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Definitely at the harder end of the Everyman scale but enjoyable, nonetheless.

I still can't parse 7d but am pretty sure of my answer - hopefully I'll have a PDM before too long:-)

If you do get stuck, there are the usual long anagrams scattered about along with the customary initial letters and hiddens.

COD - I really liked 26a and 14d but am going with the very descriptive 18d - Covered in hair, suffused with bad smell: steady on! (4,3)

Please feel free to leave a comment and, as always, if you get stuck - don't hesitate to ask for a hint.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,
I had just composed a kickoff post, happy that you got there first!

Thanks to Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle this week.
FOI 1d, LOI 11, which took a while to figure out.
COD 4 (I'm a fan) narrowly over 20.
Also liked 3, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17 and 19d.
13 felt slightly forced, but wordplay is reasonable.
Love the word 24, which became part of my vocabulary courtesy of P. G. Wodehouse.
Usual Everyman elements: 1 rhyming pair I could notice, first letters, homophone.
The grid seems unusual; longest (2) are only 12 letters, Everyman generally has more long clues.
Difficulty: tough to rate, especially after Vlad's Prize impalement. Maybe slightly above the norm, but not unreasonable.

7 is tricky. My parsing PDM was realizing that the outer 5 letters are a synonym of "key groups".

Hi Geeker,

Thanks for the parsing of 7d - I fell into the (US) "navy seals" trap!

I know 24a from the TV series Rome when Caesar's son is playing catch with Lucius Vorenus and says he heard his father was ?????

Thanks to Everyman:-)

For a long time "finding a Nina" was my crossword Great White Whale. I finally found one a while back, but still enjoy seeking.

Couple of funny random occurrences this week: The 4th column includes a 4-letter word going both down and up, starting from row 9. The 14th column includes "NINA" going up.

I'd love to spot a NINA but, alas, no joy to date 😫

I thought this was harder than usual and I had to use a missing letters solver for 24A which told me I had the first word of 19D wrong :/

I also used a solver for 17A I just couldn't think of anything and I wanted to get to bed ;) I should have got that one though.

Apparently (per 225) Serpent in the Indy often includes Ninas, though they can be well-disguised. Last fall I finally noticed one (UK chain store names) in a weekday Nutmeg (Guardian), also one in a Serpent puzzle.

Am I being really stupid, I can't see a rhyming pair this week, you said there was one though?

Usually the rhyming pairs are in the same position when rotated through pi radians? (the best measure of angle of course).

PS: I read two of the 10-letter solutions (an across and a down) as rhyming, though it could be rather forced. They don't follow your symmetry, though.

Yeah those rhyme a bit then I guess. Most of the time they are symmetric though and usually the longest answers in the grid.

Still avoiding the Prize thread since I spent most of the day only completing the left hand side, I'll probably give in and read the thread tomorrow evening if I am still stuck.