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.604, 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.603 is John Zachary Conlon, Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare.

Across 1 Musical right for car mechanic 5 Brace made out of a log 7 Creature that’s less cold in the East End 10 A long time in another arrangement 11 Let it alter heading 12 Team in small courtyard 13 Italian food in sink, getting in the way 15 At sixes and sevens, sent home 16 Old friend gets a stone 17 Drunk, ate badly cooked meal (Two words) 21 Go on about a remotecontrolled craft 22 Sand spread around English chair 23 A kiss gets note to end 24 Visitor reckoned on being heard 25 Dorothy holds record in warehouse 26 Captive finds shoe, wrong label included

Down 1 German to rule out meagre fare 2 Still get small odds 3 Informed about student jargon 4 Excite woman with Bruckner’s Third 5 Common pets are quarrelsome (Three words, hyphenated) 6 Use the batons as building material (Two words) 8 Fraudulently claimed Ted ate steak up (Two words, hyphenated) 9 Socialist scheme to find alien on Mars (Two words) 14 Has turned into a tree 17 The athletics held in open land 18 Informant on the lawn 19 Article, thanks to Greek character 20 Whisper to a team