THE PRIZE CROSSWORD

WIN £1,500

There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, November 13 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, November 29. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 Kenyan athlete who won the 2019 and 2020 London Marathons (6,6)

8 Broken pieces or fragments of a brittle substance, especially pottery (6)

11 A large, rough-haired, tan-coloured terrier with a black, saddle-shaped patch covering most of its back (8) 12 Made a smoothly curving line or movement (5)

13 ––– Bengal, former name for what is now Bangladesh (4)

14 ––– anteater, large mammal of Central and South America, also called ant bear (5) 15 Two-humped beast of burden in the Central Asian deserts (8,5) 17 An underground burial place, consisting of tunnels with vaults or niches (9)

19 The rejection of belief in God or gods (7)

23 A republic in North Central Africa that became independent from France in 1960 (4)

24 Suggest by indirect allusion, hints or innuendo (9)

25 ––– of Modena, queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II (4) 26 Lake in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, East of the Caspian Sea (4,3) 28 Scottish football player and manager who led Celtic to nine successive Scottish League championships between 1966 and 1974 (4,5)

31 Line of longitude corresponding to zero degrees and passing through Greenwich (5,8) 34 A proposal or bid (5) 36 Racing toboggan on which riders lie on their backs (4) 37 Long, slender, non-venomous North American snake (5) 38 An active volcano in Hawaii, on South

Central Hawaii island (5,3) 39 ––– Sea, arm of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey (6) 40 Vegetable of the cabbage family in which the central leaves form a very loose head or no head at all (6,6)

Down

2 A dried grape (6)

3 Large island lying mostly within the Arctic Circle off the northeast coast of North America (9)

4 A low cart without fixed sides, used for carrying heavy loads (4)

5 Sydney ––– –––,

Australian performing arts centre designed by Danish architect

Jørn Utzon (5,5)

6 A sum of money provided by a government or public fund to finance educational study, overseas aid or building repairs (5) 7 Volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea at the North end of the Bay of Naples (6)

8 Northeast African republic on the Red Sea (5)

9 A sheet of clear plastic film (7)

10 A place where medicine and medical supplies are prepared and issued (10) 16 Jean –––, 17th Century French tragic poet and dramatist whose plays included Andromaque (6) 18 A gambling game in which numbers selected at random are called out and players mark them off on individual cards (5) 20 A formal agreement or contract between two or more states (6)

21 A colour varying from a clear yellowish-green to a strong greenish-yellow (10) 22 Game for two, played on a board marked with long triangles (10) 25 A powerful, high-speed, general-purpose computer with a large storage capacity (9)

27 Surname of Louis and Auguste, French chemists and cinema pioneers (7) 29 A pair of straps worn over the shoulders for holding up the trousers (6) 30 Widespread reputation, especially of a good kind (6) 32 A sweet rice wine used in Japanese cookery (5) 33 Albrecht –––, painter and engraver of the German Renaissance (5)

35 ––– bean, East Asian plant grown for forage and as the source of bean sprouts (4)