2659: Splitting the atom

The twelve unclued lights comprise six symmetrically placed ‘split atoms’.

Across

5    Fruit devastation, not the first linked to difficulties (8)

10    Disregard Italian bloke, shunning introduction (6)

11    Adherent of government line disheartened only celebs (8)

12    Tea offered by curt Cromwellian? (4)

14    White metal club 37 holds (6)

18    Cunning son, extremely lazy (3)

20    Earlier, chilled poodle played around sports field? (9)

21    Imagined force in heroic exploit (7)

24    Area in county gripped by Sunak’s vision (8) 

28    Prince overlooked checks, lacking means to absorb shock (8)

31    Domineer over male, pressure to go in front? (7)

35    One shortens naughty poem about sex first (9)

37    In the style of Maclean, off and on (1,2)

40    Selection from bronze/brass animals (6)

41    Dry wit is key (4)

42    Praise foreign letter that is circulating about university record (8)

43    Satisfy petitions to escape from trap (6)

44    Cup-bearer from Classics Faculty mostly inspires illicit drinking establishments (8)

Down

1    Sent out of hotel, drank very little (6)

2    Clinton’s VP securing a marketplace once (6)

3    Disguised officer beset by vacuous infighting (5)

4    Destroys shelled base, stopping before sierra (6)

6    Simultaneously discharges drunken volleys (7)

7    Challenge exhausted clubs following exchange (4,3)

9    Magical beginning absorbs daughter, you and me (8)

15    What could make one leak in pubs, possibly? (5-3)

16    Rascal Ortega punished (6)

19    Endless tirades spun about police force measure through (8)

23    Hate I spread with gusto mainly renders godless (8)

24    Masses of work secured by football legend (6)

27    Charge to keep soldiers in field of action (7)

29    Tool for fixing invalid regularly held up by collapsed lung (4,3)

32    Article about bribe is incendiary stuff (6)

33    Hairy tramp finally expelled from Settle (6)

34    Smacked child pinches sister on and off (6)

36    Complete Plato treatise wraps up (5)

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