Province fan ate nuts . . . a notable achievement (2,4,4)

I believe the answer is:

no mean feat

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'a notable achievement' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'province fan ate nuts' is the wordplay.
'province' becomes 'nome' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'nuts' is an anagram indicator (nuts can mean crazy).
'fan'+'ate'='fanate'
'fanate' is an anagram of 'anfeat'.
'nome'+'anfeat'='NO MEAN FEAT'

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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