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, September 15 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, October 1. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter. ACROSS 11 Franklin D. ---, 32nd President of the United States, elected four times (9) 12 (Of animals) active at night (9) 13 The largest island of Greece, located in the East Mediterranean (5) 14 --- sport, a recreational activity perceived as involving a high degree of risk (7) 15 The ---, children’s comic first published in 1938 (5) 16 A fungus with a round fruiting body that discharges a cloud of spores when mature (8) 18 A subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the Western Pacific Ocean (10) 22 Othello’s wife in the Shakespearean tragedy (9) 24 Thomas ---, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury (7) 27 A synthetic fibre or type of paint (7) 28 Island in the South Atlantic, North West of Saint Helena, claimed by Britain in 1815 (9) 30 A dark igneous rock consisting principally of olivine and pyroxene (10) 32 A body of concepts that reflects the beliefs and interests of a nation and underlies political action (8) 35 A bird of prey’s sharply hooked claw (5) 37 Area of land devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees (7) 38 A large, powerfully-built dog originating from the north of Japan (5) 39 Purple or violet quartz gemstones (9) 40 In chess, the winning position in which an opponent’s king is under attack and unable to escape (9) DOWN 1 Three-headed muscle which extends the forearm (7) 2 Swiss tennis player who has won eight Wimbledon singles titles (5,7) 3 A ballet step in which the dancer springs from one leg and lands on the other (4) 4 See 9 Down 5 --- school, a school offered to all children without charge (5) 6 --- tax, a tax introduced in Britain in 1986 to replace capital transfer tax (11) 7 Unit of area equal to 4,840 square yards (4) 8 The largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal (6) 9 and 4 19th Century English writer famous for the novel Black Beauty (4,6) 10 Queen of Egypt 51BC to 30BC (9) 17 Plant with aromatic leaves used as a herb, particularly in Italian cookery (5) 19 A highly-toxic protein derived from castor-oil seeds (5) 20 South American soldier and liberator who gave his name to his native Venezuela’s standard monetary unit (5,7) 21 A movement in art, music and literature of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, usually opposed to classicism (11) 23 Theme park at Walt Disney World, Florida, opened in 1982 (5) 25 Essential --- acids, organic compounds that cannot be synthesized in the body and must be components of the diet (5) 26 A residential area of North London, site of Kenwood House (9) 29 Rotund herbivorous mammals of Africa and South West Asia, resembling rodents (7) 31 Any small boat, powered by sail, oars or outboard motor (6) 33 Robert ---, the 1st Earl of Leicester, favourite of Elizabeth I (6) 34 A large tract of land, especially in North America, on which livestock are reared (5) 36 The sediment from an alcoholic drink (4) 37 A kiln for drying hops (4) 38 Diving birds of the Northern oceans with black-and-white plumage (4)