From the magazine

2714: 81 lives

Fire
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 02 August 2025
issue 02 August 2025

Unclued lights feature in the same entry in Brewer.

Across

1    Worked at jobs making decorations for shirts (6)

7    Inkpad destroyed in crime (6)

12    I bite idly, puzzled whether or not something could be food (9)

13    Decorative form returns in piccolo voluntary (5)

16    Gauge very low returns internally (6)

20    Tax collectors dig over unfenced allotment (7)

21    Excess of bright lipstick, on reflection (6)

22    Taxes received for American banks (6)

26    Announced food measure (4)

29    Go and act! (4)

32    Mother icing a confection performs wonders (8)

34    Bowler perhaps back in, I could make spread (6)

35    Could be Rochester Cathedral’s central draw-back (6)

39    Short debate is an event (6)

42    In state, 11 worried probationers (9)

43    A teen could be taken in (5)

45    That woman chopped seaweed for money (6)

46    Go back on green (6)

Down

2    One takes on a party exercise with US medical department (7)

3    I’d be silly to wait (4)

5    Accentless Belgian subject (8)

6    Hera then Aphrodite protecting one of their own (6)

8    Fragment of moon found on deserted tundra (4)

9    Northern Japanese sash radiant with touch of yellow for upper classes (8)

10    Later, unusually wide-awake (5)

11    Muse is oddly happy with alimony arrangement (10)

14    Holy Church returning French milk and salt (9)

17    Climb a trail (6)

18    Pursue Grant and Charles eastwards (4,5)

19    Empty compliments for puddings (10)

23    Earth turned over in Home Counties march (6)

25    For instance, good, snowy meringue requirement (3,5)

26    ‘Precisely! My amphibian’, Lee announced (8)

30    Money in West End’s first afternoon performance (7)

31    Casually sauntered, having lost a tense client (3,4)

33    Radical film by unknown divides a Conservative from Liberal (6)

38    Thread raised in chenille (4)

40    Sweet and sharp without hint of aftertaste (4)

41    Quite right to organise (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  18 August. 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 2714, The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP.

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