CROSSWORD NO 1,901 ★ £500 TO BE WON

TO ENTER Complete the crossword and count how many times the letter ‘A’ appears in the grid. Text YOU followed by a space, your answer (the number of ‘A’s) and name to 65700, eg, YOU 9 Sue Smith. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network rate. Or telephone 0905 652 2141 and leave your answer and details. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Or post your entry to

YOU Crossword No 1,901, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries will be accepted until 11.59pm on Friday 19 April. One random winner from all correct entries will win £250 and five runners-up will win £50 each. If you enter after the closing date you will not be included but may still be charged. Phone and text helpline: 0330 100 0601. Winners will be notified by phone within 14 days. Solution in two weeks.

ACROSS

7 Room underneath a building (6)

9 Dramatic but unstaged musical composition based on a religious theme (8)

10 Forest where Robin Hood supposedly lived (8)

11 Give, allocate, designate (6)

12 Tune, air (6)

13 Go under a Welsh town? (5)

15 What a batter aims to reach (7) 17 (and 3 down) British writer who won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature (7,7)

19 Keen, raring to go (5)

20 Tiny principality bordering France (6)

22 One of the

most frequently performed and recorded composers (surname) (1860-1911) (6)

23 Italian dessert with mascarpone cheese (8)

24 Body of separate additional material at the end of a book (8)

25 Christian festival (6)

DOWN

1 Where Jesus was born (9)

2 Place where a small group of monks live and work together (6) 3 See 17 across

4 Fried squid (8)

5 People who are very well known (9,5)

6 Friend of 21 down in 8 down who suffers from asthma and poor

eyesight (5)

8 1954 novel by

17 across, 3 down (4,2,3,5)

14 City in Lancashire (9)

16 How the fashion industry is known (3,5)

18 Reason which

you pretend has caused you to do something (7)

20 British founder (surname) of the Miss World pageant (6)

21 Protagonist in

8 down (5)