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, February 7 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, February 23. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.
Across
1 Complete discretion or authority (5,7)
8 Henry –––, doctor with an alter ego in a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson (6) 11 Fixed regular payments made by employers for professional or office work (8)
12 ––– Without A Cause, classic film starring
James Dean (5)
13 South American country on the Pacific and centre of the great Inca Empire (4) 14 Gordon –––, goalkeeper of the England football team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup (5)
15 The – – – – – – – – –,
1955 film directed by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe (5,4,4) 17 Cylinder-shaped sack made of a strong fabric such as canvas, closed and carried with a string (6,3) 19 Sturdy walking shoes, often with ornamental perforations (7) 23 An ill-mannered or unruly child (4)
24 To clarify or explain the meaning of (9)
25 William –––, a folk hero of Switzerland, the subject of an opera by Rossini (4) 26 Aromatic plant with aniseed-flavoured leaves, used as a herb (7)
28 Knighted English film director whose works include The Third Man (5,4)
31 The language of parts of Britain from the Norman Conquest until the late 15th Century (6,7)
34 A ball game similar to squash but played with bats or the hands (5) 36 In Greek mythology, daughter of Gaia and the wife of Cronus (4) 37 An unauthorised program that inserts itself into a computer system, then interferes with its operation (5)
38 The Roman name for York (8)
39 In snooker, a long-legged rest used to raise the cue above ball height (6) 40 An informal name for a meteor (8,4)
Down
2 Yasser –––, first President of the Palestinian National Authority (6)
3 Loose, two-part outfit worn during exercise (9) 4 Something edible fixed to a hook or in a trap to attract fish or animals (4) 5 Czech town, site of Napoleon’s victory over the Russian and Austrian armies in 1805 (10) 6 An appeal to a supernatural power for harm to come to a specific person or group (5) 7 An animal or human in the early stages of development in the womb (6)
8 ––– Donaldson, British
children’s author who created The Gruffalo (5) 9 See 27
10 French sea port on the Bay of Biscay (2,8)
16 An art gallery in Florence, built by Giorgio Vasari in the 16th Century (6)
18 The main vessel in the arterial network (5)
20 ––– Club, a local branch of an international association founded in the US in 1905 to promote community service (6) 21 An Anglican clergyman of the highest rank (10) 22 A group of three bright stars in a constellation named after a mythological Greek hunter (6,4)
25 Comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan featuring the character
Mrs Malaprop (3,6)
27 and 9 English author and poet born in India, best known for
The Jungle Book and his Just So Stories (7,7) 29 Jean-Auguste-Dominique –––, French Neoclassical painter (6)
30 A large sturgeon of the Black and Caspian Seas, a source of caviar and isinglass (6) 32 A young eel, especially one migrating up a river from the sea (5)
33 A long rope with a running noose at one end (5)
35 Loose, black garment worn on formal occasions by lawyers and academics (4)