Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle April 2023

 RR XV – Over Capacity 

Answers that are too long for the space allocated must have a letter moved to the top or bottom of the column where the letter would have been – letters in the top half to the top and letters in the bottom half to the bottom. Ambiguities must be determined by making sense from the moved letters, and will be confirmed by the final grid where all entries are in Chambers. The information at the top and bottom of the grid should enable solvers to replace four entries with thematic ones – a quite specific phrase using three of the entries, and a more general phrase for the other, which completes the symmetry. Entry lengths are shown.
The Chambers 13^th edition is the primary reference.

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Across

  1 Prized assets start to show with bikini hiding nothing! (6)

  5 Tax copper’s uncle? (6)

  9 Defender in tears, so devastated by Ronaldo's header (8)

12 Yankee herdsman kicked trainee around deserted location in Africa (5)

13 These sources of compounds generally used in surgical treatment? (6)

14 Going off this domain name - it leads to crashing terminal (4)

15 A hush going round gathering before head of state is about to come out (7, 2 words)

16 Crew nearly sink vessel (5)

17 Military operation that is stuck in empty staging base (5)

18 Seal gets in trouble (6)

20 In hex 171 √2 for example is irrational (6)

22 One wearing tartan (though topless!) played pipes (6)

24 Will's wounded listeners in heartless plot (6)

27 Ornament found in handmade coronet (5)

30 Native American returning loveless from an Indonesian island (5)

32 Nancy's pain is tender after voiding trapped wind (7)

33 Compound partially behind Olympiad (4)

34 She's close, about to break this code! (6)

35 Friend of the French compounds the result (5)

36 One can drive off after sappers hide earth removed initially (8)

37 Fish consumed away from water, mostly fine (6)

38 Met with this author offering easy terms (6)

 

Down

  1 A sign he's missing in dictionary (6)

  2 Occasionally ABBA is ok beat group (5)

  3 Fitting without Eastern European (6)

  4 Beast is gripped by impetus to attack (5)

  5 Bank transferring it to Norway is significant (5)

  6 Numbers concerning admitted respected Russian (6)

  7 What could be a line between twisty banks of the Wenning - the middle drawn out (5)

  8 Messi rarely did at either end (6)

10 One fronting revue, out touring with aspiring theatre group? (6)

11 Trimmed moss and vetch around island grasses (6)

19 Make edits after hot writes (6)

21 Insect entertains in a round hat (6)

22 Plastered yesterday? That was me, Archie admitted (6)

23 Going around dropping trousers the very thing upright Conservative means to end (6)

25 Greedily demanding female on the rise, lady with no heart (6)

26 Handles rows about little lies at the beginning (6)

28 He's pursuing Special Edition––has drinking sprees? (5)

29 Take a series of tests for spots (5)

30 They’ll clear canal? Yes Dutch pals around (5)

31 More prying, probing Barrymore, is only being rebuffed (5) 

Entries

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format giving the final entries to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8^th May 2023. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

 

Voting

You may vote for your favourite clue with your entry. You can just nominate one clue, which will be awarded 3 points, or your top three which will be awarded 3, 2 and 1 points. The person whose clue accumulates the most points will receive a prize, which also has been donated by the Crossword Centre.

 

Clues by…

…Anax, Tim Anderson, Avtaar, David Beamish, Rod Beards, Rod Bell, Chalicea, Dee Evetts, Simon Griew, Derek Harrison, Hawk, Seerat Hazir, Hedge-sparrow, Nick Loader, Ken MacKenzie, Kevin McDermid, Satyen Nabar, Nebuchadnezzar, John Nolan, Charlie Oakley, Mark Oshin, Juliet Parkinson, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Phylax, Plumbwizard, Dafydd Price Jones, Nic Pursey, Sowmya Ram, Virish Ratnakar, Rebus, Jeffrey Robinson, Simon Shaw, Ian Simpson, Nick Smith, Robert Teuton, David Thompson, Jamie Thunder, Adam Vellender, Vismut, George Walker, Luciano Ward, and Keith Williams.