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, September 23 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, October 9. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 An alloy of mercury with another metal, especially silver (7)

5 Small plants growing beneath taller trees in a wood or forest (11)

10 The continuation of the turned, or folded back, collar on a suit coat, jacket (5)

11 Denis ---, French philosopher, art critic and writer during the Enlightenment (7)

13 Japanese dish of cold rice with a topping of raw fish (5)

14 Person who propels a long, narrow flat-bottomed boat, especially in Venice (9)

15 A girth for a horse which goes around the body, used especially with a racing saddle (9)

16 A greenish-blue colour (4) 17 Triangular-shaped stringed keyboard instruments (12) 20 Dominic ---, Conservative MP appointed Deputy Prime Minister in 2021 (4) 21 Eurasian plant such as the pot marigold, with orange and yellow rayed flowers (9)

22 --- Bolan, frontman of the glam rock group T. Rex (4) 26 Eager, motivated or keen (12)

27 --- Dancer, song on

Elton John’s 1971 album Madman

Across The Water (4) 29 The skin of certain animals treated to form a durable material used for bookbinding or manuscripts (9)

31 Small bird with a greenish plumage and a bright yellow-and-black crown (9) 33 Gertrude ---, American modernist author of

The Autobiography Of

Alice B. Toklas (5)

34 Large, often destructive sea wave produced by a submarine earthquake, subsidence or volcanic eruption (7)

35 --- Allan Poe, American poet and short-story writer whose tales include The Fall Of The House Of Usher (5)

36 Knighted British conductor; music director of the

London Symphony Orchestra since 2017 (5,6) 37 Any of a group of black or dark brown pigments present in the hair, skin and eyes of man and animals (7) Down

1 Large crocodilian of the

Southern US (9)

2 Type of tree whose leaves

quiver in the wind (5)

3 George ---, Scottish politician; leader of the Workers Party of Britain since 2019 (8)

4 At some point above

ground level (6)

5 Another name for

funeral directors (11) 6 --- Lessing, ZimbabweanBritish writer whose novels include The

Grass Is Singing (5)

7 Ottorino ---, Italian composer and musicologist best known for his orchestral ‘Roman trilogy’ (8)

8 Former European republic formed in

May 1949, the capital of which was Bonn (4,7)

9 Young cows that have not

yet had a calf (7)

12 In Mexican cookery, a thin pancake made from corn meal (8)

16 Device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance (7,4)

18 Street in which the

Great Fire of London started in 1666 (7,4)

19 A list of cargo and passengers on an aeroplane (8)

23 The --- ---, natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in Eastern Switzerland (6,3)

24 James ---, President of the

United States 1857-61 (8)

25 Margaret ---, American author and journalist who wrote Gone With The Wind (8)

26 Articles, books or statements that disclose a scandal or crime (7)

28 Genus of plants which includes the onion, garlic and leek (6)

30 A jeering remark (5)

32 Encourage someone

to do something (3,2)