Cryptic 1372

[stevenj]

Hello
I hope you have all been having the weather we had today. Warm(ash) and sunny. His Nibs and I went to the park and then to the woods. It's been wonderful. I am so lucky, aren't I?
Three queries on the crossie please.
43d Victory secured by leader , a terrible old Irish statesman . I guess the answer is deValera and that fits the Irish statesman bit. but I can't work out why.
48ac Inspired by crude matter , newspaper producing four letter word. "tetragram" fits and that's a four letter word. But the rest?
27d Putting down sheets , fifty certainly sound "Layering" fits and L takes care of the 50 but....
As always I'd be very glad for a tutorial.
steven

[Toorak]

43 v(ictory) & leader anagrammed

[pixie374]

V(ictory) mixed with leader a

[mallyh]

aye sounds like aye aye (naval) ring = sound

[pixie374]

Anag of matter and rag (newspaper)

[Toorak]

48 anagram of matter around rag

[aelmpvw]

43d anagram of v a leader

[Toorak]

Leader a anagrammed

[stevenj]

As always. When you explain, I wonder how I missed the reasoning. But I did.
Thank you all very much indeed.
And did you all enjoy the weather?
steven

[pixie374]

It has been lovely today, and seems to be for the rest of next week. Dog-walking is more and more enjoyable :-). Hope you had a good weekend x