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

3 Test group tailing sleuth 8 Call ironclad unorthodox 9 Records a girl lost, oddly 10 Single girl is out of order 11 Look at endless soft fruit 12 Alien concludes second

pass

14 Artist tracks following down 15 City street briefly closing 16 Bone uncovered long after

lead

17 Author admits opening

present the wrong way 19 Depressed star

understanding... 21 ...nothing telephoned east

Seville, possibly

23 Live show ending in a valley 24 Rotter ragged anime

character in jest 25 Bloomers left on in short

stories

26 Pitiless man from Senegal’s

capital

DOWN

1 Support for patriotic leader 2 Funeral management task 3 Ring containing royal gem 4 Lunatic dealt a two is

devastated

5 Nice young model posed

looking up

6 Rambling bun article’s hard

to read

7 Grand northbound fish

delight

11 Titan sadly having to ring

off

13 Suggestion about wagon

wheel’s hub

17 Mountains with extremely

snowy tops

18 Head and tail of healthy

parrot

20 Native Americans you upset 22 Dull work over by day’s end