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, November 4 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, November 20. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

11 The highest decoration for bravery awarded to the German armed forces in war time (4,5)

12 Lake in north-western Russia; the second-largest in Europe (4,5)

13 Rhythmic contraction and expansion of an artery at each beat of the heart (5)

14 A Pacific salmon having red flesh and valued as a food fish (7)

15 The lean end of a neck of

veal or mutton (5)

16 Albert ---, German-born physicist best known for his theories of general and special relativity (8)

18 --- --- Kelly, American gangster active during the Prohibition era (7,3)

22 Buggy used for wheeling around a small child (9)

24 A fast train stopping at very few stations between its two termini (7)

27 The largest of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands; scene of heavy fighting in the Second World War (7)

28 The act or process of telling a story (9)

30 Proteins produced in the blood in response to the presence of antigens (10)

32 A hole, gap, crack, slit or other opening (8)

35 Vocal effect produced by an abrupt change of register from the chest voice to falsetto, especially in Swiss folk songs (5)

37 Vyacheslav ---, Soviet statesman who negotiated a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939 (7)

38 A person or thing regarded as being symbolic or representative of a particular quality (5)

39 1969 album by The Beatles named after the London studios in which it was recorded (5,4)

40 The ---, nickname of the England women’s football team (9)

Down

1 Small natural dents in the cheeks or chin (7)

2 The temperature at which a liquid starts to change into steam or vapour (7,5)

3 A unit of area equal to 4,840 square yards (4)

4 A dwarfed ornamental tree grown in a shallow pot (6)

5 --- out, to guess correctly the intentions of another (5)

6 The aviation branch of the Royal Navy (5,3,3)

7 The largest island of the Inner Hebrides (4)

8 William ---, British naval officer and the first Governor of New Zealand (6)

9 A member of the nobility (4)

10 A brittle, greyish-white metallic element (9)

17 The derived SI unit of magnetic flux density (5)

19 Long-legged, carnivorous dog-like mammal of Africa and South Asia (5)

20 American aviation and motorcycling pioneer; a member of the Aerial Experiment Association from 1908 (5,7)

21 A migratory butterfly with pale brownish-red mottled wings (7,4)

23 A variety of beet, with large succulent leaves and thick stalks (5)

25 The superior of a house and community in certain religious orders (5)

26 An inlet of the Tasman

Sea on the south-east coast of Australia (6,3)

29 Village in County

Durham, home to an open-air museum (7)

31 Thomas ---, 1st Earl of Wiltshire; Henry VIII’s Lord Privy Seal 1530-36 (6)

33 Ivan ---, Russian physiologist who studied conditioned reflexes in dogs (6)

34 A set of steps in a wall or fence to allow people to pass over (5)

36 Small common

European brown flatfishes, covered with rough toothed scales (4)

37 A tract of unenclosed, uncultivated upland (4)

38 Excessively sentimental, sweet or pretty (4)