It wasn’t too difficult to spot this week’s theme! (as if we haven’t seen enough water this summer :-) A couple of the rivers are a little obscure but easy enough to determine from the wordplay. The clues today are fairy straightforward so there is no need for many comments from me.
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Across

1 JORDAN 

4 DELAWARE  DE LA MARE with M changed to W

10 MOSELLE  ELL in *(SOME)

11 POTOMAC  *(TOO) in CAMP reversed

12 AVON  A VON

13 ST LAWRENCE  R in *(NEWCASTLE)

16 THAMES  HAM in SET reversed

17 WELLAND  WELL AND - a river in East Anglia

20 VISTULA  IS in *(VAULT)

21 ROTHER  R OTHER - there are several rivers with this name in the UK

24 SHENANDOAH  SHE NAN DO A H

25 ELBE  hidden in ‘kiEL BErlin’

27 ORINOCO - easy after a recent Womble themed Indy

29 GARONNE  N in *(ORANGE)

30 DNIESTER  *(RESIDENT) - a river in the Ukraine

31 SEVERN  EVER in S N

Down

1 JAM TARTS  TART in JAM[e]S

2 RESTORATIVE  REST O[pe]RATIVE

3 ABLE  [t]ABLE

5 EXPIATES  EXP[atr]IATES

6 AFTER BLOOD  dd

7 ARM  A RM (Royal Marine)

8 EXCEED  EX CEED - homophone of ’seed’ (favourite)

9 LENTO  LENT O

14 NONCHALANCE  NO N A L in CHANCE

15 MEAT WAGONS  dd

18 GLADSOME  *(LAME DOGS) - from the hymn ‘Let us with gladsome mind’ (John Milton)

19 TREE FERN  REEF in TERN

22 ESMOND  *(DEMONS) - ‘attacking’ is not the most obvious anagram indicator, ‘upsetting’ might have been better

23 CARGO  CAR GO

26 ERNE  hidden in ‘wintER NEst’

28 ICI  dd - unfortunately one of the definitions is incorrect as ICI is no longer a British company. It has been taken over by AkzNobel, a multinational organisation with headquarters in the Netherlands.

The puzzle didn’t pose much difficulty. For me the bottom left corner was the last to fall.

Across

1 NICETIES  - nice,ties
5 RUSTIC  - (citrus)*
10 PENAL  - pen,a,l
11 OVERDRAWN - two def. - In the online version, there is an unnecessary space betwen the last word and the question mark. It is not a matter of style as it is not followed elsewhere in the text.
12 EXTRA TIME - (I am t exert)*
13 ROGUE  - r(og<)ue - In the online edition, I think the space between ‘wrong’ and ‘un is missing.
14 NITWIT  - nit,wit
15 RATCHET  - (chatter)* - familiar anag. fodder.
18 MATINEE  - Solved from def. I am yet to see the homophone. Help!
20 AWNING  - (-y)awning
22 GLEAM  - Solved from def. I am yet to grasp the wordplay. Help!
24 PATRIARCH - (chair part)*
25 LIBELLOUS - li(”lie”),bello(-w),u/s 
26 GENES  - (sen, e.g.)< 
27 RAREST  -R(a)R,est. - Purists may frown on one = a - In India we use ‘estd’, not ‘est’, for ‘established’.
28 VERY WELL - two def.

Down

1 NEPHEW  - ne,phew
2 CONSTRICT - con,strict
3 TILT AT WINDMILLS - cryptic def., but not so cryptic
4 EGOTIST  - (eg is OTT)*
6 UNDERSTANDINGLY - cryptic def.
7 TWANG  - two def. It is an unstated instrument that must be highly strung
8 CONCERTO - c(once)r, to - Here and in 21dn an abbreviation, a small component, is a container rather than a contained. Does this happen often in crossword clues? I don’t recall but my memory is notoriously short.
9 METEOR  - (remote)* - familiar anag. fodder
16 HINDRANCE - (dancer in h.)* - ‘after accident” is an appropriate anag. signal
17 SMUGGLER - cryptic def. - I am not carried away by this clue.
19 EMPLOY  - em,ploy - Do we come across en, the other measure in printing, as often as em?
20 ARTISTE  - (a sitter)* - nice anag. signal in ‘fluffing’
21 CHISEL  - hise, anag. of ‘he is’, in cl.
23 EMBER  - (-m)ember - Thank goodness the last months are left alone.

Across
1 WIN,NIP,E.G. - “nip”=arrest is new to me. I guess it’s a tamer version of “nab”
6 GORGON - (no grog)<
9 C[-h]AMBER
10 LOO(S)E,NED
12 SCEPTICISM - (MEP’s critics)* - r
14 GUNSMITH - cryptic def’n
16 [-c]ARGO - first of today’s old chestnuts.
18 JUD[-e],O - ref Jude the Obscure
19 NAVI,GATE - “Russian” is a somewhat presumptive indicator for Ivan.  I suspect that Mr Lendl (the tennis playing cyborg from the 1980s) would take issue.
21 FU(LL)N,ELSON - (Noel’s)*.  A wrestling “hold”, although I doubt you’d see it much in evidence at a WWE event.  Its heyday probably coincided with the World of Sport televisual era.
22 SURF - homophone of “serf”
24 S(LOV)AKI,A - Saki is the “writer” in question
26 AGEN,DA - The town of Agen seems to ring quite familiar with me, but god knows why.
27 OYSTER - hidden
28 E(VICTI)ON

Down
2 IN[-s]ANE
3 NOBODY’S FOOL - (Old boy, son of)*
4 PORT SA(I)D
5 G(OLD)EN H,AND,SHAKE - A phrase that sooooo 20th century.  In these days of executive ignominy its all about Golden Parachutes.
6 GI,OTTO - I know him more for his ability to have a space probe named after him than for his original day job.
8 OVER(SIGH)T
13 CHARGE S(HE)ET - HE= His Excellency
15 UN,US,U,ALLY - I’m a little uncomfortable with “NY organisation”=UN, but I suppose it could be argued that the “Based in…” prefix is implied.
17 SVENGALI - (evangelist)* - outer letters.  According to the media, Svengalis seem to come only in the form of pop music producers these days.
20 B[-l]EAKER  - which also happens to be the name of one of the true unsung heroes of The Muppet Show
23 RODE,O - the second half of today’s harvest of old chestnuts.

Some interesting clues this morning, and the left bottom corner gave me pause.  27d particularly troublesome.

ACROSS

1.     CORNET - (c-or-net)
4.     KEYBOARD - key board - cryptic definition. Board as in board and lodging)
9.     ANNALS  -  ( a-n-n -alsO )
10.   EAGLE EYE - (ea-glee-ye - old form of ‘you’)
12.   PASTICHE - ( *its cheap)
13.   FENDER - ( fen-<red.  Fen is a unit of Chinese currency)
15.   RUDE - homophone of ‘rued’.
16.   ASCETIC  - ( *ecstatic losing one ‘t’)   
20.   FILLIPS - ( homophone of [Prince] Philip’s.)
21.   SPAR - (sp-E-ar)
25.   RATTLE - ( rattleR - one who talks incessantly.  To rattle someone  is to cause upset.)
26.   INSIGNIA - ( *signs in-i(NDIA)
28.   FINE TUNE - (cryptic def.)
29.   VIKING - (vi(P)-king )
30.   RECORDER - ( re-c-order)
31.   DIDDLE (dd. - to diddle is to toy with something,or to cheat )

DOWN

1.     CLAPPERS - (c-l-appers)
2.     RINGSIDE - (* desiring)
3.     ECLAIR - (Claire with e moved to beginning)
5      ELAN - ( even letters of ‘deb learns’)
6.     BULLETIN (bull-e-tin - a release as in ‘press release’.)
7.     AMENDS - (amen-d-s)
8.     DREARY- ( d-rear-y)
11.   WHISTLE ( whist <el - not the wolf kind, obviously)
14.   SERPENT -(,ser-pen-t - tres - French for very, around ‘pen’)
17.   VIOLATOR - (viol-<rota - Don Giovanni, the infamous rake.)
18.   OPEN MIND- cryptic def.)
19.   TRIANGLE - ( * faltering without ‘f.  I quite liked this alliterative clue)
22.   PREFER - (p-ref-<re - to favour something)
23.   ETHNIC -( eth-n-icS)
24.   BIKINI( (bikinG-i)
27.  ONCE- (on ice minus I- Thanks to Geoff for this answer.

The Weekend Prize Puzzle from 13 September 2008
It must be obvious that I am fairly good at FT puzzles but I am not a particularly fast solver. It does happen once in a while but it is rare that I sit down and dash one off in 15 or 20 minutes. This puzzle was one of those however. It gives me some good satisfaction when I manage it….but then what do I do for the rest of the weekend??

Across
1. SHELDUCKS - HELD (captive) in SUCKS (uses straw)
6. COWED - WE (we) in COD (fish)
9. SWANSON - SWAN SON[g]
10. BYE-BYES - YE (you) in BB + YES (okay)
11. LOIRE - I (island) in LORE (learning)
12. INCOMPOSE - INCOM[e] (revenue curtailed) + POSE (in a way)
14. CON - double definition
15. SPECULATORS - anagram of COUPLES RATS
17. ALDERMASTON - ALDER (tree) + MAST (nuts) + ON (on)
19. COL - double definition
20. MANICHEAN - MANIC (crazy) + HE (he) + AN (an)
22. TONGA - hidden word
24. ELSANTA - EL (the Spanish) + SANTA (visitor at Christmas). Elsanta is a variety of strawberry.
26. NERVOUS - anagram of OVER in N (north) + US (American)
27. SKYPE - SKY (satellite TV) + P[rogramm]E
28. SMELL A RAT - anagram of ALARM LETS

Down
1. SISAL - IS (is) in SAL (girl)
2. ELATION - [r]ELATION
3. DISPENSER - DI (police officer) + SPENSER (poet). I like this kind of clue.
4. CONSIDERATE - anagram of DESECRATION
5. SUB - double definition
6. CREAM - E (energy) in CRAM (athlete). Refers to Steve Cram.
7. WAY TO GO - double/cryptic definition
8. DISPERSAL - anagram of LESS RAPID
13. COUNTENANCE - double definition
14. CHARMLESS - C[onservation] + HARMLESS (safe)
16. AU NATUREL - cryptic definition. A beauty!
18. DYNASTY - DY (missing a day) + NASTY (unpleasant). Missing a day, huh?
19. CONTOUR - C[artographers) + ON TOUR (going from place to place)
21. CANOE - anagram of OCEAN
23. ASSET - AS (since) + SET (fixed)
25. ADS - hidden word