Unclued lights are three sets of three words of a kind, along with a name which connects them all (two words). Something that this name should possess (5), which is also a thematic item, must be highlighted in the completed grid.

 

Across

1 Always bored by job, like rebellion (8)

8 Dancing girls wanting a relief (4)

12 Follow it to leave bathroom (5)

14 Going furtively out of east, moving sinuously (7)

16 A lot of Italian beer for Eva? (5)

17 Biblical land about to get bread (6)

21 Image about one mount joining several states (9, hyphened)

24 Tower’s inhabitants party with partners (6)

25 Indianan keen to embrace necessity (6)

26 At sea, use gill or scales (7)

27 Friar’s faithful daughter not a queen (9)

32 Piggy uncovered phenol obtained from lichen (5)

33 Seething with onset of awful skin blemish (5)

36 Problem children (5)

37 Little remnant of rum? Turn up little drink (12, two hyphens)

38 Cad heard somewhere in church (4)

39 Fictional detective’s forgetting line in platforms (8)

 

Down

1 Glimpse one who imitates copper (6)

2 Writer initially told to shut up (4)

4 OT figure and not recovering addicts turning up (5)

5 Fish I scraped on rocks (10)

6 Tailless Spanish fly in drinking cups (8)

7 Alarm! Pig had troubles of part of midriff (11)

8 Like gardens to be unsymmetrical (5)

9 Native American setter one put forward (9)

13 French writer with fun bird (8, hyphened)

15 Deny kneecap’s broken where there was lift-off? (11, two words)

18 Bait from Germanic settler by German city (10)

19 Caribbean country boring sailor condemns as corrupt (8)

20 Thrown maroon pot in which bird’s-nest’s found (9)

23 Trust old object to captivate an Earl (8)

28 Hebrew prophet or priest’s laugh (6)

29 Shocking to sect or groups (6)

34 Foreign clergyman is an odd fellow (4)

 

A first prize of £30 for the first correct solution opened on 10 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.

Download a printable version here.

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