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, March 2 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, March 18. You must complete the iSpy box to enter. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter – and good luck!

Across

11 Drink consisting of espresso coffee diluted with hot water (9)

12 To respond excessively

to something (9)

13 Tall grasses with hollow stalks, growing in swamps and shallow water (5)

14 A general pardon, especially for offences against a government (7) 15 A city in northern Italy; the

capital of Lombardy (5)

16 Plant with purplish flowers and forked roots, formerly thought to have magic powers (8)

18 Economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange (10)

22 The tactics, strategy and

skill of a boxer (9)

24 A port in New Zealand’s South Island founded by Scottish settlers (7)

27 In sport, item displayed by a referee to indicate that a player has been sent off (3,4)

28 In New Zealand Maori culture, a tribal chief and hereditary leader (9)

30 The undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion 1970-73 (3,7) 32 and 26 Down Jane Austen novel featuring Elizabeth Bennet and

Mr Darcy (5,3,9) 35 --- Runyon, American writer whose short stories inspired the musical

Guys And Dolls (5)

37 The North American

name for reindeer (7)

38 The ---, American rock band fronted by vocalist Jim Morrison (5)

39 An extensive skin eruption, similar to, but larger than, a boil (9)

40 A small, fancy

sponge cake (9)

Down

1 A type of ornamental work made by knotting and weaving cord into a pattern (7)

2 Structure linking England and Wales, opened in 1966 by Elizabeth II (6,6)

3 Mental tendency or inclination; preference or prejudice (4)

4 and 34 The 44th president

of the United States (6,5)

5 --- Bono, American singer who was in a duo with his second wife, Cher (5)

6 --- the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor (11)

7 The act of imposing and

collecting a tax or tariff (4) 8 A peninsula in Eastern Europe, between the

Black Sea and the

Sea of Azov (6)

9 and 36 German philosopher and political theorist famous for co-writing

The Communist Manifesto (4,4) 10 2001 Ian McEwan novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize (9)

17 A form of collaborative poetry originating in Japan (5)

19 A Passage To ---, 1924 novel by E.M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj (5)

20 A state capital of the US Midwest, dissected by the White River and Fall Creek (12)

21 Great --- ---, a coral ridge off the Northeast coast of Australia (7,4)

23 A port in southwest

Spain, founded about 1100BC as a Phoenician trading colony (5)

25 In Greek mythology, a nymph dwelling in a lake, river, spring or fountain (5) 26 See 32 Across

29 A Greek epic poem, attributed to Homer, describing the 10-year homeward wanderings of a hero of the siege of Troy (7)

31 A method of dismissal

in cricket (3,3)

33 Slices of bread (6)

34 See 4

36 See 9

37 --- Chanel, 20th-Century French fashion icon credited with popularising the little black dress (4)

38 --- Harris, Scout Finch’s best friend in Harper

Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird (4)