BARE BONES

Our Bare Bones Crossword is unique because you have to complete the grid – numbers and squares – as well. We have inserted four black squares and four clue numbers to get you going. The crossword has a four-way symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away. There is a prize of a Collins Pocket Thesaurus. Send your solution to: Bare Bones Puzzle No.561, The Irish Mail on Sunday, PO Box 5332, Cardiff Lane, Dublin 2. Entries must arrive by Friday (photocopies not accepted). The winner of Bare Bones No.560 is Mary Verdon, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Across

7 Quantity found in honesty 8 Dashing to force everything on worker 10 Silver on a cooking range 11 Singer gets rows of small flags 12 Tavern left to sort out his issue 13 He guides you and me to that woman 14 Point to copper and journalist overturning tennis score 19 Expert trains reps to do well 20 Caring about hiding his initial embarrassment 21 Accurate about a mongrel 22 More gut damage for bon vivant 23 Feel kind about a large deer

Down

1 Group of campaigners in the foyer 2 Notice turns performed on playing field (Two words) 3 Travelling girls not registered to old Irish county 4 Delighted to be a friend of Snow White 5 Accept a grim excursion on fabled conveyance (Two words) 6 Hidden store of money, we hear 8 Domesticated cavy, a subject for experimentation (Two words) 9 Sailor follows list to get sodium chloride (Two words) 15 Tiny bit of a small kiss 16 Swimmer gets a new tutor 17 Rascal to swindle head of personnel 18 Benefit, having new boa, say