Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle May 2023

 Coronation by Chalicea

PDF version

An extra letter in addition to those belonging to the entry is produced by the wordplay of every clue. These, read in order, give an instruction.

Across

1 Oddly sick son heartlessly eats cakes (6)

5 Possessing material wealth, hawks dubious means of transport in Asia (8)

12 Be informed of backward article covering international rupture (6)

13 Dismiss a cross journalist (3)

14 Not in the past a single gas (4)

15 Skill with independent musical symbols in newspaper items (8)

17 Minute organisms in dubious plonk at inn - a no-no - I must leave! (13)

18 Smallest number of iron women remain (6)

20 Important church place for coining sterling (7)

21 Reconstructed my so retro toilet facility (8, 2 words)

26 Freakishly haul off leader of team, No 10 (3-4)

28 Highly significant long poem about old Shakespearean prince (7)

29 Press Association treat to now and then have mostly Indian bread (7)

30 Removes impurities from engine of Balmoral's river vehicle with British standards (7)

33 The jazz fan from time to time really aiming at producing dramatic effects (8)

36 With limitless clout compact becomes increasingly obtrusive (7)

39 Lets son reset openings (6)

42 Conjurers performing grisliest part, hiding nothing (13)

45 Less reflected space, one area, essentially unknown, of the moon (8)

46 Sanction having much adipose tissue if restrained (4)

47 Murder racket (3)

48 Bugs endlessly infesting shrub from the east in Scottish towns (6)

49 Turned over garden; a spectacle for night-blindness (8)

50 Show curiosity after seated with no restrictions in restaurant (6)

Down

1 Wicked fellow involved in criminalness with one scam strangely ignored (6)

2 Expression of lamentation of number divided by requirement to halt (5)

3 Revolutionary central group welcoming government as a consequence (4)

4 Cuts verbal attacks (5)

5 Original sound track and Latin tune turning up in district of Venice (6)

6 Moggie with mounting mental distress for what it loves (6)

7 Seeing English uprising, scents factions (5)

8 Serfs held Bible books sacred at first (6)

9 Fruit otherwise known as beginnings of Europe's new epicureanism (5)

10 Stern laws affected ne'er-do-wells (8)

11 Drink Italian vermouth with local water (3)

16 Roughly forced into place, packed to capacity (6)

18 Anxiety about South African fellow, paying tenant in Edinburgh (5)

19 Muse of poetry regularly read in posh school (5)

22 Goat's originally tangled pelt (4)

23 Unjustly convicted Italian anarchist caught setting up sources of drugs (5)

24 Contrived act is improvised jazz singing (4)

25 About crazy woman's workbasket (5)

26 Ordinary pale centre of disc with touch of enamel finally added made iridescent (8)

27 Spreading shrub of fruitful Thailand now dead (6)

31 Dealt with endless troubles with yen for tobacco (6)

32 With bizarre Tao disregarded, annotating unusual performance of fliers (6)

34 This African antelope ate peeled root-tuber (6)

35 Ultimately the pettiest gutless lady (6)

37 Some copier advertised musical drama (5)

38 Legal transactions in document signed restricting state of poverty (5)

40 Fertiliser of North Island woody plant (5)

41 Old French measure of opening of inland sea (5)

43 Boundless scale on overturned silver aquatic plant (4)

44 Organised preaching at regular intervals (3)

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