Times 28177 – Start the way you mean to go on

ACROSS

1 Notice doctor cuddling new arrival (6)
ADVENT – N (new) in AD VET
4 Distort way fighter appears (8)
WARPLANE – WARP LANE; atypically, we have a literal appearing medially, rather than initially or finally
10 Mike and others argue about face of kroner that could be forged (9)
METALWORK – M (Mike – NATO alphabet) ET AL (and others) ROW reversed (argue about) K[rone]; alternatively, bung it in and move on
11 Track dog crossing river (5)
TRAIL – R in TAIL
12 Token beer knocked back in old ship in Orkney, say (11)
ARCHIPELAGO – CHIP (token) ALE reversed (beer knocked back) in ARGO (Jason’s old ship); friends of mine live on Gairsay, the island with the lowest year-round population in the UK (2 people). Because the Royal Mail doesn’t honour its pledge of delivering to every domestic postal address in the UK, it pays the household instead and leaves the mail in a shed on the Mainland (the main island – not to be confused with Doon Sooth – Scotland)
14 Crack band with no name (3)
GAG – GA[n]G
15 Cast stand up for rubbish collector (7)
DUSTPAN – anagram* of STAND UP
17 Doctor works with unknown fluid problem (6)
DROPSY – DR OPS Y
19 Northern swimmer Jack sent round extract from Moby-Dick? (6)
BALEEN – reversal of N EEL AB; some love this book, but I think it’s rather a mess, in line with the first published review (from England, as it happens). That Melville was a very fine writer there can be little doubt, as his shorter works demonstrate.
21 New rock producer‘s refreshing vocal number (7)
VOLCANO – VOCAL* NO (number)
23 Organ needing repairs every so often (3)
EAR – [r]E[p]A[i]R[s]
24 Marshal Ney was ready for the first item in his diary? (3,5,3)
NEW YEARS DAY – NEY WAS READY* (marshal is the cunning anagram indicator)
26 Bloke in pub, backsliding — after this treatment? (5)
REHAB – HE in BAR all reversed
27 German city contracted one mate working for it? (9)
MUNICIPAL – MUNIC[h] I PAL; pretty much an all-in-one, I reckon
29 Is US aviation pioneer able to abandon British watersport? (8)
CANOEING – CAN [b]OEING; a bit contrived, no?
30 Grovel, offering punch and whiskey to wife (6)
KOWTOW – KO (knock-out punch) W (Whiskey in Nato alphabet) TO W; one of the few actions still allowed in Hong Kong without the perpetrator being arrested for subversion, sedition or collusion with foreign powers

DOWN

1 In military, captain’s first — plus handsome escort (3,5)
ARM CANDY – C[aptain] AND (plus) IN ARMY; I have never knowingly been called this
2 Prophetic RC HQ ejects a nun finally (5)
VATIC – VATIC[an]
3 PIN’s missing a zero (3)
NIL – N[a]IL
5 After a week minor perhaps gets bolshie (7)
AWKWARD – WARD (minor perhaps) after A WK; a favourite word of my father
6 Favourite staff all got up in gold, ready for OPEC? (11)
PETRODOLLAR – PET (favourite) ROD (staff) ALL reversed OR (heraldic gold); ready as in money
7 Obsessive is, say, pointing up a source of relief (9)
ANALGESIA – ANAL (obsessive) IS EG reversed A
8 Speech lauding record year under Brussels (6)
EULOGY – LOG Y follows EU (behemothic bureaucracy)
9 Spirit bottle regularly found in enclosure (6)
POTEEN – [b]O[t]T[l]E in PEN
13 Secure cheeky child the Spanish firework upset (11)
IMPREGNABLE – IMP (cheeky child – a frequenter of Crosswordland) followed by reversal of EL BANGER (the in Spanish and type of firework respectively)
16 Finish off looking round classy creature on bed (3,6)
SEA URCHIN – U (classy in the Cruciverbal Nancy Mitfordian sense) in SEARCHIN[g]
18 Overdraft in wobbly organisation’s a setback (4,4)
BODY BLOW – OD in WOBBLY*
20 Converted cardinal hosts society correspondent (7)
NEWSMAN – S in NEWMAN; Henry Newman was an Anglican cleric who became a Roman Catholic
21 The sixth queen raised capital (6)
VIENNA – VI (the sixth, as in Edward VI) ANNE reversed
22 Malagasy native‘s refurbished centre (6)
TENREC – CENTRE*; I guessed NETREC, so ‘nul points’ for me; a kind of Madagascan hedgehog
25 Autocrat has to abandon singular repository (5)
DEPOT – DE[s]POT; no fun to live under these wretches
28 I’m surprised there are no tips on exclusive (3)
COO – [s]COO[p]; much beloved by hacks the world over, since they sell advertising