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.
ACROSS
1 Food chopped up on plate 5 Ghastly horse outside taxi 9 A bone cup alas out of
order
11 Picture not quite in front of
girls in a state
12 Yemen made somebody
hostile
13 Spurs for the backs of red
boots
14 Deal with civic leader at an
end
16 Bird perhaps a little more
tame
17 Flavourless French bread
cut by a student
19 Selfish extremists have
demonstrated
21 Ruins on the far side of
fifth swamp
23 Praise after crying starts,
say
24 Previous fib about lughole,
perhaps, or back
25 Awful sort of stable closer
to sty 26 Least distant point in a
wardrobe
DOWN
2 A man circles a vehicle 3 Footwear leaders slip off
4 A lie cheers the Spanish up 6 Soldiers cut off are mostly
evacuated
7 England fans help goals in
somehow
8 Throw a fit, having no choice 10 A horse and sheep mix-up 11 Some dim men seemed
great
13 Purple lead on happy little
dog
15 A bit of coral defaced in
shot
18 Money to tempt grasping
Conservative
20 Small and doubtless
unoccupied plants
21 Top of molar’s bad, but it
grinds
22 Room that occupants left
twice