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40a ; "Massage joint, ignoring back, using hand evenly" (5)
I have ?T?AD. I think of "stand back" as possibly meaning ignoring. This leaves stand as the solution but I would welcome confirmation or help.

Knead, massage. It's Kne(e), joint (ignoring the back/last letter) and the alternate letters of 'hand', AD.

Thanks Malone - good to know that you are still there. The speccie gets few appearances these days in the Help Forum . The Answerbank is more popular.

Glad I could help, Truron. I think the Spectator puzzles are not quite as tricky as they used to be, nor quite as satisfying as they used to be (those might be connected!).