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

1 Afterthought following drive to get surgical instrument 5 Block return to a wood 7 Short treatise showing an area of land 10 Luvvies have to compete 11 Very bad flaw involved with union 12 Similar to a dig 13 Trifle with sadly lost author 15 Made sketches around table 16 Young lady has time and obligation 17 Performer has a key to lock 21 Starting point via second small ravine 22 The artist has compassion 23 And not out of ignorance 24 Journalist gets soldiers to improve 25 Raid carried out by old medium 26 Forced to share audible range

Down

1 Criticise a break in the landscape 2 Opponent’s appearance starts to disappear 3 Strive to return ash, say, getting cross 4 Wide of the mark without a cat, perhaps 5 Scrabble, say, to get on, willing (Two words) 6 File about fashion revealing someone’s ways 8 Top stylist makes girl join group (Two words) 9 Score also reported a couple of little ducks (Two words, hyphenated) 14 Teacher is back in prison 17 Whisper to a team 18 Heard a note from a singer 19 Hear thunder around the planet 20 This worked, having incorporated right garment