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, January 8 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, January 24. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
Across
1 16th Century English composer and organist noted for his music for the Anglican liturgy (6,6) 8 William Thomson, 1st Baron – – –, British physicist noted for his work in thermodynamics and electricity (6) 11 A medieval armoured leather glove (8) 12 – – – -percha, a whitish rubber substance derived from the coagulated milky latex of a type of tropical tree, used in dentistry (5) 13 A derived SI unit of power, defined as one joule per second (4) 14 – – – of the Union, an annual address given by the US president to both houses of Congress (5) 15 An institution or school for instruction in music (13) 17 Announces publicly (9) 19 Smears or dirty marks (7) 23 See 30 Down 24 An epilogue or postscript in a book (9) 25 The – – – Strip, a Palestinian coastal region on the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt in the South West and Israel in the North and East (4) 26 Air – – – or swim – – –, air-filled sac that regulates buoyancy in fish (7) 28 A plan or line of travel (9) 31 A jet-propelled, low-flying weapon continuously powered and guided throughout its flight, carrying a warhead (6,7) 34 Relating to the part of the eyeball consisting of the iris, ciliary body and choroid (5) 36 See 30 Down 37 Lord George – – –, British Romantic poet who died in Greece in 1824 (5) 38 Immersed, thoroughly involved (4-4) 39 – – – Brezhnev, President of the Soviet Union 1977-82 (6) 40 English actor known for his roles in horror films, including that of Frankenstein’s monster in three movies in the 1930s (5,7)
Down
2 Christmas novella by Charles Dickens, The Cricket On The – – – (6) 3 Warned, checked, controlled or kept a continuous record of something (9) 4 Fine deposit of mud or clay, especially in a river or lake (4) 5 People trained for travelling in space (10) 6 The chief port of Nigeria, the most populous city of that country (5) 7 A novel or play in which topical issues are held up to scorn by means of ridicule and irony (6) 8 Slow-moving Australian marsupial feeding on eucalyptus leaves and bark (5)
9 Australian tennis player who won the Australian and French Opens and Wimbledon in 1956 (3,4) 10 A short piece of instrumental music composed for performance between the acts or scenes of an opera or drama (10) 16 The interval between two musical notes lying eight notes apart (6) 18 Worth or superior quality, excellence (5) 20 Nicolas – – –, Venezuelan politician appointed president of that country in 2013 (6) 21 Non-medical name for the clavicle (10) 22 A breakfast cereal made from toasted maize (10) 25 US novelist and essayist whose books included Myra Breckinridge (4,5) 27 A restaurant or cinema designed so that customers can stay in their cars (5-2) 29 The main vein of a leaf, running down the centre of the blade (6) 30, 23 Across and 36 Across Rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of South Africa (4,2,4,4) 32 To assign a journalist to accompany an active military unit (5) 33 A communication and position-finding device used in underwater navigation (5) 35 The sixth letter in the Greek alphabet (4)