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 Squares want closer friends 5 Plant and insect decline? 9 Idle talk about a madman 10 Decayed boxes amateur

moved around

11 Overtime is for a couple 12 Ailing flower by an airport 13 A rascal cut to by mistake 15 Mostly empty promise by

George

18 Confident scoundrel in view 21 Snitch right about

extremists

23 Back-to-front manatee

issue

24 Because of it, goon running

around won’t start

25 Hip Dane used to be an

idiot

26 Silver-infused fork parts

food

DOWN

1 Food knight chopped up 2 Plain lines over a circle 3 Add to lie parent

disseminated

4 Random second answer in

test

5 Hat a follower put on

before a shirt

6 See? Great start

7 Louth residents perform

better

8 Silly leaders of French

team

12 She’s quiet in the morning 14 Regret about ingesting

uranium

16 Long period soon ending 17 Fear doomsayers face, say 18 Animal conceals tail

perfectly

19 Republican with no time

raised a cruel daughter 20 Circuit contains energy

surge

22 Crowds second best, oddly