BARE BONES

WIN A COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS SET, AND A BRADFORD’S CROSSWORD SOLVER’S DICTIONARY Our Bare Bones Crossword is unique because you have to complete the grid – numbers and squares – as well. We have inserted four black squares and four clue numbers to get you going. The crossword has a fourway symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away.

ACROSS

1 Strong drink for morale 5 Water vapour has right flow 10 Wave as swirling mist envelops a woman 11 Sell pie – eccentric shape 12 Exalted figures in the theatre 13 Dictator and doctor recalled expression 14 Tire of a national emblem 15 Lied about being out of work 17 Room next to old stringed instrument 18 Part of a sleeve is a hit 22 Linger around a new royal house 23 Bullish character settles a rent with gold 24 Connection to a game 25 Artist dips composition in dangerous part of a river

DOWN

2 Enclosure for money 3 Bring up the back 4 Questioning yet another qualification (Two words) 5 Final words said in front of alligator? (Three words) 6 Part of the play? 7 Horrify a quiet friend 8 Small label on odd thing for a celebration (Two words) 9 Offshore investment in privet, for example (Two words) 16 Course right for passenger ship 19 Turn over and turn key protecting writer 20 Keen, nowadays, to possess six 21 Tip mud over, parking