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 947, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, June 12 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on June 28 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 944: Simon Collier, of High Peak, Derbyshire.

Across

1 Futuristic condition painting finds itself in (Four words)

10 Broadcast Republican assistance in attack from above (Two words)

11 Blame working with nothing – victory is not fixed

12 Impudence, a mistake? Not initially

13 In favour of information on your first issue

15 Hearing small noises going around

17 Drink, a feature of rugby – pity it’s missing

21 Stand up, drunk, seeing cleaner

25 Gorgon with no sea, but a country

26 Living cargo in disarray

27 Cultured engineers get punished

28 Brood dreaming about a happy couple (Three words)

Down

2 Developing roots or trunk

3 Angry speech, having lost one deal

4 Like one, in a strange way

5 Persuades to take time out for office workers

6 Abandons front, missing part of the roof

7 Religious leader finds animal without a tail

8 Complain, parking behind vehicle

9 Heart of infernal plant

14 Ruin a performance with forty winks

16 The music is about a bird

17 Second record is hard work

18 OK bloke

19 Worry about energy being dug up

20 Plant starts to yield under constant coercion, actually

21 Challenged socialist attorney first

22 Settee right, up to now (Two words)

23 Father not arranging entertainment

24 Uncovered a painting