THE SKELETON

There is a £100 prize for the first correct solution drawn; nine runners-up receive £25.

Send your completed crossword to the address shown in the box below left. In the skeleton crossword, the black squares and clue numbers have to be filled in as well as the words. Four black squares and four clue numbers have been inserted to give you a start. The black squares form a symmetrical pattern; the top half matches the bottom, and the two sides correspond. You can fill in 12 more squares at once to correspond with those given.

Send to: Skeleton Crossword, PO Box 12578, Sutton Coldfield B73 9BT. The winners will be the first correct entries drawn after the closing date of noon on Friday. Please allow 30 days for prizes to arrive.

ACROSS

2 8

August 11 bar renovation After running around, he’s content...

9 ...to carry a little one east 10 Falling off, upset? (2

words)

11 Super mother perhaps

embraced

12 Snakes like pythons gutted 13 Concerning wound leading

to convalescence 15 Sensible women cut it two

ways

16 Something cooked in oil

(veg etc.) near starters 17 Apprehensive escort has

not died!

20 Pat catches Rex being

boring

22 Dry run introduced to be

helpful

23 Wicked old girl in

Connecticut

24 Fish and chips are both

incomplete

25 Vegetable all right with a

little gravy

26 Betrayed cast used during

take (2 words)

DOWN

1 2 3 4

It’s a liability, in the main Star playing a little renegade A sound inhaler one held Correct perspectives in geometry? (2 words)

Tanned forehead, not face Mount fed up carrying knight

Someone paid to write a book under protest, in part 13 Communist leader some

coward backs

14 Work discarded last, being

divine

18 City in Costa Rica expelling

Otis?

19 Correct contrivance closer to

patch

21 He composed a little

number gamely

22 Apt spy oddly having

nothing on

5 6

7