All fine. A nice crossword with nothing very controversial so far as I can see.
Definitions in some sort of red, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
There only seems to be one rhyming pair, and because the Observer has changed its computer ways a bit and the software that I use for blogging hasn’t caught up with this I’ve had to do the blog differently. You may notice some changes. Certainly I can’t give you a nice grid with colours as I usually do. The rhyming pair etc will be mentioned in the blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARCS | Cockney listens – and bows (4) |
| ‘harks’ said as a crossword Cockney would, ‘arks | ||
| 3 | PROCEDURES | Reproduces dodgy systems (10) |
| (reproduces)* — Everyman’s trademark whole-word anagram putting in its regular appearance | ||
| 9 | OINK | Sound from pen – why pen no use? (4) |
| The pen in the definition is a pig pen. ‘Oink’ can be seen as ‘0 ink’, or ‘no ink’, which is why the pen is no use | ||
| 10 | CLAMOURING | Clutch, clutching loved one, making racket (10) |
| cl(amour)ing — cling = clutch, amour = loved one | ||
| 12 | RAFAEL NADAL | Playing Lendl: a four-time French tennis ace (6,5) |
| *(Lendl a a a a Fr) — a appears four times, Fr = French | ||
| 15 | PROMPTS | Spurs very quietly storm off … (7) |
| (pp storm)* | ||
| 16 | CASH COW | … decrepit coach, exhausted, wants steady source of income (4,3) |
| *(coach w[ant]s) — ‘exhausted’ applies to ‘wants’, not ‘coach’ as it seems | ||
| 17 | ARMENIA | Beggar me! Niagara’s surrounding country (7) |
| Hidden in beggAR ME NIAgara | ||
| 19 | PROVOKE | In favour of ‘very average’!? Everyman’s beginning to annoy (7) |
| pro v. OK E[veryman] — pro = in favour of, v. = very, average = OK — the self-referential clue | ||
| 20 | WAKE-UP CALLS | Warnings as Spooner relays outcome of birthday-party food fight (4-2,5) |
| “cake up walls” | ||
| 23 | CHARTREUSE | Once again, apply following diagram depicting something intoxicating (10) |
| chart re-use — chart = diagram depicting, re-use = once again apply | ||
| 24 | CODA | End-piece: a physician taken aback (4) |
| (a doc)rev. — doc = physician | ||
| 25 | MURPHY’S LAW | It says you’ll go wrong adding potato to cabbage salad (7,3) |
| murphy slaw — murphy = potato, slaw = cabbage salad | ||
| 26 | SKYE | Island on vacation – Sark – yippee! (4) |
| S[ar]k y[ippe]e — ‘on vacation’ applies to both the words following it | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | APOCRYPHAL | Silly Carol, happy to be uncertain (10) |
| *(Carol happy) | ||
| 2 | CAN OF WORMS | Tricky situation: farm with no cows to flounder (3,2,5) |
| (farm no cows)* | ||
| 4 | RULINGS | Decrees – when you’ve repeatedly drawn a line? (7) |
| When you use a ruler to draw a straight line you are making a ruling — I think the ‘repeatedly’ is there to make ruling into rulings | ||
| 5 | COMEDIC | Some welcome Dickensian characters being amusing (7) |
| Hidden in welCOME DICkensian — the hidden noisily signposted by the word ‘Some’ | ||
| 6 | DOUBLE SCOTCH | Twin to put lid on some whisky (6,6) |
| Double scotch — double = twin, scotch = to put lid on — perhaps the non-appearance of this term in Chambers or Collins can be excused by the need to make it rhyme with the answer to 11dn | ||
| 7 | RAID | Most of logbook picked up in police swoop (4) |
| (diar[y])rev. — diary = logbook — picked up not a homophone indicator, as often, but a reversal one | ||
| 8 | SIGN | Notice function making noise (4) |
| The function is the mathematical/trigonometrical sine; “sine” | ||
| 11 | KEEPING WATCH | What guard’s doing: not selling retirement gift? (7,5) |
| If the retirement gift is a watch, then the guard is not selling it but keeping it — rhymes with 6dn | ||
| 13 | SCHOOLWORK | Assignments making reformed crooks howl (10) |
| *(crooks howl) — not sure all schoolwork is assignments, so perhaps ‘assignments, perhaps’ would have been more accurate | ||
| 14 | SWEEPSTAKE | Chimney-cleaners draw in drawing of lots (10) |
| Sweeps take — sweeps = chimney-cleaners, take = draw in — although I can’t immediately think of a sentence where take can be replaced by draw in — I suppose it’s OK in the sense take = receive | ||
| 18 | ANKLETS | Bling: grotesque slanket (7) |
| *(slanket) — I’ve never heard of the word ‘slanket’; nor have Chambers or Collins — according to Google it’s a blanket with sleeves (2005) | ||
| 19 | PRUSSIA | Initially powerful realm; ultimately subservient state ignobly abolished! (7) |
| The first letters clue that is a feature of the Everyman crossword | ||
| 21 | SCUM | Mucky film showing Special Constable with hesitant expression (4) |
| SC um — SC = Special Constable, um = hesitant expression — not the cinematic sense of film | ||
| 22 | FAIR | Decent trade show (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
A good and clean Everyman; I particularly liked ARCS, OINK and CHARTREUSE. Thanks Everyman, and John for the blog – it’s Ok without the coloured grid