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.

Across

1 Queen returning public transport first is not so stupid 5 Fellow dupe gets upset and bored (Two words) 7 Duck that is going back to the German 10 Peg is a character, by the sound of it 11 Tea for fool in the morning 12 About to redesign a submarine (Two words, hyphenated) 13 Serious listener at home 15 Question the time 16 Piece of land is in his league 17 Diplomatic deed after the first flu treatment 21 Object to layabout from the country 22 After a day, choose to acquire 23 Father left as a friend 24 Great Lake hides canary’s last nest 25 Use up patience, initially, during broadcast 26 A blood disorder gets one a game

Down

1 Betting with hesitation on last of coffee’s froth 2 Real tarpaulin thrown around table 3 Article with yours truly as subject 4 Deny engineers joined objection 5 Drink with renewed energy behind apartment (Two words) 6 Rides off with couple in bad condition 8 Dismisses ice cream for a cake (Two words) 9 Went back to find nice surprise in grass 14 Hardly sending ton back 17 Kind daughter used a machine to write 18 Policeman and god find source of oil 19 Fool about with one sheet of paper 20 Girl with nothing but a lariat