Unclued entries (all real words) are not thematic unless they are augmented, in each case by a letter appearing in an appropriate place in the grid. The solutions at 6, 19, 29 and 40 are confirmed in the OED.
Across
1 Marine plant-life treated as grass by duck (8)
8 Measure lack of aspiration shown by Lisa’s dad (4)
12 Thoughtful response I agonised over (10)
13 Difficulty acting to modified rhythm (6)
14 Wretched two of clubs, discard to South, the weakest constituent of pack? (7)
18 ‘Fibre’ can be obtained from this ‘brief’ (I’m sneaky) (9, hyphened)
19 Winner here has a sequence, signalling to East (9, doubly hyphened)
20 Some believe that I’m cold-blooded (4)
21 Cat has time to hide its outsides inside (4)
29 Island captured by English armed force? (4)
32 Colonial government is beset by keen student and follower of Gandhi (9)
34 Terrorise drunken reveller (9)
37 Ham succeeded with this, somehow? (8, two words)
39 Letter to the Hebrews not changing King Henry (6)
40 Son made to swim across the Channel? He prefers video games (10)
41 Long haul about to be covered by empty truck (4)
42 Two air expulsions heard by alien, virtually tame creature (8)
Down
1 Make difficult note in melody (8)
2 Academician and student married in university? (6)
3 Beetles have these good sense organs (5)
4 They could have made errant mistake about Europe initially (14)
5 Hindu almost thoughtless in significant place (7)
6 Recipe used in appropriate activity and inappropriate activity (8)
7 American guy to record space terminology? It’s a source of baloney (14, two words)
10 Nervous lasses consistently failing to be plucky? (6)
16 Bird I see abandoning shipping hazard to soar (5)
17 Dye finally runs in copper colour (4)
22 Creative man leaves suit at back of laundry (5)
23 Was taken across oceans with a complaint (8)
26 In unusual figure of speech, ‘colonist’ receives rent (8)
28 Devil loses head in grass, a plant which thwarts his powers (7)
30 Railway going in direction that’s most perverse (6)
31 The woman lassoes steer eating a humbug (6)
33 Don’t tell me Isaac holds special such a girl? (6)
35 Cambodian King gives his title to Queen (5)
36 Where clergy may sit, among cheap seats (4)
A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 22 October. There are two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK solvers, the latest edition of The Chambers Dictionary — ring the word ‘Dictionary’). Entries to: Crossword 2083, The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP. Please allow six weeks for prize delivery.
Apologies for the errors in the grid accompanying crossword 2082. The solution at 14D should be 3 letters long, and the numbering should be adjusted accordingly. The correct version of the grid can be found at new.spectator.co.uk/issues/29-september-2012/crossword-2082-1-to-2082-by-doc
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