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 821, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, January 12 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on January 28 from the first correct entry drawn. Winner of Bare Bones No 818: Mrs Amanda Lumley, of Dovercourt, Essex.

ACROSS

1 Drink wine and provide material assistance 5 Sequence of cards is an illusion 7 Gold part of regularly repeated course 10 Starts to ad-lib, causing tension in performance 11 Bishop right to break law in fight 12 Meeting an inhabitant of the UK 13 Afterwards take a trainee to one side 15 Listener finds new merit 16 Time you and I found movie’s conclusion sentimental 17 Extend a term in prison 21 An entrance made of stone 22 A rota devised for a vital supplier 23 Copper gets point of a signal 24 Set a test for flavour 25 Glue to fix a step 26 Artist to work to get identification fast

DOWN

1 Society to do away with expertise 2 Natural growth at manufacturing centre 3 Mammal less cold in the East End 4 Whole time alto was performing 5 Sailor pursues list to get a condiment (Two words) 6 Back during terrible rains, behind in payment (Two words) 8 Sponsor draws away in the opposite direction 9 Let it gape out as a space to put a name (Two words) 14 Level with the first woman 17 Cut verse in a new way 18 Summary of wild caper 19 Pace rated as having changed 20 Delighted to be a friend of Snow White’s