CROSSWORD
A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 26 February, 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 1247, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.
The unclued lights (two doubly hyphened, one of two words) are versions of an octet suggested, indirectly, by two others clued with- out definitions. Ignore two accents.
Name Address ACROSS 1 Trifle gives PM awful acne (8) 9 US pointsman, one to sack, ploughed oral at centre (10) 16 Red leader swallows dope and spirit (6) 17 Skin one type of raccoon (5) 18 Cleric with no head for crime
(5)
20 Jack with mournful cries lives no life (7) 24 Naafi cutlery? (7) 25 Builder operating at back of French farm (5) 26 Rewords acknowledgements, omitting Councillor (5) 28 See Tory embroiled in secret doctrine (7) 31 Assemble committee by tall building (7) 33 Stole star cluster worn by artist
38 El(7 i tract ract the others overheard (5) 39 TV series shows mist swirling
round short ghat (6) 40 Shoot from slim pistol (3) 42 Ordain Delaware Amerind (6) 43 Quirky regal Gentile cuts grotesque figure (8) DOWN 2 Prodigious painter missing Italy 3 Hail il embracing bishop, one to succeed (6) 6 Metal skull a little uncomfy for normal head (7) 7 Minister ordered sitrep (6) 8 Poet with no yen for nosh (4) 10 Prepare herb (medical measure) (6) 11 Done badly, with faults (9) 12 Roaming toughs tease in residential area (13, two words) 13 Rocky height hiding nymph and sporting Spaniard (8) 15 Aquatic soldier advanced near Northern river (7) 19 Kitchen item left in savoury cut of meat (9, two words) 21 Regional line from island with steep deficit (8) 23 Buries cat (black) being outside
(7)
27 Draw out poem's point (7) 29 Tanner and bob needed to see prismatic spectacle (6) 30 Male clown (6) 32 Money due piling up (6) 34 Fate of logic circuit — almost down (5) 36 Discharge overturned gaol sentence (4)
Solution to 1244: Rank and file
The unclued lights, like the title, were CHESS TERMS.
First prize: M.J. Puttick, South Norwood, London SE25. Runners- up: P. Crook, Uehlen, Luxembourg; Mrs M. Purdie, Cupar, Fife.
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