With 5 exceptions, across answers require a single misprint to form the entry. By deduction, solvers will be able to work out from where (6) and when (8) I am filing this.
ACROSS
1 Get beaten by this very narrow margin? (7)
5 Genuine Reform of the Century (4)
7 I ask you to express your desires (4)
8 Even Billy Bunter had to assume this (7)
9 A greeting from Cortes, returning one from the Sandwich Islands? (5)
10 Not a nice place to be - spades, when void in spades (5)
12 Range of marine wrongdoing, you might say (6)
14 Hit back finally, with incompetence (4)
16 Creature who's cruel to raven (4)
18 Empty vehicle cannot offer a straight line (6)
20 Fruit that's mortal and all but immortal (5)
21 Took no horses for a drive in LA? (5)
22 Enormous lavatory found in Italian digs? (5)
24 Hide a shield (5)
27 Bet you anything nobody knows Edward Elgar's overtures (6)
28 South African animals may defecate here, according to rumour? (4)
29 Assistant Constable, perhaps, who's in the armed forces (4)
31 Heroine from fiction covered in project (6)
33 I'm dying to collect new type of music (5)
35 Crow, perhaps … not chicken! (5)
38 What's wrong with 'oof that's upset? (7)
39 West includes king in shuffle (4)
40 Girl Brian welcomes back for bikini wax? (4)
41 Material for dressing pastry after tea (7)
DOWN
2 Periodical hard exam (5)
3 Stretchy elastic not tense in mower (7)
4 Poet loses head climbing mountain (4)
5 The Spanish sheep's tangled hair (7)
6 Shore settled in bay, perhaps (5)
11 With eighth part of 'Millionaire' I have to give up (5)
13 I spy (nearly) the end of Senna - here? (5)
15 Fast? Not fast (5)
17 Fret for obscure financial institution (3,4)
19 What's chewed by coves with teraph and matzos, but not at Passover?
(7)
23 Where it never rains on a ladder-like structure (5)
25 Some cared little about Spanish accent (5)
26 Like (not love) to follow British boy (5)
30 'Ow they say the Cockney cannibal's wife went for a little song? (7)
32 Smith: a former Scottish striker (7)
34 Campbell's reflex self-description? (5)
36 She's got a pair of kings hidden by a seven (5)
37 Real footballer's wife: short model, hot (4)
To enter the competition send your solution , in list format, to me at derek@crosswordcentre.fsnet.co.uk before the 1st January 2007. The first correct entry picked will win a copy of Chambers Crossword Completer which has been donated by the publishers.