CROSSWORD

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1990 Port for the first correct solution opened on 3 February, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK solvers, the latest edition of The Chambers Dictionary – ring the word 'Dictionary'). Entries to: Crossword 1294, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.

1

2-- 1.4-

— A 5

r la

9 10 11

I

12 Tr R16 I 17 117

18

19 2 W• 122 23 24 25 26 1 27 28 29 30 31 3 U 35

E

37 D I 39 '4 0 I 1 r"

One of the unclued lights (hyphened — an apt sign for the test posed by Columba's 13 Spectator puzzle — is the model for the others. The barred-off and mutually checked letters of the unclued lights could form FRONT-RANK EVENT HINTS'LL HELP.

Name Address

ACROSS 1 Chance to cut black plastic (8) 8 Blow dry (4) 12 Home sick far further on (5) 14 Brandy from stills out of Italy and Switzerland (7) 16 Leading s-seaman? (4) 17 Simple old pagan's content 18 Not t wanting to apply spur ) 22 L (6ittle songs Astaire (tenor) rendered (8) 23 Worm, look, eaten by rat (7, hyphened) 25 Directs forecasters to cover temperature (6) 27 Tailored article, old- fashioned, worn by page (7) 29 Groundlings, followers of former PM (8) 33 Excellent — almost quiet empty highway (6) 34 Fairylike pair of wings? (5) 35 Section of millrun round mill (4) 37 Dance with innocent daughter of Byron (7) 38 What comes to jollities, wobbling: is it this? (5) 40 Pivot, half turning, and jump (4) 41 Fantastic apse and gallery without partitions (8) DOWN 1 Cutting round New Jersey, perhaps (6, hyphened) 2 Catch blame, dropping head (4) 3 Study certain lifts in training (6) 4 Barrels, with litres fermenting, are full (7) 6 Indecently jocular dog, right to stop near QC (7) 7 Scrooge takes off uphill, muffled by comforter (11) 8 Grasshoppers in waste ground (5) 10 Escort, het up, laughs (6, hyphened) 15 With embarrassment, take off cinema feature like Equus (11, two words) 19 Stewards needing time with breeds around stable (10) 20 Cat's-tail in wild state still (8) 26 Support band playing in filthy spot (7, two words) 28 Reduce pressure, breaking strike (7) 29 Tipped caper on middle of clam in stew (6) 30 A trial that's headed '50' is the most up-to-date (6) 31 Unknown quantities acquired European Union's product (6) 32 Advisers all endlessly plot (5)