THE SKELETON CROSSWORD – £325 in prizes

There is a £100 prize for the first correct solution drawn; nine runners-up receive £25.

Send your completed crossword to the address shown in the box below left. In the skeleton crossword, the black squares and clue numbers have to be filled in as well as the words. Four black squares and four clue numbers have been inserted to give you a start. The black squares form a symmetrical pattern; the top half matches the bottom, and the two sides correspond. You can fill in 12 more squares at once to correspond with those given.

Send to: Skeleton Crossword, PO Box 12578, Sutton Coldfield B73 9BT. The winners will be the first correct entries drawn after the closing date of noon on Friday. Please allow 30 days for prizes to arrive.

ACROSS

1 Sharp things out as toys, of

course (3 words)

8 Server wearing short skirt? 9 Emblems carry meaning,

stated leaders

10 Tear on titan’s face remains 13 Short gangster seen helping 15 Something fought in time

going back to North America 16 Light left on before and

after sermon ends

17 Spoil fried starter by

mistake (2 words)

20 Poet the centre of attention

in court

23 Part of a shelter put up high 26 It’s all right to leave a party

(2 words)

27 Artist wearing a satisfactory

coat

28 Helper rotten animator

goads (2 words)

DOWN

1 Sound inhaler one received 2 Time inside reversed changes 3 Given an angle, ten head

down 4 Bird or birds heading

skyward

5 A poet in fact a teenager? 6 Reveller put right about

ending of party

7 Mature boys from the old

country

11 English following called for

diversity

12 Source of concern others top 14 Some novel fate being

imagined

15 Abstruse notion debater

starts with

18 Due to closer victory, gain

lead

19 Club owner finds lead to

offload

21 Instrument with a hollow core

turned on

22 An author not back on the

wagon

23 Clothes bagged up beginning

to smell

24 Standard rejection letter?

Gloom lasts

25 Shock perhaps hard to

express