THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
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, November 17 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, December 3. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
NAME ............................................................................................................................... .... ADDRESS .............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................... .................. POSTCODE .................................... TELEPHONE.............................................................
ACROSS
1 Light cones with feathered flights, used to play badminton (12) 8 Perfumed oil or ointment put on the hair (6) 11 Anita ---, British novelist who won the 1984 Booker Prize with Hotel Du Lac (8) 12 A red or white wine, produced around the Ebro River in Spain (5) 13 The standard monetary unit of Bangladesh (4) 14 The ---, an annual horse race run at Epsom Downs, Surrey, since 1780 (5) 15 World Cup-winning English footballer who was European Footballer of the Year in 1966 (5,8) 17 In Roman legend, a slave whose life was spared in the arena by a lion from whose paw he had extracted a thorn (9) 19 An entertainment in which people sing well-known songs over a pre-recorded backing tape (7) 23 David ---, former Liberal Democrat MP who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for 17 days in 2010 (4) 24 A person trained for travelling in space (9) 25 The flat part of a feather, consisting of two rows of barbs on either side of the shaft (4) 26 Paul ---, French-born post-Impressionist artist known for his depictions of Tahitian life (7)
28 A remote or imaginary utopia (7-2) 31 A --- ---, series of eight paintings by William Hogarth which inspired a 1951 opera by Igor Stravinsky (5,8) 34 1941 animated Walt Disney feature film, featuring a baby elephant with huge ears (5) 36 and 30 Down Irish writer whose first novel was The Country Girls (4,1’5) 37 John ---, the second President, and a Founding Father, of the US (5) 38 A widespread occurrence of a disease (8) 39 A band of flowers or foliage intertwined into a ring (6) 40 The sport of firing at clay pigeons launched into the air by machine (12)
DOWN
2 A district of New York City, in North East Manhattan (6) 3 Brass instruments, the tubes of which are varied in length by means of a U-shaped slide (9) 4 A piece of glass used to converge or diverge transmitted light and form optical images (4) 5 The capital of Nevada, USA (6,4) 6 Evergreen Mediterranean tree with edible pods which are used as a substitute for chocolate (5) 7 A bracket fixed to a wall for holding candles or lights (6) 8 An open space or square, especially in Spain (5)
9 12th Century empress, the daughter and heir of Henry I and the mother of Henry II (7) 10 Title of the Queen’s first cousin, Prince Edward (4,2,4) 16 Giorgio ---, Italian fashion house founded in 1975 (6) 18 In the Old Testament, the eldest son of Cain (5) 20 A tubular, thick-walled muscular blood vessel (6) 21 Type of amphibian able to regenerate lost limbs (10) 22 Camille --- ---, French composer and musician of the Romantic era (5-5) 25 A very light puff pastry case usually filled with a savoury mixture (3-2-4) 27 Che ---, 20th Century Argentine Marxist revolutionary (7) 29 A brittle, hard, silvery-white element, widely used in alloys (6) 30 See 36 Across 32 To simmer a food very gently in water, milk or stock (5) 33 Shortened name for a member of a Jamaican religion that regards a former emperor of Ethiopia as God (5) 35 A mythological princess of Tyre who founded Carthage and became its queen (4)