets applause (7) OVATION {Or{V}ATION}
19 Great leader escapes… breaking away free , he seeks asylum (7) REFUGEE{REF{hUGE}E*}
21 Worker runs to drink... (4) BEER {BEE}{R}
24 ...sounding very calm (5) QUIET(~quite)
25 Greek character attains stature after decimating a crowd (9) MULTITUDE {MU}{LaTITUDE}
27 Plants rice, as ordered (6) ERICAS*

28 Unknown person made a phone call, disturbing rest rudely (8) STRANGER {ST{RANG}ER*}
29 Flipping drunk, Edward leaned to one side (6) TILTED {LIT<=}{TED}
30 How to make Erin get complete liberty (4,4) FREE REIN {ERIN}* [RA]

DOWN
1   Approaches this poetess with care perhaps (6) SAPPHO APPrOacHeS [CA]
2   Wonderful, sensuous kiss for Romeo (6) EXOTIC E(-r+x)XOTIC
3   Support partners for a period of seven years (5) TEENS {TEE}{NS}
4   State of disorder in Bombay port, newly built-up (7) ENTROPY [T<=]
6   Graduate student engaged in analysis of bacteria (9) CALIBRATE {L} in {BACTERIA}*
7 Marriage vows recalled in Ramayana, perhaps? That’s irregular (8) EPISODIC {EPI{I DOS<=}C}
8   One hanging around for the present? (8) STOCKING [CD]

11 Zimbabwe’s opener and leading player, scoring his first duck (4) ZERO {Zi...e}{hERO}
15 Terrible thing to spoil sleep, essentially (9) NIGHTMARE {THING*}{MAR}{slEep} &lit
17 Common worry over ruler lacking guts (8) FREQUENT {FRE{QUeEN}T}
18 Executive of rank, nearly stabbed by spies (8) OFFICIAL {OF}{FI{CIA}Le}
20 Regularly sell X-mas trees (4) ELMS {sElL+MaSs}

21 More confident daughter leaves to get good man’s support (7) BOLSTER BOL(-d+st}STER
22 Doctor can fix leg (6) JUGGLE {JUG}{LEG*}
23 News about foreign capital — it makes you nervous? (6) ?E?R?N (Addendum - NEURON - {N}{EURO}{N} - See comments)
26 Setter’s mature idea (5) IMAGE {I'M}{AGE}

Reference List
Ship = SS, University = U, Student = L, Black = B, Bird = ROOK, Victory = V, Resistance = R, Run = R, Drunk = LIT, Kiss = X, Romeo = R, Support = TEE, Partners = N,S(North and South in Bridge card game), Daughter = D, Good man = ST, News = N

Dr RKE's TalePiece

The anatomy professor was nicknamed "NEURON" by the first year medical students. His appearance with a large head on a slender body resembled the IMAGE of a nerve cell. Being a bachelor, he stayed in a special room in the hostel and was the OFFICIAL warden of the hostel. He would BROOK no nonsense and had ZERO tolerance to the boyish pranks of the students, who were not yet out of their TEENS. Three adventurous friends of mine bribed the security guards (who were called SCREWS)  to let them have a FREE REIN of the terrace of the hostel, where they could have a BEER party FREQUENTly. 

One night, during such an escapade, they saw a hooded STRANGER coming up the stairs QUIETly. Any sane student would have cut and run, but BOLSTERed by Dutch courage, they accosted the SPECTRE in the darkness of the night. The man removed the shawl and it was Prof. Neuron. They were caught red-handed and notwithstanding their PROTESTS  the bottles were seized and the boys were marched off to their rooms to be dealt with in the morning. Needless to say, the high of the booze evaporated instantly and they had their worst NIGHTMARES. They thought up a MULTITUDE of EXOTIC excuses and finally they decided that they would tell Neuron that they had gone to the terrace only to practice JUGGLing  bottles for the Talents Day Competition.  Fortune TILTED in their favour, when they were not called to the warden's office the next morning. The warden was later found sozzled in his bed by the cleaner with all the seized bottles of beer emptied. The three boys were given a hero's OVATION in the boys' mess that day.