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 Flavourless starter just

awful

10 Family of degenerates

having a ball

11 Strange round defaced

object

12 Painting back in the possession of original Creole painter (2 words) 16 Flipped soldiers on leave,

then

17 Father backed a

troublemaker

18 Yes, cloned sea creatures

(Hyphenated)

19 A group of five taken in by

a Turk

20 Valley girl sides with a

caregiver

21 Sailor with nothing left

talking

25 Priest soon following

congregation’s lead

26 A little gallop in extremis,

say

27 First lady loses it after a

follower drinks

DOWN

2 Trickster ending good trick 3 Joke about northern group 4 Inebriate’s eighth beer story 5 German and Omani face

ruin

6 Inexperienced hind or buck 7 Charity supporter possibly

merciful

8 Daft sheep returning from a

plant

9 Introduced copper not liked 13 Film set ahead of a leading

lady

14 Slate finally smoother on

kiln

15 Guiltless Conservative

topping list

21 Formerly operative

Concorde’s wings

22 Stake a foursome inside

planted

23 Thought idle, student

missed out on top grade 24 Source of guilt a person

passed