28 OCTOBER 1995, Page 61

CROSSWORD 1233: Ward off by Doc

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 13 November, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK solvers, the latest edition of The Chambers Dictionary – ring the word 'Dictionary'). Entries to: Crossword 1233, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.

Four of the unclued lights are thematic and a fifth can be denti- fied right away. Three other unclued lights, more specifical y the- matic, make 13.

Name Address ACROSS

1 US plant with gold leaf-stalk by lawn (12, hyphened)

10 Ox-fly lost tail (4) 12 Film vaguer about expelling worms (10) 14 Three points for existence (3) 15 Drink around barren mount in South Africa (8, two words) 17 Decree that is politically thoroughgoing included (5) 19 Mount dances around (6) 22 Poles live in vehicles (6) 24 Measure and record heights round Academy (5) 27 Large cat swallowed one with elegant marking (9) 29 Limitless — very much ! (5, two words) 34 Followers once witness crush we're told (6)

38 Out of print Times for Carmen, for instance (5) 40 Donkey devoured by cassowary (3)

41 Old Protestant has tract about Levi losing heart over Queen (10) 42 Some hinder him backing her German (4) 43 Unwanted state of landmark (southern headland) (12) DOWN 2 Amusement about showy hat (10) 4 Removes endless stress (5) 5 Coupling for wagon with tea in (9, hyphened) 7 Apply for some French kidskin

(5)

9 Only get a harp out to make music (12, three words) 11 Bindweed from black slope rising by edge of Exmoor (8) 16 Exercise sheep, as we say (3)

19 On which one travelled, it's said, south? (6, hyphened)

20 Rejection affected Ireland with- out right (6) 21 Be wrong about sore remark (10, two words) 23 Silicate of uranium chaps found in China (9) 25 Does he have — and she, maybe — drug? (8) 28 Intervenes when the flight's through (7, two words) 30 Hazard nearly half reflected epic (6) 32 Upturned barrel almost never contains it! (3) 33 A girl — she's German and is after the Spanish! (5) 35 Birds in the wilderness (5) 37 Had a fag without SM having approved (4)

Solution to 1230: Man to man

The unclucd lights were words com- posed of pairs of men's names.

First prize: John Larcombe, Kettering, Northants. Runners-up: Mrs Camilla Fairbairn, Cuckfield, West Sussex; C. W. Hastings, Abingdon, Oxon.