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, October 27 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, November 12. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across 1 Any of a group of chemical elements that includes chlorine, fluorine and iodine (7)

5 --- potatoes, French dish of sliced raw potatoes baked in cream (11)

10 The projecting end of a piece of wood formed to fit into a corresponding mortise in another piece (5)

11 Beetles with elongated snouts, feeding on plants and plant products (7)

13 Shakespeare’s ---, reconstruction of an Elizabethan theatre in Southwark, London (5)

14 Single-sided alphabet tablets, serving as primers for study from medieval times (9)

15 The power of

sense perception (9)

16 Horrific or bloodthirsty (4)

17 Somerset farmer who hosted the Pilton Pop, Folk & Blues Festival for the first time in 1970 (7,5)

20 Immanuel ---, 18th-Century German philosopher who wrote the Critique Of Pure Reason (4)

21 --- Program, series of

NASA Solar System exploration missions (9)

22 A group of people or countries combined by a common interest or aim (4)

26 British artist who won the Turner Prize in 2003, knighted in 2023 (7,5)

27 Art ---, style of interiors, jewellery and architecture at its height in the 1930s (4)

29 A perennial rosaceous plant with yellow flowers, also called herb bennet (4,5)

31 The capital of the US

state of Maryland (9)

33 Sugar preparation for coating and decorating cakes and biscuits (5)

34 A vehicle consisting of a low footboard on wheels, steered by handlebars (7)

35 A type of synthetic elastic fabric and fibre trademarked by DuPont (5)

36 A vegetable casserole made with tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and peppers (11)

37 Town in Berkshire, location

of a royal residence (7) Down

1 Alfred ---, film director whose movies include

Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho (9)

2 Relating to the Moon (5)

3 Ruth Bader ---, lawyer and judge; a member of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020 (8)

4 Isaac ---, English writer, mathematician, physicist, astronomer and philosopher (6)

5 A tier of seats in a theatre, usually the first gallery above the ground floor (5,6)

6 Subdivisions of larger

military formations (5)

7 Light dressing gown, especially a lace-trimmed one (8)

8 Welsh composer, singer and actor whose songs include Keep The Home Fires Burning (4,7)

9 A type of patience

card game (7)

12 Mammals of tropical forests in South and

South East Asia, with a black coat and yellowish chest markings and snout (3,5)

16 Person who studies and

traces family pedigrees (11)

18 Tudor mansion in Kent; home of Anne Boleyn before her marriage (5,6)

19 Carl ---, Swedish botanist who formalised the modern system of naming organisms (8)

23 Either of the two fine lines or wires in the focal plane of a gunsight (9)

24 A variety of edible snail, usually eaten with a garlic butter sauce (8)

25 Large airship used in the

First World War (8)

26 More clumsy or ungainly;

more awkward (7)

28 The patron saint

of Scotland (6)

30 To contract the brows in a threatening or angry manner (5)

32 Caroline ---, the Green Party’s only current

MP in the House of Commons (5)