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 four-way symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away.

ACROSS

1 Relish an enjoyably tricky predicament (Two words) 9 Stop taking in old swine 10 Openly disregard loud, aggressive chap 11 Long journey often made behind star 12 Socialist, in prosperous time, showed lack of interest 14 Recluse lost case and acquired a twitch 16 Part of book dealing with meeting of canons 18 Article by Italian writer has a fairly slow tempo 21 Mean to alter last word 22 Not succeeding, having lost excellent affair 24 Fashionable to put gold back inside, or another metal 25 Punter’s mistake on piece of paper (Two words)

DOWN

2 Point to rose arrangement that’s not as good 3 Feel fine about magical being 4 Scheme to get a piece of land 5 Reduction seen at the hairdresser’s 6 Illuminated concerning amount of liquid 7 Doctor trashed the room, finding accommodation on the way (Two words) 8 Notice dip in production of portrait 13 No desire to include some poetry 15 The serious offence of losing 17 Writer goes to church for money 19 I bail out with excuse 20 Small gin poured at a gesture 22 Lard starts to flow around turkey 23 Talk of helium or neon