Across
1 Workforce now striking discontentedly (6, 4, 7)
11 Tries my uninhibited support for this way of promoting
ability (5, 6)
12 Heads agree to do less exam supervision initially (7)
13/16 Failed blue war on Oxford college threat (3, 6, 3, 6)
16 (see 13)
17 House plot could be found in a field (3)
18 Dubious señor at the centre of Gunpowder Plot (7)
19 Lengthy association between Chaney and contemporary
film actress (7)
22 Found in the mud at Newlyn, perhaps (5)
23 Itinerant Bond villain gets 60 per cent of the capital (3-6)
26 Buried in Westminster Abbey for rather a long time (3)
27 Minutes not a measure! (3)
29 I lure thee into Shelley’s band of freethinkers (9)
30 She has bad back following round of golf (5)
32 (see 25d)
34 (see 25d)
36 Annie from Oklahoma is in trouble (3)
38 Fail to keep track of lone scout’s wanderings (4, 5)
40 Hope to finish most of crossword? It’s really a
two-handed job (9)
42 Parisian on Brazilian coin! – very strange indeed (7)
43 When judge’s asides cited I abort the proceedings (6, 5)
46 Why turn on EH – cuts or otherwise? (3, 4, 3, 7)
Down
1 Scaly animal retreats right at the last (7)
2 After a pointless war gets a stripe (3)
3 Exceptionally one is not a party to weird ritual (5)
4 Unfriendly departure of the West from policy (3)
5 Types of insect not introduced to river at beginning
of the season (7)
6 This novel is mine own creation to savour (5, 2, 4)
7 Part of 13 (or 16) used in authentic reconstruction (7)
8 One’s departed from this country for another (5)
9 Set to catch light it causes 24 (9)
10 He led rats away (4)
14 Take away woman to lie down (5)
15/21 Be quite sick after getting no backing – last place
again! (3, 4, 5)
18 Paint is available only for a limited time period (7)
20 Howard’s place is not actually lived in – it has poor
motorway connections (7)
21 (see 15)
22 Happy, perhaps, to be involved in battlefield warfare (5)
24 Reports to doctor on antidotes (11)
25/32a/34a This country – an attacker, not a defender
(7, 7, 3, 4)
28 Tool used to make attack on prison officer (9)
31 Glamourised view of peculiar Mexican friend (5)
33 Letter from “M” read top to bottom (6-1)
35 Crouch-like characteristic is difficult to attain (7)
37 Bank of England association with Turin football club (3, 4)
38 Harken to this associate of Brahms (4)
39 Belief is partly credible again (5)
41 Handouts not taken off holy man from 8 (5)
44 Sweet chestnut stuffing and all the trimmings (3)
45 Many lived out of 27 (3)
Five solutions are of a kind. Their clues do not contain a definition, but may hint at context. Respective word-length indicators ignore any
punctuation.
The first correct entry out of a hat will win the world’s best reading light, worth £229.99. Entries to:
Christmas Crossword,
New Statesman, 52 Grosvenor
Gardens, London SW1W 0AU
by first post Thursday 3 January 2008.
The winner’s name and the solution will be published in our issue of 14 January. www.seriousreaders.com