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 Wrong end of stale cake 4 Fish biting when line is

dropped

6 Low back paragon

suggests

9 Contrary part of stanza? 10 Maroon top put on before

gold cloak

11 Evil seer sounded genuine 12 Absolutely anything but

50% (2 words)

13 Fake terminal in a short

film

16 Posh type with 23 round

sweets

20 Pallid soldiers circle a city 21 A boxer graduates a hero

(2 words)

22 Scattered pig feed half

gone

23 Some of these etch lead 24 Plant close to herbaceous

border

DOWN

1 Victories after tense

matches

2 A bird playing in close-up 3 Ghostly English trio going

around Rhode Island 4 Smart footwear? (2 words) 5 Show not streamed, oddly 6 Artist not initially splitting a

crew up

7 Greek letter opening - great! 8 Things said to upset fiery

foreign leaders

13 A diarist looks for speakers 14 Permit a US city turned

down

15 Done in time, one flushed 17 Fathead with troubles

doesn’t work

18 Tail of some terrestrial

animal

19 Some tasty starters

consumed, say