No 12695, Saturday 03 Aug 2019, Avtaar

Across

1. Uncovered formula for synthetic gold leaf (6) ORMULO {fORMULa}{fOr}
5. Brass, though rejected, has value (8) TEMERITY {YET<=} around {MERIT}
9. Team of construction workers in Chicago called about a dog in trouble (4,4) ROAD GANG {RANG} around {A+DOG*}
10. Nothing was first refused (6) NILLED {NIL}{LED}
11. Square, say, two plus three hundred and eight, initially, and then add twenty (4,3,5) EVEN THE SCORE {EVEN}{Three}{Hundred}{Eight}{SCORE}
13. Rose oil of the Turks and Omanis, originally (4) OTTO (Acrostic)
14. Veterans not starting to show affection (3,5) OLD HANDS {hOLD hANDS}
17. Stay after lunchtime, say, chewing a bite of paan (8) POSTPONE {POST{Paan} ONE}
18. Bank lingo (4) CANT (DD)
20. Imperial dictator poisoned Asuras with a drop of lime juice (6,6) JULIUS CAESAR {ASURAS+Lime+JUICE*}
23. Concern about Fellow cutting a tree (6) AFFAIR {A}{F{{A}{F}<=}IR}
24. Back off, look to the left and drive around villa's rear (4,4) KEEP AWAY {PEEK<=}{villA}{WAY}
25. Reserve rickety UFO ride before starting for roller-coaster (8) FROIDEUR {UFO+RIDE*}{Roller-coaster}
26. Transport van's boot is from a Pacific island (6) TONGAN {TONGA}{vaN}

Down

2. Coach distributes drink for revelry (4) RIOT ? (Addendum - chaRIOT - See comments)
3. Edmond freaks (3,3,3) ODD MEN OUT {EDMOND*} Reverse Anagram
4. Practices what takes place on 07/04? (6) USAGES {US}{AGES} July 4 is US's birthday
5. One who has perfect work-life balance? (9,6)  TIGHTROPE WALKER (CD)
6. One always takes away from these exceptional restaurants – salami, ham, tiramisu, wine, mutton and chicken legs (8) MINUENDS {restaurantS+salamI+haM+tiramisU+winE+muttoN+chickeN*}
7. Antique bar demolished in Germany, perhaps? (5) RELIC {REpubLIC}
8. Explosive clothes – cool and wild – for Louis XI, say (3,7) THE PRUDENT {T{HE P}{RUDE}NT}
12. Reform of drop-outs is strongly defended (5,2,3) STOOD UP FOR {OF+DROP+OUTS*}
15. Get to know a tempestuous cine star (9) ASCERTAIN {A}{CINE+STAR*}
16. Husband's trick shot to start a game (8) CONSERVE {CON}{SERVE}
19. Condition, in short, to get into Australian team's first side (6) ASPECT {Australian}{SPEC}{Team}
21. One Arab volunteer is killed, backing a resident of a Middle Eastern country (5) IRAQI {I}{QAtaRI}<=
22. A perfectly turned out savoury in Barcelona (4) TAPA {A}{PAT}<=

Reference List

Lunchtime=One, Fellow=F, Explosive=TNT, One=I, Volunteer=TA

Colour/Font Scheme

Definition, Solution, Component letters, Embedded links, Theme word,  Anagram Indicator, C/C indicator, Reversal Indicator, Hidden word Indicator, Letter Pick indicator, Deletion Indicator, Homophone Indicator, Movement Indicator, Positional Indicator, Substitution, Indicator, Link/Connector, Extraneous

GRID