43 (two words) created 1A (four words) and 3 10 14 (seven words). The latter inspired 17 30, whose work introduced the
egregious 18. Elsewhere, ignore one accent.
Across
9 The first three letters of ‘skunk’ (4)
11 Duke ordering wild heroics (9, hyphened)
12 Beat wife and cover up (4)
15 Mark has no time for heart drug (5)
16 Satan, not dead, is this (4)
20 Something greasy my big cat’s brought back (7, two words)
21 One entitled to insist on touring boundaries of estate (7)
24 Engineers extra base for one railing (7)
25 Pity quiet soul (5)
26 One boring gold plate returned (5)
27 Element of stupid-sounding trick (7)
31 Green Knight painting rejected? The opposite (7, two words)
34 A restart of game Neil suggested (7, hyphened)
37 Leap from plane tree to the rear (4)
38 Engine finally cut in dock (5)
39 Darling Dad has the sulks (6)
40 Loss of life as head breaks off island (4)
41 Females sadly putting on two pounds are embarrassed (9, two words)
42 Stars ignoring two unknowns for special performance (4)
Down
1 Commonly warms food and swallows it all (6, two words)
2 Statesman pale under the moon (5)
4 Long for wild party at college (5)
5 Lorry left, dropping paper item (7)
6 Grass in good shape? (6)
7 One making changes replaces diet with alternative (6)
8 Smothers lover – little energy is involved (8)
13 Keep going forward, holding girl close (7)
19 Virginia’s shoe? (7)
22 Deer runs into patrol (7)
23 Alpinist suffering spiralling fall (8)
28 One new period of instruction succeeded explicitly (7, two words)
29 Hoping for good result in half-moon spectacles (6, two words)
32 Fine to leave untidy roomful of gilt ware (6)
33 Excellent old Italian has no love for pilot (6)
35 Fasten components up (5)
36 Titan finally losing footing (5)
A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 28 March. There are two runners-up prizes of £20. Please scan or photograph entries and email them (including the crossword number in the subject field) to crosswords@spectator.co.uk – the dictionary prize is not available. We will accept postal entries again at some point.
Download a printable version here.
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