Solving time - around half an hour in small doses.

I was very busy at work today and didn’t even have time for a lunch break, so I solved this in a few two-minute sessions and finished it when I got home. As a result I probably found it harder than it was.

Across
1 CLOCHE - cliché with the I changed to O
5 PHILIPPI - “fillip”, PI. It was a city in Ancient Greece.
9 AVIARIST - air* inside (A TV is)*
14 MO(RIB)UND
17 EMPHATIC - E, (at C mph, I)* - took me a while to figure out what the anagram fodder was.
20 STRANGLEHOLD (rag dolls then)* - very well-mixed anagram; I had to write out the letters and stare for a while.
23 PRO,TEA - very strongly associated with SA, an immediate write-in for me. All South African sports teams (except for rugby) are now nicknamed The Proteas.
24 SYLLABLE - cryptic def., i.e. one of com-pon-ent parts.
25 ABE,R,DEEN(need rev.)
26 RA,DISH - e.g. horseradish

Down
4 E(MIG)RE
5 PUT THE MOCKERS ON
6 IN(CAME)RA - never seen “another spell of” as an anagrind before, but it’s perfect for rain*
7 IDIOM - MOI is “me, pretentious” + DI=girl, all backwards. Au contraire is a slightly shaky reversal indicator.
8 PUT AN END TO (pendant out)* - another anagram I struggled with today.
12 HERM,IT,CRAB - Chambers gives a herm as a head or bust on a square base, no mention of a pillar.
16 STA(GNA)TE - GNA is “A N(o) G(ood)” reversed.
21 ASTIR - (Fred) Astaire without an “A&E”
22 PLUS - nonplus=puzzle, without no,n - I’ve seen an almost identical clue somewhere recently.

Solving time: 22 mins 38 secs. I’m sure there’s a Nina there somewhere, there being all those “loose ends” round the outside, and much of the bottom line saying FOOLS, but I can’t see it. It must be quite difficult to produce a grid in which there are loose ends at the outside yet not contravening the “rule” about never having a word with more than 50% of its letters unchecked.

I’m stuck on this with little time left before going to Cheltenham. I’ve solved all but three of the normal clues but have no idea about the theme. If you’ve solved it, leave a comment to say to or send an e-mail to inq39@biddlecombe.demon.co.uk , and we can work out a joint blog of some kind early next week.

I now have an answer, so a report will be appearing.