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 Mark Reeves? And Mr Allen? 5 Hard fruit left out to soften

last fall

8 Exercise in the morning,

please

9 Shamus ending overcoat

swindle

11 Some dummies beheaded on

air

12 Permissive African sailor on

board

15 Dirty kinsman disheartened

again

16 Rascally Russian king turned

quiet

17 Great white - healthy swimmer

(2 words)

22 Times article about backward

school

23 Tie left on long after

hothead’s departure 24 Enemies part with a formerly

fit friend

25 A horse carries women out of

it

26 Property skinny Germans

evacuated

DOWN

1 Noble lady suits covens, oddly 2 Fuel name abridged with

nothing added

3 He made fifty for Denmark’s

leader

4 Wounded soldier back in a

shack

5 One left to broadcast on the

radio

6 A secretary experiencing

discomfort

7 These run amok with Nelson

anyway

10 French but poorly received

painter

11 Poet beginning line with

something amazing

13 Clean piece of paper in

sections?

14 Requested cut was initially

wonky

17 Cabbage porter added to

kimchi starter

18 Burden reduced or carried by a

youth

19 An artist with credentials under

attack

20 Somebody amusing and also

hard up

21 A large vase, we hear, to take

home