Giant Crossword

Across

8 Teaching you French, I got into trouble (7)

9 A vulgar answer that profits you little (3,6)

13 Incur increasingly in the preliminary period (3-2)

14 Change myself, to take part in the finale (5)

15 Brave face the worker put on it (7)

16 Hold it against, anti-change (7)

17 Looking tired and wan, is taken off to the doctor (5)

18 Find doing something they shouldn’t and dismiss (5)

20 The animal is, though small, adroit (5)

22 The person giving orders is the clerk (6)

23 Foreigners combined in a dope ring (6)

25 Amend to “punish” (7)

27 And I notice the inside has an aromatic flavour (7)

30 “The Heat’s off” has a hard cover (6)

31 Succeed – in understanding the whole thing? (6)

32 Have ready for the hen to use as a nest (3,2)

35 It shows pressures are up and the game hasn’t started! (5)

36 Give everything back to (5)

37 He’s difficult to cope with is as much as you can grasp (7)

39 Animal Cleo and Pat trained together (7)

41 Apart from a dessert that was sent back (5)

42 Material that, alas, the alsatians chewed up (5) 43 Got out a sword, which does contribute to (2,7)

44 The better half covered for the poor worried soldier (7)

Down

1 Become hostile when you start to listen to the radio (4,2)

2 Pause at the section of the paper showing the strike (8)

3 Get into trouble when you cease to be an adherent (4,7)

4 Most popular at the box office and thoroughly U (3,6)

5 The bandit gets on to the ship as well (7)

6 Made available to every purse, no matter what the difficulty (2,3,5)

7 A look back at operatic music (4)

10 The summary is exact but incomplete (6)

11 Nothing loth, about to take on a new daily (7)

12 Is very keen to have one repair the chest (6)

19 An essay about the old that’s very sad (7)

21 The last page of the novel found on the shelf in the library (4,3)

24 Be aware of the procedure and be familiar with the questionnaire (4,3,4)

26 A bit cheeky and not very friendly (6,4)

28 To deceive Oliver would be rash (9)

29 Also aim to capture the soldiers (7)

30 Making jam from scratch (6)

32 Yearn to have a bash at, though it’s unlikely to be successful (4,4)

33 Points out the only run in the stockings (6)

34 The twenty-four hours without food will be over in no time! (4,3)

38 More suited to being a mechanic (6)

40 See it as meaning “May I have your attention” (4)