I downloaded the crossword and solved most of it quickly. However, I was called away from home and was back only at about 7 p.m. IST. At that time the bottom left corner had some holes. Am writing this in a brief interregnum before going to the temple for a committee meeting. Typos have since been fixed.
Across
1 BUBBLY – two def.
4 MACHISMO – Mac, his, mo – the second component is gratis and the third one is an obvious abbreviation.
9 (Elementary, my dear) WATSON – anag. of ‘was not’
10 ADVOCATE – two def. – ‘brief’ does a switcheroo as v. as a def.
12 TROPICAL – anag. of ‘cop’ and ‘trial’ ‘Tropical’ is ‘fervidly hot’ – Whether ‘heated’ is an apt def. for word reqd. I am not sure.
13 SWERVE – s(w)erve – as ‘put’ can also be a verb in the past tense, one first thinks of ‘served’ as the answer before further inquiry.
16 HA HA – The ‘boundary’ part I don’t get.
20 STET – A good cryptic def. for a word frequently used. But nowadays there is little chance for this impression to be made; proofreaders are an extinct tribe in newspapers.
23 APEMAN – rev. of ‘name, pa’ – I shouldn’t have taken as much time as I did. The left bottom corner, which proved difficult in my first foray, was filled in during a car ride.
25 BELL ROPE – CD
28 REPAIR – re-pair
30 ANTHEM– Nice CD, eschewing the usual anag. ploy.
Down
1 BEWITCH – b(E W)itch
2 BETROTHAL – anag. of ‘Harbottle’
3 LOOK IN – I am not sure whether the second def is quite apt.
4 AIDA – aid, a
6 HOODWINK – Hood, wink
14 ANISEED – an(I see)d – The word within word indication is not quite satisfactory.
17 OSTEOPATH – Anag. of ‘a stoop the’ – nice surface reading.
18 SEE AHEAD – see, a, head – Until we see that ‘divine’ does a switcheroo as a verb in def. for word reqd., the answer is delayed.
21 THEOREM – anag. of ‘me to her’ – nice surface reading but weak anag. ind.
22 CLUE IN – anag. of ‘nuclei’ – good anag. fodder but an anag. clue after an anag. clue may have been avoided.
24 EXTRA – two def – seamlessly merged
28 TIER – rev. of ‘re it’
“16 HA HA – The ‘boundary’ part I don;t get.”
A ditch or vertical drop often containing a fence,eg between a garden and surrounding parkland, forming a barrier without interrupting the view.