BARE BONES

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 Pocket Thesaurus. Send your solution to: Bare Bones Puzzle No. 486 The Irish Mail on Sunday, PO Box 5332, Cardiff Lane, Dublin 2. Entries must arrive by Friday (photocopies not accepted). The winner of Bare Bones No. 485 is Alan Aherne, Midleton, Co. Cork.

Across

1 Metal sheet protecting extremes of stegosaurus, or what remains of it 4 Runs seen as Germany gains the cricket trophy 9 Control dog given a bit of bone 10 Half of coin obtained a bar of gold 11 Make nasty face when returning to dance 12 Egyptian tourist attraction’s revolutionary to me as a bad business model (Two words) 13 Speak frequently to hub that is most modern (Four words, hyphenated) 17 Princess takes over the Spanish food shop 18 Annoyed at quirk editor reduced somewhat 19 I am an afterthought to these cheeky individuals 20 Silence observed around lute playing by Miss Marple, say 21 Quiet musketeer showing the quality that arouses pity

Down

1 A decoration for each wall of a room, they help one to sleep (Hyphenated) 2 Underwater craft with a turbine that’s wrecked is one on the outskirts 3 One mod I scrapped with in a manner of speaking 5 Mexican Indian extreme characters will take on detective 6 Nag artist to get plate and a condiment 7 Eyes protest suspiciously seeing highly conventional people 8 Ancient Edward, silver on top 14 Police seen coming up in a film as a rule 15 Iron found around Alaska is not genuine 16 Monster is surprisingly dry in either half of ditch