THE PRIZE CROSSWORD
WIN £1,500
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, August 23 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, September 8. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
ACROSS
1 Queen of England for nine days in 1553 (4,4,4) 8 A short stretch of railway track connected to a main line (6) 11 1949 film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as married lawyers (5,3) 12 A broadly humorous play based on the exploitation of improbable situations (5) 13 See 34 14 Russian revolutionary who was the first head of the Soviet Union (5) 15 Large tree with palmate leaves and brown shiny nuts called conkers (5,8) 17 A secondary part attached to a main part (9) 19 Quickness of movement, nimbleness (7) 23 A river in central Europe, rising in the North East Czech Republic and flowing north and west to the Baltic (4) 24 County of southern England in which Windsor is located (9) 25 A large, open container for transporting building materials (4) 26 A ban on trade with a particular country (7) 28 A long, open, level stretch of ground for walking along, especially beside the seashore (9) 31 Twelfth President of the United States, a hero of the Mexican War (7,6) 34 and 13 War memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to British and Commonwealth soldiers (5,4) 36 Anything serving to urge or encourage (4) 37 An earthenware beer mug, especially of a German design (5) 38 Joshua – – –, 18th Century English portrait painter, the first president of the Royal Academy (8) 39 A long, tapering flag (6) 40 Agreeable, amusing remarks, made in order to be polite (12)
DOWN
2 The patron saint of Scotland (6) 3 An annual Jewish holiday and a day of fasting, also called the Day of Atonement (3,6) 4 City in Northern India on the Yamuna River, site of the Taj Mahal (4) 5 Decorative needlework, often a picture or pattern (10) 6 Nickname of William II of England (5) 7 The deceased court jester whose skull is exhumed by the gravedigger in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (6) 8 Offensive operations carried out to capture a fortified place (5) 9 Representing data as a series of numerical values (7) 10 Window covering made from a thin fabric (3,7) 16 Blood-sucking insect with an oval, flattened wingless body (6) 18 Strong, sudden blasts of wind (5) 20 Graham – – –, English novelist and dramatist who wrote Brighton Rock (6) 21 The visible projection of the thyroid cartilage of the larynx at the front of the neck (5,5) 22 Another name for advertising hoardings (10) 25 A low-lying plain in Central Somerset, scene of the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685 (9) 27 In Greek myths, one of the rivers in Hades over which the souls of the dead were ferried by Charon (7) 29 Meryl – – –, multiple Oscar-winning American actress (6) 30 A belt or sash (6) 32 Sticky substance produced by some trees (5) 33 A department of North Central France, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region (5) 35 A highly-saturated green-blue colour that forms, with magenta and yellow, a set of primary colours (4)
NOW THERE ARE THREE WAYS TO ENTER
Complete the Prize Crossword and count how many times the letter ‘i’ appears in the finished grid. Then text ISPY followed by your answer, name and postcode to 65700. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. Or call 0905 652 2172 and leave your answer and details. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Entries will be accepted until 11.59pm on Friday. Or post your completed grid AND iSpy answer to The Prize Crossword No 1918, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, August 23 (photocopies not accepted). The winner will be selected at random from correct iSpy answers. See today’s solutions panel for terms and conditions.
Winner of Prize Crossword No 1915: Mr Frederick Thompson, of Hendon, Sunderland. Last week’s answer: 19