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 1013, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, September 17 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on October 3 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 1010: Frank Oswell, of Ashington, Northumberland.

Across

1 School’s first head taking notice in misery

5 Walk for a month

7 Gaps in entireties,

we hear

10 Study of wide nature

11 Rapper gets the bird

12 A French tap –

terribly inappropriate

13 I’d get in, somehow

eating sensibly

15 Like a family

16 Bit of seaweed

in range, right?

17 Sack fellow

emergency worker 21 Victor misses front

part of target

22 Put out in dejection

23 Deity inside, being odd

24 Bear in the

first whirlpool

25 Time single

daughter got fit

26 Sausages from

Greek island

Down

1 Herds meandering a bit

2 Duck, awfully odd,

say, returning

3 Hidden nuisances

include boredom

4 Show indifference

to a short jacket 5 Invented confectionery and amassed a fortune (Three words)

6 Crumbling, aged liner

given former position

8 Shade setting angel

free (Two words)

9 Utter a sad

broadcast, soaking

14 Peg is a character,

we hear

17 Heard expression

unravels

18 Girl worried

about English star

19 Term of respect

that’s reversible

20 Sent off to second homes