Cryptic crossword No 3,416

So this one drew me in and I stayed up way too late to solve it! You weren't kidding about the vocabulary but all fairly and elegantly clued. Despite telling me not to forget, I did forget your Nina until I'd solved but was retrospectively impressed. Lots of clues to shout out but favourites included 1a, 1d (hat tip for constructing that!), 8d, and 17d. Also enjoyed the juxtaposition of your 12a and 12d surfaces.

Erudite as heck, my friend! Well done. I had zero idea about the Nina, but it made sense & was quite impressive after I looked at the annotations. Faves: 21a, 25a, 1d, 8d among others. Some of the tough words were . . . tough! NHO 4d and had to reveal. Also didn't know 14a, 18d & 23a but got them from the clue. More in reply.

You weren't kidding about the obscurities but they all fell into place. Neat extra too, although it passed me by. So many clever clues, hard to pick faves but 1d and 14a were very well done, loved the clever surface/solution interplay in 18d. Also liked 3d,4d and 6d when it finally clicked. 7d raised a smile, beautiful image!

Not as fearsome as your SI implied although a fair few solutions were nho. Bizarre nina idea but typically you to experiment with it. Podium 21a, 2d and 3d. Thanks. PM

Hi tpgrammar, thanks for the workout, quite a mix of difficulty but mainly from the vocab because the wordplay was all very fair. My favourites were 11a, 19a, 25a and 6d. Cheers!

Thanks tpg. Although I try to avoid 'tough words' in my puzzles I actually like setters who sprinkle them in their crosswords, especially when the wordplay helps unlock the mystery. Yours were clued very fairly. In addition to the 'tough words' my top picks were 9a, 12a, 20a, 25a, 3d, and 22d (liked 'resume'). Of course I found and enjoyed the Nina.

Really enjoyable solve, tpgrammar. Quite a few words I didn't know but the cluing was very fair so I was able to figure them out and add to my vocabulary! I thought the long hiddens were particularly good as were the cryptic definitions. Also liked 22d (nice definition), 25a, 11a (surface), 3d (construction), 4d (surface)