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

7 Smile about taking pressure – easy 8 The first composer to go abroad 11 Era of pageantry 12 Expenses exceeding income for fisherman (Two words) 13 Long river almost produces nothing 14 Part of tree is in field, note 15 Sun shows beginning, but no ending 20 Krypton, say, generates gossip

21 I shall repeatedly include women’s hostility (Two words) 22 The woman in his head 23 Unexpectedly asleep, if you don’t mind 24 Ember is new in drink Down 1 Somehow upscale item, and it’s set aside for posterity (Two words) 2 Mention old tree 3 Plane, plaything, lacking round dock 4 Bend round and halt outside

5 Create affair around university 6 Detest working after method is given financial assessment (Two words, hyphenated) 9 Transportation makes time drag first 10 Warned lad tree is wobbling 16 Viral spread for opponent 17 Exhaust affable editor outside 18 Steal a tiny bit 19 Move furtively, making small connection