CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 King snipped back tailor’s fold (4)

3 Bans fabric still unfinished, held back by K-pop band (10) 9 Egg-shaped ball no longer good (5) 11 Grappling with restyling after last of hairspray is gone (9)

12 Break up our holiday excursion (3,4) 13 Actor Flynn in bigger roles (5) 15 Limit speed when returning to empty region of the universe (4,5) 17 Slowly advanced second of rooks (5) 19 Pure state (5)

21 Repeatedly changed native snakebite treatment (9)

23 Partly provide our TikTok posting (5) 24 Terrifying clown novel devoured by intellectual land (7)

26 Tightly embracing small, shy monarch with vigour (9)

27 Antelope dash by Djibouti’s capital (5) 28 Bobbing agriculture god with giant wound, getting thoroughly wet (10) 29 Backed up Prokofiev’s French horn course (4)

DOWN

1 The French dropped off hot water to a gloomy minstrel (10)

2 Ship’s lookout recognizes wave’s peak, says Spooner (5,4)

4 Humble cow? (5)

5 Most ingenious canal emptied atop mountain (9)

6 After a low football pass (7)

7 Gas station mishap? It’ll start a fire (5) 8 Decline a lengthy story (4)

10 Make operating room’s exits (5) 14 Nerd, mowing haphazardly, drops on the grass (7,3)

16 Structural expert repaired AM station (9) 18 Zip over excellent lining of birth canal, ultimately (4,2,3)

20 Spooner’s inoperative caboose somewhere in Alberta (3,4)

22 Bad habit, boarding front of Orient Express (5)

23 Leap over something in a bank (5) 24 Ask while kneeling in launch (5) 25 Listen to, say, large or small characters in Plato’s writings (4)