16 OCTOBER 1999, Page 75

CROSSWORD 1435: Working party by Columba

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes Port for the first correct solution opened on 1 November, with two run- ners-up prizes of 520 (or, for UK solvers, the latest edition of The Chambers Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary'). Entries to: Cros word 1435, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.

One unclued I ght describes the others (all in Brewer . Two are suitably positioned, In that one is against, and the other's seen through, a certain item (of three words, one clued without defini- tion) discernible in the grid. Ignore a diaeresis.

Name Address ACROSS 1 Sheep drink and eat greedily (5, two words) 11 Be ignorant about most of poison in cache — bit of aconite? (10, three words) 13 Surveyor's to stop following creek (9) 15 Cold hard crop (4) 16 Dons tentatively reviewed rite observed by native (7, two words) 17 Bath (holding gallons) attached , to pipe in tower? (7) 15 Horse chestnut's dry (3) 19 Study of names Simon, a Scot, organised (10) 21 One caught by police dog (5) 24 Thoroughly game mount (4) 27 Hidden doorpost (4) 30 Poor menial, Tony by name (10) 33 Unit round king? (3) 35 Poet with crust having no date or pear (7) 37 Cleric giving up college soon (4) 38 Like silk, earnest about peripheral features of case (9) 39 Show is covered by cunning commentator (10) 40 Jerk with view about bets (7) 41 Fools tax endlessly (5) DOWN 1 E.g. hooch, nightly drunk? Electronics ace can handle it (14, two words) 2 Girl gets knight in a state (8) 3 Conference behind a bar is entertaining (6) 5 Kick out and hurt civet (5) 6 Certificate from university matters terribly (8) 7 Heath, miles off, that is dreary according to Jock (5) 8 Earth under a sallow (5) 9 Socialists, virtuous ones, on awkward mission consuming time (14, hyphened) 12 Symphony in Cairo. Egypt's capital, played (6)

20 Defender's charge sealing game (9)

22 Gods love entering into hostile folly (6) 23 Chanters interest experts (8) 25 Pulls up grub in grass (8) 26 Loud man, having day out, disturbed pheasant (6) 29 Pip starts to assist convict in novel, unsettled somewhat (6) 32 Element right inside gift (5) 34 Out of energy (5)

Solution to 1432: Shipshape

Answers to 1A, 16, 18, 21, 26 and 36 became IRON-CLAD (13), i.e. enclosed by 'Fe'. The resulting words were defined by, respectively, 37, 8, 10, 43, 28 and 14.

First prize: Robert Love, Australia. Runners-up: Mrs Janet L. Saunders Billericay; Mrs E. J Shields, Stroud.