BARE BONES

WIN A COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS SET, AND A BRADFORD’S CROSSWORD SOLVER’S DICTIONARY

Our Bare Bones Crossword is unique because you have to complete the grid – numbers and squares – as well. We have inserted four black squares and four clue numbers to get you going. The crossword has a fourway symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away. There is a prize of a Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus set, and a Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. Send your solution to: Bare Bones Puzzle No 958, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, August 28 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on September 13 from the first correct entry drawn. Winner of Bare Bones No 955: Mr G. Charnley, of Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria.

Across

1 Band ordering best ale 5 Capital is eccentric, if feminine 9 Can’t go wrong following old shape 10 Arrive, including artist, daughter and friend 12 Merriment in jungle excursion 13 Remove a seer, forcibly 14 Avaricious editor lost colour 15 Returning a type of element? It’s a long story 17 Rely on putting in a student with no expression

19 Help make a wager 21 Mollify primate holding vegetables 22 Fellow confused pearls and mineral 23 Get comfortable with Republican pioneer 24 Note result generated panic

Down

2 Overshadow a large size, by the sound of it 3 Very alert, worried about a fellow tour organiser (Two words) 4 Run off to form a union

6 Got up like a flower 7 Shades gloomy girls, hiding initial glare (Two words) 8 Fake confectionery 11 Term of respect that’s reversible 16 Sufficient to have politician interrupting beer 17 Graduate set out to moisturise 18 King originally called and left to get down 20 Dodge and point Dave out