CROSSWORD

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 22 July, 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 1268, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL.

Three trios of unclued ight are each suggested by a section of a light clued without definition.

Name Address ACROSS 1 Cells round eyeball have . calcium and chief vitamin (12, two words) 12 Capital wage keeps heartless hired hand returning (10, two words) 14 'Time After Time' proceeding from tenor (3)

15 Salt spun and also fell (8)

18 Sweet stuff from bass strings close to stage (7) 19 Lesson in Chemical Society vaults (6) 22 Right area, left of defunct spleen (6) 24 Pollster leaves opening total in the air (5, hyphened) 27 Castle reserves held by desperate action (9) 29 Goddess in fury not once? (5) 31 US taxmen detaining wife over coppers (6) 34 Dutch relation has cows (6) 36 Shell blasted OP's site (7) 38 Man perhaps stores tare bast (5)

39 Port imports snake and monkey (8)

40 Half nets whale (3) 42 Granny hoards American bread (4) 43 Within nanoseconds one toff becomes.stubborn (12) DOWN 2 Bess dissects usual timeless reptile (10, two words) 3 'Not drinking' and 'regulars' are not connected (7, hyphened) 4 Sheepskin is in bucket (5) 5 Belonging to classy unit, GI abandons training (9) 7 With wintry air, island misses sun (5) 8 Regular trips out of Romania for trucks (4) 9 Model writes with quill about rising rodents (12, two words)

11 Suffer boring round game (8) 13 Small cutters drifting caught by

sailors in steamship (12, hyphened) 19 Humped camel's first faltering tread (6)

20 My brothers and sisters include Europeans (6)

23 What expert knows, people found in paper (9, hyphened) 25 Woman displays riches and half- crowns (8) 30 Fish eats fish (6)

32 Odds reduced at Cheltenham? (3)

35 A couple splits for Gretna Green (5) 37 Fairly weak individual goes climbing (4)

Solution to 1265: 1D

1D CLOODANCES was suggested by 3D CHOPIN (composer and high clog), giving the other unclued lights.

First prize: Hugh McGloin, London N6. Runners-up: Paul Dendy, Mold, Flintshire; G.W. Winzer, Bristol.