THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, December 8 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, December 24. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
ACROSS
11 Game played on skates, between two opposing teams of six players each (3,6) 12 Django ---, 20th Century Belgian-born jazz guitarist (9) 13 A transparent polygonal solid for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting and deviating light (5) 14 A county of East England, on the North Sea and The Wash (7) 15 Verse or piece of poetry with corresponding sounds at the ends of its lines (5) 16 The belief that violence of any kind is unjustifiable (8) 18 A variety of beet with large, succulent leaves and thick stalks, used as a vegetable (5,5) 22 A type of religious song created by African slaves in the American South (9) 24 A light, sheer fabric of silk or nylon (7) 27 To cause to lose courage, strength, confidence or self-control (7) 28 A province of South Africa, the capital of which is Bloemfontein (4,5) 30 A three-star rank of the Royal Air Force (3,7) 32 See 37 Down 35 A port city in South Japan, on Honshu island (5) 37 South African mongoose with a lemur-like face and four-toed feet (7) 38 The Roman goddess of the hearth and its fire (5) 39 Emmeline ---, political activist and leader of the British 21 Down movement (9) 40 Either of the two main parts of the Bible (9)
DOWN
1 A river in South East Africa forming part of the borders between South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe (7) 2 American actor, director and producer who won two Oscars for the film Dances With Wolves (5,7) 3 An organ of vegetative reproduction in plants such as the crocus (4) 4 American mammals known for ejecting an unpleasant-smelling fluid when attacked (6) 5 The Welsh name for Wales (5) 6 20th Century American film director, actor, producer and screenwriter whose films included Citizen Kane (5,6) 7 Semiaquatic musteline mammal with slightly webbed feet (4) 8 Jacques ---, the President of France 1995-2007 (6) 9 Surname of twins Ronnie and Reggie, former London gangsters (4) 10 A person who accompanies or waits upon another (9) 17 A member of a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church (5) 19 Andrew ---, Germanborn British actor who was best known for playing Manuel in Fawlty Towers (5) 20 Anglo-French Impressionist landscape painter (6,6) 21 A female advocate of extending the right to vote to women (11) 23 Thoughts, concepts or notions (5) 25 Japanese city on the island of Kyushu, noted for its porcelain (5) 26 Light, rigid, circular bands whirled around the body by movements of the waist and hips (4,5) 29 In music, to be performed at a moderately slow tempo (7) 31 British Army attack helicopter (6) 33 In mathematics, an angle lying between 90 and 180 degrees (6) 34 A large ray of temperate and tropical seas, whose protective egg case is known as a mermaid’s purse (5) 36 Bristles growing from the ears of certain grasses and cereals (4) 37 and 32 Across The first female President of Ireland, who served from 1990 to 1997 (4,8) 38 The flesh of a calf used as food (4)