Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 41 of my contest. If you’re new to the contest and would like to enter, please see the site FAQ on the left sidebar for instructions.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

New record! 197 solvers correctly figured out last week’s contest answer phrase, which was TYLER HINMAN, of course. Only received four incorrect entries, the two best of which were PAYNE HEANEY and TYLER HINTON. Solution at top left.

17-across (THAT’S FIVE IN A ROW) nudged solvers towards the right answer (Tyler having now won five ACPTs in succession), while 58-across gave them some wordplay to cement it: BEHEAD THE TOP TWO indicated not only the (figurative!) beheading of runners-up Trip Payne and Francis Heaney, but also what solvers had to do to the two top entries in the grid, STYLER at 1-across and THIN MAN at 7-across. Behead them (i.e., remove their first letter) and you get the contest answer phrase. Bravissimo to Tyler for winning, to three-time champ Trip for yet another finals appearance, and to Francis for his second visit to the finals.

This week’s winner, whose name was selected at random from the 197 correct entries received, is E.C. of whereabouts unknown (I only alerted E.C. today that she’d won; when I hear back I’ll update with her city/state and book choice).[UPDATE, 3/23 — the winner is Ellen C. of North Carolina. Ellen has chosen as her prize an autographed copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Spanish-English Crossword Puzzles.]

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer phrase is two words and a total of twelve letters long, and is comprised of two fill entries somewhere in the grid. The phrase answers the clue: “Sticks they brought along on the Apollo 11 mission?” E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer phrase in the subject line of your e-mail.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite, join the Google Group here:

http://groups.google.com/group/mgwcc

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.