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, December 20 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, January 5. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
Across
1 Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, first performed at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in 1805 (7)
5 Outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy’s
Wild Bunch whose real name was
Harry Longabaugh (8,3) 10 The Eve Of St –––, Keats’s poem that begins ‘Ah, bitter chill it was!’ (5)
11 An obsolete interactive videotext system launched in 1979 (7)
13 Sloping floors joining surfaces at different levels (5)
14 A ferry port and town in South West Scotland, on the shores of Loch Ryan (9) 15 The royal house that provided three kings of England in the
15th Century (9)
16 A hard waxy fat around the kidneys and loins in sheep and cattle (4) 17 Town in Central Australia, in the Northern Territory, midway between Adelaide and Darwin (5,7)
20 A formal written or verbal test (4)
21 A variety of black grape, grown especially for wine making (5,4) 22 A district which forms part of a political constituency or local council (4) 26 An annual horse race run in Australia since 1861 (9,3)
27 In basketball, a shot in which the ball is thrown down through the basket (4)
29 Joan –––, English actress who married Laurence Olivier in 1961 (9)
31 A city and seaport, home to the Norwegian Canning Museum (9)
33 ––– Redmayne, Best Actor Oscar winner for the 2014 film The Theory Of Everything (5)
34 City in South East Wales, on the River Usk (7) 35 Decorative mat of lace or paper, laid on or under a plate (5)
36 In Chinese cookery, savoury cylinders of vegetables and meat (6,5)
37 A person who goes to live in a new country or colony (7)
Down
1 Large, flat, square paving slab (9)
2 A person who voluntarily gives blood or an organ for use in the treatment of another person (5) 3 Hermia’s lover in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (8) 4 A parentless child (6) 5 West African republic on the Atlantic whose capital is Freetown (6,5) 6 Of, or relating to, birth (5) 7 Pirates or buccaneers (8)
8 Horse-racing course in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey (7,4)
9 Regions that are devoid, or almost devoid, of vegetation, especially because of low rainfall (7) 12 Movement of a large mass of rock material or soil down the side of a mountain or cliff (8) 16 Person who owns or works a modest piece of agricultural land (11) 18 Violent, involuntary contractions of muscles (11)
19 Colourless, odourless, gaseous element that forms four-fifths of the Earth’s atmosphere (8) 23 A small, heavily armed warship (9)
24 ––– Points, declaration by President Wilson in 1918 outlining the post-war peace aims of the US (8) 25 Opera in three acts by Puccini which features the aria Nessun dorma (8) 26 The –––, cast of puppet characters created by Jim and Jane Henson in 1955 (7)
28 Spiny succulent plant, often with brightly coloured flowers (6) 30 Absorbent piece of cloth used for drying the body (5)
32 Frame of metal bars on which food can be cooked over a fire (5)