BARE BONES

Complete the grid – numbers and squares. 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. Answer next week.

Across

1 Composer played role at politicians’ stag do (Two words) 10 Serpent to stop at the surface

11 Trendy fashion, impressively (Two words) 12 Laugh, goading first witch

13 Betting gatehouse is a blob

15 Less sensitive son reads part of the bible 17 Withstands sisters’ arrangement

21 Charter takes time for chemical mixture

25 Brace overly pronounced 26 Anger, after sailor gets cross

27 Hitch fellow to new bird 28 Registering post somewhere in the station (Two words)

Down

2 Horrify a quiet friend 3 Difficult, with nothing to stockpile

4 Illuminated, chap becomes graceful

5 Rule in bad conditions, say

6 Tea for fool in the morning

7 Occasion, we hear, for some flavouring

8 Spoils our neighbour 9 Eleven parts of the body 14 Procure from strange tradesman 16 Deploy stratagem, but not initially

17 Brief encounter, throwing first dart

18 Small oval, disguised as a volley

19 A lot of oil is only superficially impressive 20 Severe at the back 21 NATO character gets round city first

22 A dunce back to being unresponsive 23 The criminal in charge, showing set of morals 24 Most unexcited about a sequence of notes