No 13814, Thursday 16 Mar 2023, Lightning

Solution to 12A 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   Cuts fashionable placement where the ball bounces low (4,4) DROP SHOT {DROPS}{HOT}

5   Confidence of liberal institute involved in dispute (6) BELIEF {BE{L}{I}EF}

9   Model joins one expert Olympian (8) POSEIDON {POSE}{1}{DON}

10 Wannabe American hiding one that may not bounce (6) BEAMER [T]

12 Digress without help (5) S?R?E (Addendum - SERVE SwERVE - See comments)

13 He shifts a wild creature that can swim (9) SHEATFISH*

14 Substantial to lose every fourth carriage (6) HANSOM HANdSOMe

16 Press ordinary piercing weapon (7) HARPOON {HARP ON} over {O}

19 Sign of approval about destroyed tape recorder (7) NOTEPAD {NO{TAPE*}D}

21 Very ordinary cry about barrage of bullets (6) VOLLEY {V}{O}{YELL<=}

23 It may cause a ball to come back below small stick (9) UNDERSPIN {UNDER}{S}{PIN}

25 Grab horse showing hate (5) ABHOR [T]

26 Stash missing at first, had to think (6) IDEATE {hIDE}{ATE}

27 Swapping two parts return stroke (8) BACKHAND {HAND<=>BACK}

28 Child returned to shelter - insanity at Wanderers (6) NOMADS {SON}<= over {MAD}

29 Turn around light device, so short inside (8) REVERSAL {LASER}<= over {VERy}

DOWN

1   Forcefully take away down payment - it is gone with engineer (6) DEPOSE {DEPOSit}{E}

2   Old boy, one doing household work is attentive (9) OBSERVANT {O}{B}{SERVANT}

3   Dissect small insects (5) SLICE {S}{LICE}

4   Animal old pole curtailed partly in summer (7) OPOSSUM {O}{POSt}{SUMmer}

6   College perhaps destroyed local tree (9) ELECTORAL*

7   Stressed feet immobilized and made bit inconvenient for starters (5) IAMBI Acrostic

8   Fear don went berserk consuming heroin shot (8) FOREHAND {FEAR+DON}* over {H}

11 Setter joins society with hard network (4) MESH {ME}{S}{H}

15 Sifted and broke apart seed (9) SEPARATED*

17 Smashes six balls with top strokes at the beginning (9) OVERHEADS {OVER}{HEAD}{St...s}

18 Introduction if unions change (8) INFUSION*

20 Perform exercise with drug (4) DOPE {DO}{PE}

21 Very hard worker and saint missing first asset (7) VANTAGE {V}{ANT}{sAGE}

22 Bishop to free gangster - it may be for a girl at a wedding (6) BRIDAL {B}{RID}{AL}

24 Ambition of doctor - to join leaderless squad (5) DREAM {DR}{tEAM}

25 Bank lender smuggling joint (5) ANKLE [T]

Reference List

LIberal = L, Institute = I, With = W, Ordinary = O, Small = S, Engineer = E, Old = O, Boy = B, Heroin = H, Society = S, Hard = H, Exercise = PE, Very = V, Bishop = B, Gangster = AL(Capone)