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 Small snake more blue 5 Brave or foolish choir

holding a note

8 Dad flipped one quickly 9 Bite made a mess of a

certain utterance (2 words) 11 Many pieces of paper are

used by Bond’s boss 12 Broken rodent trap’s

moved

15 Paul foolishly takes a snake around a Swedish city

16 Buddies fine one in tears 17 Old man a tanner held off 22 Something done either way 23 Large British English book 24 Nimble soldier introduced

to a porter

25 Sally, Margaret or Tina’s

selection

26 Sheepdog and

mount (2 words)

DOWN

1 One’s work could be junk 2 Proper cast’s last

performance

3 Waterfall is partly in shot 4 Light lunch beginning with a

bit of scampi

5 Catch male angler gutted 6 Outstanding poem heard

7 A rotter in the

garden? (2 words) 10 Ruined paintings upset cast 11 A Frenchman with a rule

about restoration

13 Sedate sort extremists

assist

14 Volunteer not happening

upon a leading lady

17 An amphibian recently

made it back

18 Orderly thanks old caregiver

from the South

19 Grand ending of feature film 20 Row about Italian leaders

brought up

21 Some clumsy priest’s first

Mass