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, May 4 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, May 20. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
ACROSS
1 Long, slender, tropical invertebrates resembling twigs (5,7)
8 Andy –––, British tennis player and Olympic gold medallist (6)
11 An underground burial place, especially in Rome (8)
12 The characteristic vocabulary of a specific human group (5)
13 Construction toy, the name of which comes from the Danish for ‘play well’ (4)
14 Tim –––, the first British citizen to be selected as an astronaut by the European Space Agency (5) 15 The first person to introduce a printing press into England (7,6) 17 Large blocks of stone (9) 19 In a medieval story, the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, who fell in love with his uncle’s bride Iseult (7) 23 Small, brown songbird, the most common UK breeding bird (4) 24 City in South France, the historic capital of Roussillon (9) 25 See 40 26 Lines on a map connecting places of equal atmospheric pressure (7) 28 Buildings at a spa in which the water from a mineral spring may be drunk (4,5) 31 Actress, royal mistress and renowned beauty nicknamed the Jersey Lily (6,7) 34 A member of an ancient order of priests in pre-Christian Gaul, Britain and Ireland (5) 36 Name of four Holy Roman Emperors, the last of which was deposed in 1215 (4) 37 Dish consisting of baked dough covered with tomatoes and other toppings, invented in Naples (5) 38 The second largest of the Channel Islands (8) 39 Either of the two small masses of lymphatic tissue situated on each side of the back of the mouth (6) 40 and 25 Tennessee Williams play featuring warring couple Brick and Maggie Pollitt (3,2,1,3,3,4)
DOWN
2 Isle of – – –, the most easterly point of Kent (6) 3 Severe or repressive measures (9) 4 A pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system (4) 5 A company which is part of a larger and more important company (10) 6 A sensation of coldness resulting from a cold or damp environment (5) 7 A city in South West Iran, one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia (6) 8 To imitate, especially for satirical effect (5) 9 Becomes less formal (7) 10 The language spoken in England between the 5th Century and the Norman Conquest (5-5) 16 Edward – – –, American painter whose works included Nighthawks (6) 18 An unrhymed Japanese verse form in 17 syllables (5) 20 The release of captured prisoners or property on payment of a stipulated price (6) 21 Cured ham from Italy, often served as an hors d’oeuvre (10) 22 Plant with spikes of showy white, yellow, pink, red or purplish flowers, also called antirrhinum (10) 25 17th Century Dutch painter and etcher (9) 27 Secret votes in which people select candidates in an election or express their opinion about something (7) 29 Honoré de – – –, 19th Century French novelist and playwright who wrote La Comédie Humaine (6) 30 Gyorgy –––, HungarianAustrian composer of contemporary classical music (6) 32 To eject or drive out with force (5) 33 Ulysses S. – – –, 18th President of the United States, in office from 1869 to 1877 (5) 35 A material made of a network of wire or thread (4)