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 four-way symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away.

There is a prize of a Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus set, and a Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. Send your solution to: Bare Bones Puzzle No 1047, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, May 13 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on May 29 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 1044: Mr R Caines, of Poole, Dorset. Across 5 Force Merlin to sort out

unexplained fault

7 Deliver Ben another

plant inside

9 Scrap in Algarve city,

a hotchpotch

11 Penniless at home,

interrupted (Two words)

12 Blonde catching reasonable chance to speak (Two words)

15 Celebrity father turned

tsar (Two words)

17 Fellow afterwards hides

article that’s pagan 19 Service arranged,

anytime

20 Carbon and something radioactive, not initially in bone

Down

1 Pace rated incorrectly

2 Enquiring, when

leaving sovereign

3 Put up with a

great constellation

4 Travel around north

– it’s very slow

6 Terrible deed making humans fashionable (Two words) 8 Very hot, can see something for making bread (Two words)

10 Not starting trouble –

that’s different

11 Composer finding

key in coastal area

13 Mark finds

a butterfly

14 Street without a

concert hall

16 Needs to remove

top for insects

18 Listener with

new merit