THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
WIN €2,000
There’s an amazing €2,000 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, November 16 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, December 2. You must complete the iSpy box to enter. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter – and good luck!
Across
1 A drawing or painting of oneself (4-8) 8 Farming tool with a short handle and curved blade (6) 11 ––– Scrooge, character in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (8) 12 An extra playing card in a pack (5) 13 ––– swan, Eurasian bird with a pure white plumage and an orange-red bill with a black border (4) 14 Difficulties or hidden obstacles (5) 15 In meteorology, a measure of wind velocities on objects on land or at sea (8,5) 17 Michael –––, British Conservative deputy PM 19951997 (9) 19 Edmund –––, New Zealandborn mountaineer and explorer who reached the summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay in May 1953 (7) 23 The external covering of some fruits and seeds (4) 24 Betty –––, the Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons 1992-2000 (9) 25 A freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body (4) 26 Obliterates or makes indistinct (7) 28 1968 film for which Barbra Streisand won an Oscar, based on a stage musical in which Streisand starred on Broadway (5,4) The London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury (7,6) 34 A dirty mark or smudge (5) 36 A platform or stand on which a coffin rests before burial (4) 37 A card game for four in which the two sides try to win the balance of 13 tricks (5) 38 Occupations, hobbies or pastimes (8) 39 Not able to be moved or disturbed easily; stable (6) 40 Late-Romantic Austrian composer and conductor (6,6)
Down
2 Chris –––, British boxer who held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles in the 1990s (6) 3 Heavily scented Mediterranean plant with hairy stems and white flowers, cultivated for forage and its medicinal seeds (9) 4 A strong, aniseedflavoured spirit from Greece (4) 5 An early ragtime, one-step ballroom dance, popular in the First World War (6,4) 6 A former province of Western France, in the Loire Valley (5) 7 To employ or hire (4,2) 8 A structural rod or bar forming part of a framework, designed to resist compression (5) 9 Causing laughter, ludicrous (7) 10 The state capital of Arkansas, USA (6,4) 16 A small smooth stone rounded by the action of water (6) 18 Jawaharlal –––, the first prime minister of India (5) 20 A blue-violet hue; a spectral colour (6) 21 An advocate of the extension of the right to vote, especially to women (10) 22 The horn of plenty; a symbol of abundance (10) 25 Port in South Devon; location of Britain’s Royal Naval College (9) 27 Province of Western Canada; the capital of which is Edmonton (7) 29 ––– Forest, area of ancient woodland in Southern England, a former royal hunting ground (6) 30 Jean-Paul –––, French philosopher and writer who refused to accept the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature (6) 32 ––– owl, bird of prey with reddish-brown or grey plumage, black eyes and a round head (5) 33 In Greek mythology, a fruit that induced forgetfulness and a dreamy languor in those who ate it (5) 35 Steve –––, British athlete who set world records in the 1500m, 2000m and the mile in 1985 (4)