The unclued lights can be arranged to grow from 3 to 11 letters in length, each being an anagram of its predecessor and an extra letter.
Across
7 Equipment for Bell, Athey and Trescothick initially (3)
13 Male folk star’s alarming words (7)
15 Pipe valley running through Britain (5)
16 Reportedly remained stolid (5)
17 Middle of emails edited (6)
18 Nameless President has time on the loo (5)
20 Brainboxes managed to infiltrate spy agency (6)
21 Thorpe, terrified somewhat of safe-cracker (5)
22 Doddery, maybe, when dancing in Aviemore? (7)
29 Hanging back in disarray (5)
30 English earl touring alps negotiated pass (6)
32 Blood carrier, a kind heading off on ambulance initially (5)
34 The North Star gets cut in form of cant or slang (6)
36 Blemish beautiful cereals boxes (5)
38 African who gets the stick, having rushed around (7)
39 Area occupied by some flustered foreigners (6)
41 She played Amy for Sam in 1971 with Sarandon and Clooney (5,6)
Down
1 Collapsed mine with folly marks final tribute (2,8)
4 Tracing sleep maybe, and where to find it? (7,5)
5 Fundamentalist army replace subhuman’s head with time (7)
6 Second passenger aircraft making a lot of noise (8)
7 Born to make fun of drug incentive (5)
9 Latin law primarily explaining Middle Eastern linguistic unit (6)
10 Elementary book academy faithfully reproduced (5)
12 Chinwag with Blue. I left (6)
14 Random advice doled out for PM (5,7)
21 Priest’s crime taking time in clerical residence (9)
23 Fifty folk with a wage are beginners (8)
24 Pirate state with a Durer composition (8)
25 Amateur in neckwear raised uproar (6)
26 The Navy’s firmest supporters (3,4)
28 Attack the entranceway? (6)
31 Animal making dash, getting trapped ultimately (5)
33 Musicians content to leave Egypt after 31 days (5)
35 Pinochet drops pint here? (4)
Download a printable version here.
A first prize of £30 and two runners-up prizes of £20 for the first correct solutions opened on 27 October. Please scan or photograph entries and email them (including the crossword number in the subject field) to crosswords@spectator.co.uk, or post to: Crossword 2724, The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP. Please allow six weeks for prize delivery.
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