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.632, 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.631 is Sophia O’Sullivan, Conna, Co. Cork.

Across

7 Greeting the Republican this way 8 Settlement causes a drama 11 Space to put an organ around here 12 Rector has one small fish snack 13 Steel fence around a supernatural being 15 Submissive? Moi? Seek missing first and third 16 Doubtful one fellow would find another variable 18 Number as well, by the sound of it 21 Rodents put diamonds behind bedroom 22 Parking round in vital manoeuvre, crucial 23 Wife gets everyone at work to strike 24 Fugitive loses heart somewhere in airport

Down

1 Unaccompanied by the best dairy product (Two words) 2 Has trouble getting round large group of swimmers 3 Read out note first, to a degree 4 Struggle with hard fellow on pier 5 A young woman is not quite right 6 Don’t bottle things up like an old locomotive (Three words) 9 Island bear playing with dirt 10 Engineers round to convert old stuff 14 Piece of legislation that’s internally flawed 17 Virginia gets sick in holiday home 18 Try to convince office worker on time 19 Theatrical drama involving a rope 20 It took place in the Seventies