The unclued lights, all nouns or verb forms (one is a hyphened plural), include a common feature different in all twelve cases. Solvers are invited to indicate both possible unclued lights at 29 Down. Elsewhere, ignore two accents.

 

Across

1 Stab with a knife (5)

4 Order a gin around river (9, two words)

9 Potential difficulties from awkward Moscow and far North (10, three words)

11 Sad poem which its middle letters spell out (5)

12 Move forward and notice vehicle by church (7)

14 Corn produced by monarch reigning from 1714 (5)

15 Honda car going back and forth in town? (5)

21 Obscure eyepiece – artist’s enthralled (8)

22 A foreign article in ostler’s armoury (7)

24 It’s extracted from inside double decker (4)

25 The current power of a philologist (4)

27 Odd title or poem (7)

28 Experts organised our visit (8)

34 Delays old spies and wassailers (5)

35 Some gain an exemption that’s ludicrous (5)

37 New legal journalist brought forward in court (7)

38 Best buddies regularly skipped study (5)

39 Used the sieve again, showing reserve (10)

40 Dines out with lady, showing greed or lust? (9, two words)

41 Roll out the red carpet and burst into tears (5)

 

Down

1 Do yield to revision of wage levies into weekly income (13, three words)

5 Half of infidels rising in former Spanish province in Morocco (4)

6 Travel on Thursday with expert skirting old capital (7)

7 Have not gone out, keeping active forcefully (5)

8 Severely cut back tea, after the start of this month (8)

10 Warning of threat from mislaid Cyprus-US air-letter (13, two words)

13 Pop-star Lewis on road with boy (7)

19 Moth found in Threadneedle Street (7, two words)

23 Mollusc a luvvie injured around noon (8)

26 Well! Conurbation enrols earl in club (7)

32 Avenger’s horse (5)

36 Nutritional fruit with regular doses of saccharin (4)

 

A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 4 January. 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. Apologies that there may be a delay in sending out prizes at present.

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