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.

There is a prize of a Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus set, and a Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. Send your solution to: Bare Bones Puzzle No 945, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, May 29 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on June 14 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 942: Raymond Toombs, of Crewe, Cheshire.

Across

7 Predator following a large prisoner

8 Catch pattern – wasted and missing half the time 11 Country road, wandering with knight and artist 12 Architectural style turned green, with clunky edges 13 Make nothing without knowledge

15 Enquiring, when leaving sovereign

16 Not together, smuggling German chap

18 Devoured more than seven, by the sound of it 21 No new standard is current

22 A liberal demand on a new statesman 23 Fairy tale character heals problem around noon The story of the foot? 24

Down

1 Wheels coming down with clothes (Two words) 2 Mineral around church is a certain colour

3 Creep has upset snake 4 Deserve sticky end before ache

5 Wise man has beverage, we hear, and a place to perform 6 Meticulous father at home, gambling 9 Returned to record what still needs to be done

10 Terribly snooty about Catholic moguls

14 Alien imprisons leader – a newt

17 Original rifts given new form

18 Wiggling a leg gets one supple

19 Almost didn’t start ahead of time

20 The French hug freely and guffaw