With only a handful of entries during my first pass through the clues I thought I might struggle a little with this one but I then made steady progress and completed it without too many problems.
There were times when I felt that the clues were not Bradman-like, for example the definition in 8dn, the wordplay in 20dn and the superfluous words in 21dn and this may have accounted somewhat for the relatively small number of initial entries.
Across
1 Wriggle, as maiden taken by nobleman endlessly (6)
SQUIRM – SQUIR[e] (nobleman endlessly) M (maiden) – how many of you, like me, initially tried to insert M into an endless nobleman?
5 Crystalline material found by fellow falling over in pit (8)
MELAMINE – MALE (fellow) reversed (falling over) in MINE (pit)
9 Small houses can be prisons with excessive staying in (8)
COTTAGES – OTT (excessive) in (staying in) CAGES (prisons)
10 Fruit – it comes with mostly hard outer covering (6)
CITRUS – CRUS[t] (mostly hard outer) around (with … covering) IT
11 Catty female totally heartless having row (6)
FELINE – F[emal]E (female totally heartless) LINE (row) – again I was misled and initially thought that the definition was ‘catty female’ with the answer beginning with T[otall]Y
12 Book / a singer (3,5)
TOM JONES – double def.
14 Country with marriage and civil partnership, say? (6,6)
UNITED STATES – def. & cryptic indicator
18 Maybe dean’s gloomy journey in the churchyard? (5,7)
DANSE MACABRE – an anagram (maybe) of DEAN’S plus MACABRE (gloomy)
22 Martinet, persistent type giving learner detention (8)
STICKLER – STICKER (persistent type) around (giving … detention) L (learner)
25 Bullet in drawer (6)
TRACER – double def.
26 Scholar with old Bible in South Africa? Not all the Bible (6)
SAVANT – AV (old Bible) in SA (South Africa) NT (not all the Bible)
27 Storm over? Chill out (4,4)
WIND DOWN – def. & cryptic indicator
28 The early worms – tough (8)
LEATHERY – an anagram (worms) of THE EARLY
29 Time to admit bad person’s mistakes (6)
ERRATA – ERA (time) around (to admit) RAT (bad person)
Down
2 Something that goes with status rocker once mentioned (6)
QUOTED – QUO (something that goes with status) TED (rocker once)
3 International regrets about revolutionary soldier in plots (9)
INTRIGUES – INT (international) RUES (regrets) around (about) GI (soldier) reversed (revolutionary)
4 Brilliant burner gives a nasty singe for mother to cover up (9)
MAGNESIUM – MUM (mother) around (to cover up) A plus an anagram (nasty) of SINGE
5 Instrument making no sound needs to get fixed inside (7)
MUSETTE – SET (fixed) in (to get … inside) MUTE (making no sound) – an old type of French bagpipe
6 Manchester United could obviously lose – reverse starts with substitute (5)
LOCUM – M[anchester] U[nited] C[ould] O[bviously] L[ose] reversed (reverse starts)
7 Bread dull, so we hear (5)
MATZO – MAT (dull) ZO a homophone (so we hear) of ‘so’
8 Rude teen must be disciplined, altered (8)
NEUTERED – an anagram (must be disciplined) of RUDE TEEN – to me the definition seems a little loose for one of Bradman’s clues
13 A bit is missing from supporting beam (3)
JOT – JO[is]T (is missing from supporting beam)
15 Character in inferior position, it seems (9)
SUBSTANCE – SUB (inferior) STANCE (position)
16 A famous swimmer grabbing kiss from great man (9)
ALEXANDER – A LEANDER (famous swimmer) around (grabbing) X (kiss)
17 Part of road giving entrance for traffic into naval base (4,4)
FAST LANE – T[raffic] (entrance for traffic) in (into) FASLANE (naval base)
19 The reverse of eager, mostly I’m alarmed! (3)
EEK – KEE[n] (eager, mostly) reversed
20 Plant vehicle somewhere away from home (7)
CARAWAY – CAR (vehicle) AWAY (somewhere away from home) – I was initially reluctant to enter this one because I didn’t think that Bradman would use ‘away’ in both the wordplay and the answer
21 See bird wag diving under water (6)
PEEWIT – PEE (water) WIT (wag) – unless I have got it wrong, this is another uncharacteristic clue in that ‘see’ and ‘diving’ are superfluous, apart from providing a surface reading, and the definition is not at the start or the end of the clue
23 Where land meets sea / take it easy (5)
COAST – double def.
24 Coffee after appointed hour – little time for drinking (5)
LATTE – LATE (after appointed hour) around (for drinking) T (little time)
Away in def of away — unintentional and unobserved naffness (though I’d like to pretend it was a cunning double take!).
Didn’t enjoy this very much, though it may have suffered by being on the same day as Picaroon’s brilliant offering in the Guardian. There were too many ‘mostly’ words for my liking, I’m afraid.
I had the same reaction to caraway/away. This must be some new kind of trick. Better add it to the list.
Never heard of Faslane, so gave up on that quarter – I shouldn’t have.
Thanks Bradman and Gaufrid
Very late in doing this one (again). An enjoyable puzzle that needed to be chipped away at, until it finally yielded. Finished with PEEWIT (for which I was trying to equate some parish connection to the bird, but couldn’t find one!) and CARAWAY (for which the Don has fessed ‘mea culpa’ for).
Hi Gaufrid, I had no problem with ‘altered’ as the definition for NEUTERED.
In the online dictionary that I use:
Alter
v tr.
3. To castrate or spay (an animal, such as a cat or a dog).
Took an age to see JOisT. Thought ‘great man’ for ALEXANDER was clever (although suspect that it has been used before).
FASLANE and MATZO were both new