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, December 18 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, January 3. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
Across
1 James –––, friend and biographer of 18th Century writer Samuel Johnson (7) 5 Flat, open tarts, either edible or artificial, thrown in slapstick comedy (7,4) 10 Strong coffee mixed with hot milk (5) 11 Duck common over most of the Northern hemisphere, the male of which has a dark green head (7) 13 A formal game or sports event in which people or teams compete to win (5) 14 Relating to the illnesses and medical care of older people (9) 15 Places in stable buildings in which bridles and saddles are kept (4,5) 16 A dessert made from a fruit puree with cream or custard (4) 17 Things said or done in order to hide the truth (12) 20 The greyish-yellow colour of unbleached linen (4) 21 A strong, sealed vessel used for chemical reactions at high pressure (9) 22 To cut a design into a surface by means of acid or a sharp tool (4) 26 Female advocates of extending the right to vote to women (12) 27 ––– Bagnold, British author and playwright best known for the 1935 story National Velvet (4) 29 ––– squash, marrow-like plant with yellow-skinned, edible fruits (9) 31 A celebration held for cast and crew to mark the completion of filming a movie (4,5) 33 Having a limited ability to react chemically, unreactive (5) 34 Island country in the South Pacific Ocean, the capital of which is Port Vila (7) 35 ––– Levi, Jewish-Italian chemist, Holocaust survivor and author best known for the work If This Is A Man (5) 36 A medical instrument for examining the interior of the stomach (11) 37 Stieg –––, Swedish author of the Millennium trilogy of novels, featuring Lisbeth Salander (7)
Down
1 A meat-based sauce for pasta originating in a North Italian city (9) 2 A stringed musical instrument with a long neck and a rounded body (5) 3 American word for a lift (8) 4 Hedy –––, 20th Century Austrian-American actress who became an inventor (6) 5 ––– ––– Farm, 1932 comic novel by Stella Gibbons (4,7) 6 The central rib of a feather (5) 7 Brown, crystallised cane sugar from the Caribbean (8) 8 Quiet and shy, habitually looking inward (11) 9 Divisions of groups into opposing factions (7) 12 Influential or conclusive (8) 16 Ancestors, especially male ones (11) 18 A predatory, black-andwhite, toothed cetacean mammal (6,5) 19 Ivan –––, 19th Century Russian novelist and dramatist who wrote the play A Month In The Country (8) 23 A holiday taken by a newly-married couple (9) 24 Person who deprives someone of their liberty by taking him or her into custody (8) 25 A page at the beginning or end of a book, especially one fixed to the inside of the cover (8) 26 A person’s brother or sister (7) 28 A book of instructions or information (6) 30 In communications, a code word for the letter ‘T’ (5) 32 Sudden surprise attacks (5)