No 12581, Saturday 23 Mar 2019, Lightning

Across

1. Force leaderless, depressed cricket side to bat again (6,2) FOLLOW ON {F}{hOLLOW} {ON} Anno correct? Depressed=Hollow? See comments
5. Fearful of a fine, search by police (6) AFRAID {A}{F}{RAID}
9. Somehow I regret holding second record (8) REGISTER {I+REGRET*} around {S}
10. Ailment curtailed a river animal (6) COUGAR {COUGh}{A}{R}
12. Heat source sent back? Overwhelming energy charges (5) RATES {STAR<=} around {E}
13. Sailor cop busted at citadel (9) ACROPOLIS {SAILOR+COP*}
14. Knock down every other steel sword in tent (6) TEEPEE  {sTeEl}{EPEE}
16. Shiny decoration is grand waste (7) GLITTER {G}{LITTER}
19. Theft of large bow at eastern New York (7) LARCENY {L}{ARC}{E}{NY}
21. Leaders of third unit entering den on the way back for ceremony (6) RITUAL {LAIR<=} around {Third}{Unit}
23. Ordinary lines come almost broken up by punctuation mark (9) SEMICOLON {O+LINES+COMe*}
25. Passage in a land surrounded by water (5) AISLE {A}{ISLE}
26. Appeal by insurers covering area in leaning type (6) ITALIC {IT}{A}{LIC}
27. Millions participating in firm and direct protest (8) COMPLAIN {CO}{M}{PLAIN}
28. Penguin easily dwells in this country (6) GUINEA (T)
29. Intern he corrected is essential (8) INHERENT {INTERN+HE*}

Down

1. Commotion in messages, you are breaking at the front (6) FURORE {F{U R}ORE}
2. Astronomical unit of trivial period of our orbit (5-4) LIGHT YEAR {LIGHT}{YEAR}
3. Water source ordinary and without warranty (5) OASIS {O}{AS IS}
4. Missing primary drug recipe, had to run (7) OPERATE {dOPE}{R}{ATE}
6. One could stomp this to impress and get space for resources (9) FOOTPRINT {FOOT}{PRINT}
7. A new member backing early stage investor (5) ANGEL {A}{N}{LEG<=}
8. At first extremely sorry, I’d become insulting (8) DERISORY{Extremely+SORRY+I'D*}
11. Boast about clothing (4) BRAG {GARB<=}
15. Order public relations secretary to restrain engineer (9) PRESCRIBE {PR}{E}{SCRIBE}
17. Convert lean start for a change (9) TRANSLATE {LEAN+START*}
18. Boon bowled without batting glove to begin with (8) BLESSING {B}{LESS}{IN}{Glove}
20. American university withheld many alerts (4) YALE (T)
21. Operated with hired thug at former capital (7) RANGOON {RAN}{GOON}
22. Place protecting each new source of oil (6) PEANUT {P{EA}{N}UT}
24. I’m coming back twice to go around a port city (5) MIAMI {I'M<=}{A}{I'M<=}
25. Plenty of core specimens (5) AMPLE {sAMPLEs}

Reference List

Force=F, Fine=F, Second=S, River=R, Energy=E, Grand=G, Large=L, Eastern=E, New York=NY, Ordinary=O, Appeal=It, Insurers=LIC, Area=A, Millions=M, Firm=Co
Recipe=R, New=N, Public Relations=PR, Engineer=E, Bowled=B, Batting=In. Each=Ea

Colour/Font Scheme

Definition, Solution, Component letters, Embedded links, Theme word,  Anagram Indicator, C/C indicator, Reversal Indicator, Hidden word Indicator, Letter Pick indicator, Deletion Indicator, Homophone Indicator, Movement Indicator, Positional Indicator, Substitution, Indicator, Link/Connector, Extraneous

GRID