No 12863, Thursday 20 Feb 2020, Incognito

ACROSS
7   Bends arms and ribbon loops for ships’ prows? Fiddlesticks! (4) BOWS [MD]
8   Notwithstanding changing spot in fire, abandons a bit of roast (2,5,2) IN SPITE OF {SPOT+IN+FIrE}*
10 Pakistan’s intelligence agency follows donkey to St. Francis’ place (6) ASSISI {ISI} after {ASS}
11 Poet composing sonnet about The Big Apple (8)  TENNYSON {TEN{NY}SON*}
12 Chessmen jump at uncle’s place (8) PAWNSHOP {PAWNS}{HOP}
14 See inside carcass — it’s gory (6) BLOODY {B{LO}ODY}
16 Law for including Chandigarh, say, in Punjab, for example (7) STATUTE {STAT{UT}E}
18 Thousand dollars per annum for ancestor (7) GRANDPA {GRAND}{PA}
21 Mountain where you can see a gunner with one who has deserted (6) ARARAT {A}{RA}{RAT}
23 Small human resources plane crashed into shell fragments (8) SHRAPNEL {S}{HR}{PLANE*}

25 State: Doctor madly ran (8) MARYLAND*
27 Signed off a pattern? (6) DESIGN*
29 Tulsa’s bot produces partial sums (9) SUBTOTALS*
30 Queen arm-twisted Yankee (4) MARY {ARM*}{Y}

DOWN
1   Uninterrupted repair of cantonments in absence of soldiers (8) CONSTANT CANTONmenTS*
2   Liquor available in Hastinapur (4) ASTI [T]
3   Complete language, but no name (6) FINISH FINnISH
4   Atom with same number but different mass is nothing to an endless drinker (7) ISOTOPE {IS}{O}{TO}{PEg?} (Addendum - {IS}{O}{TOPEr} - See comments)
5   Ore found in hotel in California with saloon (8) CINNABAR {C{INN}A}{BAR}
6   Decline destroying expensive new yacht initially (4) DENY Acrostic
9   American car driven round first of Junagadh’s inlet (5) FJORD {F{Ju...h}ORD}
13 Stenographer’s piece of money, right? (5) NOTER {NOTE}{R}
15 Make a clean breast of personal state (3,2) OWN UP {OWN}{UP}
17 Four-footed creature to depart wildly (8) TETRAPOD*
19 Customers at 12 having one penny and account books (8) PLEDGERS {P}{LEDGERS}
20 Secondhand automobile America cared about (4,3) USED CAR {US}{CARED*}
22 Hits around circle and walks about (5) ROAMS {R{O}AMS}
24 Without opening hardish sort of vegetable (6) RADISH hARDISH*
26 Boys maybe uncouth persons (4) YOBS*
28 Amount to nothing in Japanese wrestling (4) SUMO {SUM}{0}

Reference List
The Big Apple = New York(NY, See = LO, Per Annum = PA, Gunner = RA(Royal Artillery), Small = S, Human Resources = HR, Yankee = Y, Soldiers = MEN, Name = N, Right = R, Penny = P

Dr RKE's TalePiece

NOVO NOAH

Francis, today's hero, is  named after the saint of ASSISI.  He is a good GRANDPA who narrates stories to his granddaughter MARY. He CONSTANTly reads the Bible, even at bedtime. One night, snoozing with the Holy Book on his chest, he has a dream in which God warns him of the coming of the Deluge. God commands him to DESIGN an ark to save all the species. Francis has to PLEDGE his USED CAR at a PAWNSHOP to get money for the project. He builds the ark, on a FJORD, using gopherwood and paints its BOWs the colour of CINNABAR. He ROAMS the earth collecting a pair of each species of TETRAPODS and birds,  carefully checking the SUBTOTALS of each category that God ordained. He stocks provisions to last 7 days and nights but does not take RADISH as it is against the STATUTE. IN SPITE of his efforts, he cannot prevent a couple of YOBS, intoxicated with ASTI, staging a BLOODY SUMO contest on board. There is no DENYing that this causes the ark to Break, Break, Break (as TENNYSON would have put it). The ark runs aground to a FINISH on Mount ARARAT, which is the geographical antipode to MARYLAND. With that Grandpa Francis wakes up. 

(I have to OWN UP that the NOTER of this modern Noah's story, unable to face criticism, has gone INCOGNITO!)