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 four-way 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 1044, The Mail on Sunday, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries must arrive by Friday, April 22 (photocopies not accepted). The winner’s name will be published on May 8 from the first correct entry drawn.

Winner of Bare Bones No 1041: Terry Clift, of Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Across

1 Move a horse on

to dry land

4 Unexpected arrangement

of pub art

9 Graduate in Ascot,

ordering hot stuff

12 Asian area in part

of the USA

14 Refined, having

a bit of fish

15 Visitor formulated correct

conclusion, we hear

16 Au pair not available

to northern city

17 Decorate composition

of notes

18 Lowest point of

drain layout 20 Country at home

with aid distribution

22 Snow White’s

medical friend

23 Islander let seam unravel 25 Magnify space –

he can move

27 Broadcast, after a

singular approval

28 Husband and son sit

around university

Down

2 Bears used as a weapon 3 Fabled bird from

the grocer’s

5 Grubbing around

rubbish container

6 Simple scheme to

capture island 7 Professional monicker meant ages differ

(Two words)

8 Deaf cabby ran off, looking innocent (Two words, hyphenated)

10 Liberate group at

no cost (Two words)

11 Leaving team in a bad

place for a footballer

12 Valid within the

police (Two words)

13 Scholarly man new

to his organisation

19 Leads off to the valleys

21 Nude rambling on small hills 24 Star crooned endlessly

26 Maintain a performance

with forty winks