THE PRIZE CROSSWORD

WIN £1,500

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, April 29 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, May 15. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter. Across 1 A movable barrier placed on the line at the beginning of a horse race (8,4)

8 A yellow-and-black

Eurasian finch (6)

11 A white crystalline watersoluble sugar occurring in honey and many fruits (8) 12 A fleshy underground

stem, as in the potato (5) 13 A strong, sudden

blast of wind (4)

14 The tenth letter of the

Greek alphabet (5)

15 17th-Century English metaphysical poet whose works include ‘To His

Coy Mistress’ (6,7)

17 Charles ---, US aviator who made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic (9)

19 A ball or cake of ground spiced chickpeas, deepfried and often served with pitta bread (7)

23 Aquatic bird with a forked tail and a black-and-white plumage (4)

24 Cuts made with a knife during surgical operations (9)

25 A cord or band of loosely twisted or woven fibres, as in a candle (4)

26 --- Eden, 1st Earl of

Avon and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1955-57 (7)

28 Provision for future problems or needs (9) 31 Parisian monument that stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées (3,2,8)

34 Hard greyish-black mineral used as an abrasive and polishing agent (5)

36 The highest adult

male voice (4)

37 The mass of eggs deposited by fish, amphibians or molluscs (5) 38 A disease of the eye in which pressure within the eyeball damages the optic disc (8)

39 Beds or bunks in a vessel or train, usually narrow and fixed to a wall (6)

40 A substance that kills bacteria, used for cleaning (12)

Down

2 Fictional jungle-dwelling character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs (6)

3 The first class in a British

infant school (9)

4 A material object, especially a carved image, worshipped as a god (4)

5 International nongovernmental organisation founded in 1971 to protect and conserve the environment (10)

6 Plant with daisy-like

flowers (5)

7 Joints between upper

arms and forearms (6)

8 A republic in Western Asia,

on the Mediterranean (5) 9 A city in Central

Spain; site of a

Roman aqueduct (7)

10 The state of having insufficient assets to pay one’s debts (10)

16 --- IV, the only

English pope (6)

18 Vigorous enjoyment,

zest or relish (5)

20 Bunny ---, the last

Briton to reach the Wimbledon men’s singles final until Andy Murray did so in 2012 (6)

21 Tim --- ---, computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web (7-3)

22 The capital city

of Denmark (10)

25 The armed services of the German Third Reich from 1935 to 1945 (9)

27 Place used to conceal a person, especially an outlaw (7)

29 The ---, peninsula in

south-west Cornwall (6) 30 Industrial city and port in north-west Germany, on the River Weser (6)

32 Pointed elongated teeth in the elephant and walrus (5)

33 Mythical King of Crete for whom Daedalus built the Labyrinth (5)

35 Chip ‘n’ ---, chipmunk characters created by the Walt Disney Company in 1943 (4)