Cryptic crossword No 809

Thanks BlueJay, some terrific stuff here ... quite a bit arguably 'obscure', some of which I knew (eg the strategic game, the northern people) and some needing a little help to confirm (eg the lily, the coastal plant) but all fairly clued - super throughout but my favourites were 13a, 21a, 25a, 28a, 1d, 3d, 17d and overall favourite - for great penny-drop, eventually! - 23d (even though it was nho!) Spoilers ...

Very good! A mix of reasonably straightforward (the NW corner went in easily) then progressively more challenging, with a few right old pencil-chewers at the end! I admit to being defeated by a couple, and when I saw your notes I realised that they are gaps in my GK and so not your problem but mine! And a handful I got from correctly identifying the definition part of the clue (16a, 6d, 22d), but needed your notes for the parsing. Thanks for the brain gym session!

Sorry, BlueJay. It's taken me a while to get round to this - I have a backlog! I enjoyed most of the surfaces (see Reply) and there was some nice misdirection. Favourites included 4a, 19a, 28a, 30a, 1d, 5d, 8d, 18d, 27d and 23d (which I didn't parse without your Annotations) Spoilers in Reply. Thanks. PM