THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
WIN £1,500
There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, June 30 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, July 16. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
ACROSS
1 London theatre, formerly the home of a famous ballet company (7,5) 8 To refer indirectly, briefly or implicitly (6) 11 In ancient legend, an island said to have sunk beneath the ocean (8) 12 --- Villa, football club founded in 1874 (5) 13 The --- Brothers were an American family of comedians who appeared in vaudeville, stage plays and films (4) 14 Opera ---, comic opera originating in Naples in the 18th Century (5) 15 19th Century German composer and conductor famous for his operas, which included Lohengrin and Parsifal (7,6) 17 British writer whose works included the children’s classic Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (5,4) 19 In the New Testament, any of the apostolic letters of Saints Paul, Peter, James, Jude or John (7) 23 Low-lying flat areas of land that are marshy or artificially drained (4) 24 Plant of the buttercup genus, which has yellow flowers consisting of five petals (9) 25 and 27 Down The third wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI (4,7) 26 A cylinder that rotates around a vertical spindle and is turned by a motor or lever, used for hauling in heavy ropes, etc (7) 28 Stones of a great size, especially those which form part of a prehistoric monument (9) 31 A market town in Suffolk and birthplace of the late Bob Hoskins (4,2,7) 34 La ---, the chief opera house in Italy, in Milan (5) 36 Lake in Lombardy, Italy (4) 37 A young unfledged bird, especially a pigeon (5) 38 Cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera, which lived in Jellystone Park (4,4) 39 River in South West Asia, rising in East Turkey and flowing south-east through Iraq (6) 40 A port in North Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, twinned with Plymouth (3,9)
DOWN
2 and 22 British author who created Sherlock Holmes (6,5,5) 3 Advances by jumps or stages (9) 4 In the Old Testament, a Moabite woman who left her own people to remain with her mother-in-law Naomi (4) 5 Archipelago off Central America, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean (4,6) 6 I, Daniel Blake director, Ken --- (5) 7 The sixth planet from the sun, named after the Roman god of agriculture (6) 8 Spiro ---, former Vice President of the United States (5) 9 French city on the Vienne River, known for its porcelain industry (7) 10 A high-quality black tea grown in an area of West Bengal in North East India (10) 16 The clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, in which blood cells are suspended (6) 18 Pen name of Georges Prosper Remi, the cartoonist who created Tintin (5) 20 Marshal --- was Chief of the French State 1940-1944 (6) 21 Hungarian actor known for playing Count Dracula in a 1931 film (4,6) 22 See 2 25 15th Century Italian navigator and explorer; one of the first Europeans to discover the North American mainland (4,5) 27 See 25 Across 29 Characteristic scents or smells (6) 30 Cud-chewing mammal closely related to the llama (6) 32 Pointed, elongated teeth in the elephant and walrus (5) 33 --- VII, 16th Century Pope whose papacy was the shortest in history (5) 35 City in North India on the Yamuna River; site of the Taj Mahal (4)