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.

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 1039, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, March 18 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on April 3 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 1036: Mrs D Ellinor, of Lewes, East Sussex.

Across

7 Having no money by noon, not working

8 River animal is a scoundrel

11 Drink of character, by the sound of it

12 Excessively red, moving right as required (Two words)

13 Not going back a great deal

14 Beams in lift, reportedly

15 Accidental place to live

20 Limit on international appearance

21 Deceive on more than one occasion (Two words, hyphenated)

22 Make a record out of a piece of wood

23 Making holes is dull

24 Musical-sounding country

Down

1 Oily utensil in cafe (Two words)

2 Second woman to have fish

3 Small, agreeable gesture about old hood

4 Cats, in large number, showing conceit

5 Singular sailors make celebrities

6 Inability to remember mad hunk (Two words)

9 Draw a stretch of land? About time

10 Tons about time for performing

16 Mark isn’t wandering around area

17 Like this, initially guilty, heartless guy becomes mushy

18 Being out on a spree

19 Yields plant ovules, we hear