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, May 1 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, May 17. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 Essex church which housed the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries (7,5) 8 A flying island in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (6) 11 Donald –––, Briton who set the world land and water speed records in 1964 (8) 12 A person whose job is to display clothes by wearing them (5)

13 and 36 Five-act play in verse by Henrik Ibsen, published in 1867 (4,4)

14 The offspring of male donkeys and female horses, used as beasts of burden (5) 15 Horse races over courses equipped with obstacles to be jumped (13)

17 The prime minister of the Republic of Ireland (9) 19 A flower, or small bunch of flowers, worn pinned to the lapel or sometimes carried (7)

23 ––– jug, a beer mug, typically in the form of a stout, seated man wearing a three-cornered hat (4) 24 The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers (9) 25 A predatory canine mammal which hunts in packs (4)

26 The long-term prevalent weather conditions of an area (7)

28 Subcutaneous fatty deposits on the hips and thighs (9) 31 Moving an organ or tissue from one part of the body to another, or from one person or animal to another (13) 34 Fictional air spirit who appears in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (5) 36 See 13

37 Any of various willow trees (5)

38 A reptile which has a thick shell covering its body and which lives partly in water and partly on land (8) 39 An academic award conferred by a university or college (6)

40 Pieces of waterproof rubber or plastic material placed underneath tents to keep out damp (12)

Down

2 Counting device which consists of a frame holding rods on which a number of beads can be slid back and forth (6) 3 It’s A Long Way To –––, British music hall and marching song which became popular during the First World War (9)

4 The highest point, vertex (4) 5 Small pieces of land rented by individuals for cultivation (10)

6 Dessert of ice cream lined or filled with custard, cake crumbs etc (5)

7 Effects produced in singing by abrupt changes of register from the chest voice to falsetto, especially in Swiss folk songs (6)

8 Shrub or small tree with large sprays of purple or white fragrant flowers (5) 9 Trees with triangularshaped leaves, flowers borne in catkins and light, soft wood (7)

10 The first of Anton Chekhov’s major plays, first produced in 1896 (3,7)

16 Marine gastropod with a conical shell, found clinging to rocks (6)

18 A small, routine task, especially a domestic one (5)

20 Eugene –––, US dramatist whose works include the play The Iceman Cometh (6) 21 British luxury car and aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 (5-5) 22 Market town in Co Durham, on the River Skerne (10)

25 The ––– scandal resulted in the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974 (9)

27 Province of Southern Ireland, consisting of six counties (7) 29 A maxim, adage or proverb (6)

30 To represent by drawing, sculpture or painting (6) 32 Ordinary spoken or written language, in contrast to poetry (5)

33 The trunk of the human body (5)

35 CGS units of work or energy (4)