BARE BONES

NO.610

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.610, 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.609 is R McWilliams, Newtown Meadows, Drogheda, Co. Louth.

Across

1 Ghost even has something to bring balance (Two words) 9 Temporary home puts limit around back of dorm 10 Attorney puts church next to a country house 11 Weaken without one married couple 12 Journalist in cleaner part of the house 13 Soup, say, and small flan about to be sent back 14 Revolutionary heat produced by fast runner 17 Swift alien finds something to eat 21 Enquiring when missing monarch 22 Complacent, quiet, dour, eccentric 23 The pain of a bachelor 24 Supply to advertise place to invest (Two words)

Down

2 Daily delay reported getting ornament 3 Raid carried out by old medium 4 Gather there’s food at school 5 Demand European duty be returned with cent 6 New York’s layout is temperate (Two words) 7 Fellow expert shows where the hands are 8 Audibly bound to the movement of the sea 15 Greet in a downpour 16 Crawler in charge of the jelly 18 Clause for one on a horse 19 Repeat heard from the choir 20 A good time to make a loud noise